3 Unusual Ways To Become a Productive Developer

If you're reading this post, you've probably figured out that motivation won't take you as far as you need to. Not just in coding or software development but with everything in life. The reality of motivation is that you can't get it consistently enough to keep consistent with coding (or any work). In fact, if you're anything like me, what motivated me to start writing this post now, might not motivate me to finish it. It's like a drug, you sometimes need more to get the same high.

That being said, in my pursuit of being productive, I have learnt a few lessons that have worked for me and I think will work for you too. I will summarize them in 3 simple steps and a few bonus tips without further ado.

1. Rent an Office Space

   As mundane as this may sound, it is the single most useful thing I did to improve my productivity. Around March of 2022, I was at home due to an ongoing strike which affected my university. I had no job (I still don't 🚶‍♂️) but I knew I needed to keep improving my skills building projects from scratch all by myself. Whenever I tried to sit-down to code, I JUST DIDN'T FEEL LIKE DOING IT. Then I will tell myself to go watch some YouTube videos on new technologies, which felt like I was being productive but the truth was that I was avoiding what needed to be done with something else. False productivity. Well, the idea of renting an office space came to me when I landed a freelance job with a short deadline. This was during a power outage in Nigeria. We do anything to meet deadlines don't we? To meet the deadline, I started thinking of ways to get reliable power to finish the job. Then I did a little Googling and found companies that offered co-working spaces with 24/7 electricity. Just like that, I rented the office and began going there to do my work.

   The environment was quiet, aside "Good Morning", everyone just faces their computers until they meet in the hallway and say hello to each other once again. It was the perfect environment for a procrastinating introvert like myself. I finished the freelance work and still kept going there because it never felt like I was forcing myself to work again.

   The reason why renting an office space might solve half your procrastination issues is because the environment simply makes it easy without distractions to do your work. Your environment is key! Be in a productive environment and productivity will come to you.

2. Practice Pseudo Coding

   Pseudo coding is simply writing your code in plain English. For instance:

// ACTUAL CODE
const addTwoNumbers = (num1, num2) => return num1 + num2

// PSEUDO CODE
TASK: Sum two numbers
   1. Create a function
   2. This function takes the two numbers as arguments
   3. Return the sum of the two numbers

The example above is an oversimplified way of writing pseudo code. It does look like a todo list and you can call it so but the difference being - detail or level at which the task is broken down into very tiny, manageable pieces. This technique works because a major cause of procrastination is a lack of clarity for the task we want to do. If you knew exactly what to say to a girl to get her number, you wouldn't be shy of approaching her. Also, sometimes you might not know how to go about a task in coding, remember to use AI and Google in such cases.

3. Use The 5 mins Rule

   The 5 mins rule is simple, do the work for 5 mins and walkaway afterwards. No pressure. However, part of the rule is, when you don't feel like walking away from the task after 5 mins, you must continue. Often times when you start doing a task, it is much easy to just continue. A lot of the resistance we feel towards doing a task usually disappears when we start doing the task. In Nigeria, my tribes people have a saying that goes, "When a boat gets into the water, it will learn to swim." Just start!

The techniques I mentioned above have been effective solutions to my procrastination and I believe they will help you too. Being in a productive environment (Office or co-working space) with clearly defined goals and tasks (Pseudo code) are enough for anyone to do what needs to be done. Below you will find bonus tips to compliment these 3 and make being productive even easier.

BONUS TIPS:

• Learn to take regular breaks: As much as you need to be productive, you also need to learn how to take regular breaks, lest you burnout and go back to square one. It could be a 20min break after every 2hours of work or a 5mins break after every 30mins of work. Whatever it is, learn to take breaks.

• Don't be a perfectionist: I once learnt my lesson after over-engineering a software project trying to make it perfect, then I realized it was more important to build softwares that work, not ones that are perfect because in reality there are none. As a Fullstack, I stopped trying to make every pixel in the frontend look exactly like the figma. Once everything works as expected and is usable, we start improvements afterward.

• Go easy on yourself: If you want to continue being a productive person for the rest of your life, you must understand that being productive doesn't mean doing the work every single day. Accept the fact that some days are just impossible and those days shouldn't kill your productivity. It's okay if you fail some days, what matters is succeeding for most.

  Once again, a combination of all these techniques have helped me become a productive person and I believe it can help you too. Find your environment, break down and clearly define what you want to do, take breaks, build it to work not to be perfect and go easy on yourself on the days that couldn't work. Thanks for reading.