This content originally appeared on Level Up Coding - Medium and was authored by Darío Rodríguez
It’s widely known that one of the main differences between senior and junior developers resides in soft skills. And one of the most important is time management.
Time management allows you to improve your performance. If you manage your time wisely you will add value exponentially to the company.
In other words, you can be the developer with the best technical skills but if you don’t know when to do a quick fix or when to do a big refactor you are losing time and thus money. This is why, in my humble opinion, time management is a game changer for software developers.
In this article, we will cover some basics of time management, specifically for software developers.
Identify important and urgent tasks
First thing first, you need to know what tasks are important and what are urgent.
You can lean on the Eisenhower Matrix to analyze your tasks and evaluate their urgency.
To use this matrix you should sort the task into different quadrants depending on how urgent and important is a particular task. You should put into “Do” quadrant tasks that have a clear deadline or a big impact. Inside the “Decide” quadrant you will put tasks with some impact but not a clear deadline, more focused on long-term success. The “Delete” quadrant will have tasks that are not needed at all. Inside the “Delegate” quadrant you should put tasks that should be done but don’t require a specific team member or set of skills to be done.
The Eisenhower matrix won’t solve all your problems but it’s a good way to ensure the tasks you are struggling with are worth the effort.
If you hesitate when you are putting a lot of effort into a particular task you just need to verify if the task is inside the “Do” quadrant, then you are doing great. If it’s inside the “Delete” quadrant, leave it right now because you are wasting your time. If the task is inside the “Delegate” or “Decide” quadrant, just ask your tech lead to verify you are the best team member to develop this task.
Plan ahead your tasks
When you are beginning a new task you can start coding and expect there won’t be any problems or analyze the task and split it into different steps.
Just analyze the different strategies to refactor code, implement the task, whatever thing you need. Then create a list with different steps, diagrams and all documentation you need before starting to develop.
You don’t need to create books and books of documentation or diagrams, it’s more about simulating how you will develop the task to try to spot any major issue upfront.
As you get more seniority this exercise will be more natural so you don’t need to create any documentation, diagram, or write down every aspect. You will learn how to do it keeping the documentation to a minimum.
Avoid multitasking
Don’t multitask, never!
Multitasking is a time sink, I cannot stress it more.
When people refer to multitasking, they usually think about doing several tasks at the same time like in parallel processing. In real life, it doesn’t work as you may think. Usually, it involves a lot of context switching because you cannot handle several tasks in real parallel at the same time.
If you know a little about context switching is one of the worst things ever and it reduces your performance exponentially because it comes with a penalty in time. When you switch from one task to another you should remember everything you were doing and to do it you need some time.
It means you are going to dedicate more time to finishing the task just because you need to do several reminders when changing your focus between tasks.
Instead of doing several things at the same time, focus your effort on finishing an open task and try to reduce multitasking as much as possible.
Use timeboxing for recurrent tasks
Another useful tip for recurrent tasks is to use the timeboxing technique.
The timeboxing technique is about setting a specific amount of time for a particular task. Instead of using an infinite amount of time, you put a restricted amount of time into this task and no more than that.
This technique’s really useful to avoid wasting time and encourages you to focus on important things because you won’t put more time and effort into a task than is needed.
You can use timeboxing for recurrent tasks like code review, email responses, training, etc. For example, you can reserve a slot in the first hours of the day to do code reviews, you can use one hour after lunch to answer emails, etc.
You can choose whatever schedule is the best for you.
Learn when to ask for help
In this article, we are talking about how to get the most out of our time from a developer perspective. Basically, if you can be sure you are doing your assigned tasks the fastest and better you can I’m sure you are doing great.
Sometimes you will find some roadblocks or you will have some doubts when developing some tasks. In this case, you have two options: you can try to solve all problems on your own, or you can ask for help from your tech lead or a teammate.
It might sound obvious but asking for help is not easy for many people so they spent a lot of hours fighting problems that could be solved in a matter of minutes if they had asked for help.
So, believe me, it’s better to ask for help and show some of your weaknesses but finish your tasks on time than trying to hide your need for help delaying tasks, and not adding all the value you can.
Time management techniques
Now that you know some tips to improve time management with a focus on your day-to-day as a software developer it’s time to get some info about time management in general.
All time management techniques focus on two main things: stay focused for a period of time and create habits around this topic.
Here you have an intro with some info about some of the most popular time management techniques:
- Pomodoro: take a task and set a timer for 25 minutes to work on it. When the timer rings, take a 5-minute break, then continue working on this task or a new one. After four rounds or “pomodoros” you should take a longer break of about 15–30 minutes.
- Flow time: similar to Pomodoro but without working time restriction. Just pick a task and start working on it and write down the time you begin. When you feel tired or start to procrastinate, just take a break. If working time is under 25 minutes the break time should be 5 minutes, if working time is between 25 and 50 take 8 minutes break, if the working time is between 50 and 90 minutes take a 10 minutes break, and for working time above 90 minutes take 15 minutes break.
- Don’t break the chain (Seinfeld’s) method: this technique it’s about committing to do one thing every day to create a habit. You should mark each day you do things right with a red cross so you will have visual feedback on your progress. The idea is to not break the chain of red crosses for any reason. This technique it’s really good to improve tiny habits so it will help you to apply all the other tips commented above.
You can choose one of these tasks or another one that works for you. The important thing here is that you know where to start if you want to improve your time management skills.
Bonus: Gamification is your bestie
I know that changing a way of doing things could be very daunting and overwhelming. Don’t get upset, creating a new habit it’s complicated and takes time.
If you are like me, sometimes you need some “external” help to stay motivated you can rely on gamification.
The idea is to use an application to get rewards when you are doing good and reminders or alerts when you don’t.
You can find a ton of time-tracking apps that include gamification features for web, Android, and iOS like Epicwin, HabitHunter, etc. Just make sure it supports the time tracking or productivity technique you are using.
Wrapping up
Time management is one of the most essential soft skills to become a senior developer.
It’s really useful because it allows you to stay focused on tasks that matter the most for the company so you can be sure you are adding a lot of value.
To improve your time management skills you should:
- Identify important and urgent tasks
- Plan ahead your tasks
- Avoid multitasking
- Rely on time boxing for recurrent tasks
- Ask for help when you are stuck
In addition to these tips, you can use a more traditional time management technique like Pomodoro or Flowtime to stay focused and control your timing.
A little bit overwhelming? Don’t worry! If you need some extra motivation you can use a gamification app to help you create your new time management habit.
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How to manage time like Senior Developers was originally published in Level Up Coding on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
This content originally appeared on Level Up Coding - Medium and was authored by Darío Rodríguez
Darío Rodríguez | Sciencx (2023-03-08T03:43:55+00:00) How to manage time like Senior Developers. Retrieved from https://www.scien.cx/2023/03/08/how-to-manage-time-like-senior-developers/
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