There’s more to development than doing development; it’s also about being effective, collaborating with others, and avoiding repetitive tasks. Use a great development tool to help save you many hours a week as a developer.
1. Code Editor for Creating Code is Visual Studio Code
Visual Studio Code is a very famous code editor because it is lightweight and fast. It has become popular with developers because it can support multiple different programming languages and has many extensions available for download.
Reasons Why Visual Studio Code Will Boost Your Productivity:
- Built-in Git integration
- IntelliSense for auto code suggestions
- Customizable themes and keyboard shortcuts
- Huge collection of available extensions
Install some extensions such as Prettier (for code formatting), Live Server (for previewing web projects), and GitLens (for improved tracking of Git repositories).
Take one day to modify the look and feel of VS Code for your style of work, and you’ll see how much faster you can perform the little tasks on your to-do list.
2. Git and GitHub
Keeps Track of Work and Can Be Used for Project Version Control. Version Control is how you can keep a record of changes made to the code.
With Git you can keep track of the different versions of the code you are writing, and with GitHub you can more easily work with others on your coding project.
How Do They Help With Productivity?
- Keep a history of all your code
- Work on new features in a branch
- Easily fix mistakes
- Work collaboratively
Try Making a Branch and Adding a Small Feature and Merging it Back into the Master and You Will See the Difference in Collaborative Work.
3. Consistent Development with Docker
Docker creates an environment in which you can run your application in containers. Each application runs in a container that includes the application code, all of its dependencies (such as libraries), and the environment the application requires to run correctly. This allows an application to run the same way no matter where it is executed.
Benefits to Productivity:
- No longer have to worry about whether an application works on your machine
- Setting up new environments are easier
- It creates uniformity when working with team members.
Use Docker if there are multiple developers involved in the same project so that everyone has the same environment immediately.
4. Postman - Fast Testing of APIs.
APIs are found throughout the world, and testing APIs manually can take a considerable amount of time. Postman has made this process easier.
Why it can help improve productivity:
- Quickly test API endpoints
- Reusability of requests
- Automation of repetitive tests
Create a Postman collection for your most-used API. By creating a collection, future new endpoint testing will only take seconds rather than minutes.
5. GitHub Copilot — Your AI Assistant
Coding tools using AI like GitHub Copilot can decrease the amount of typing you do by suggesting code and sometimes even writing whole functions for you.
How will it help with productivity?
- Reduces consistent coding from one project to the next.
- Aids in learning new frameworks or APIs.
- Allows for speedy completion of functions.
Use Copilot to write a simple function and compare how long it takes you to do this vs typing everything out by hand.
6. Jira and Slack - Productivity in a Team
Effective communication and project management are crucial. Using Jira to manage tasks and bugs allows the team to get organised via Slack for effective communication.
How does it Improve Productivity?
Jira: Planning of sprints and tasks as well as bug management.
Slack: Update sharing with integrated tool use and real-time conversation.
Create a small project in Jira along with a Slack channel for updates. You will find that tracking the progress of the project becomes much easier!
7. Notion – Organizing Documents and Notes
For documenting projects, creating notes, or saving handy code fragments, Notion is fantastic to use. The best part is it allows you to document many forms of information in one place: pictures, notes, documents, and videos.
Create a knowledge base that contains solutions to every repeat problem you have encountered. The next time you experience that problem, it will be simple to find your answer.
Conclusions
Excellent productivity increases with the appropriate tool(s) available for users to be productive. Developers can write better code quicker and more efficiently, with fewer repetitive tasks and work collaboratively using tools such as Visual Studio Code, Git, Docker, and GitHub Copilot.
