For most people, time management is a useful skill. Time management for programmers is what you must learn if you are writing code.
Advantages of time management for programmers:
- If you solve tasks more effectively, then you can engage in self-study and development. Raise your level, learn new technology. Again, this directly affects the salary and the general sense of self-confidence as a professional.
- Everyone is used to finishing a project two days before the deadline. When a programmer uses time management methods that are suitable for him, he does not have the stress before the delivery of the project, because everything is done on time.
- Time management will allow you to properly prioritize, allocate time for hobbies, recreation and family. You will be able to establish a schedule of work, rest, family business, and hobbies. Most importantly, you can be more productive at your job.
Prioritizing tasks
To avoid taking on all the tasks at the same time, determine what needs to be done in the morning and what can wait until the evening or the next day. Therefore, you need to use time management. We can offer the following methods for dividing priorities for different tasks:
- Consider deadlines to form the order of solving your problems;
- use the Eisenhower table: do more urgent and important things first, and put off unimportant and non-urgent matters for later;
- start the day with “frogs” – first of all, solve unpleasant tasks, then throughout the day you can do what you like more.
Using a time tracker for programmers
It is much easier to manage time if you know where it is constantly going. Time trackers are excellent time management tools not only for the person who is involved in programming but for anyone else. Each application has its characteristics, but the general principles are the same for all:
- at the beginning of work, you can plan all your tasks for the day and write them directly to the log of the time tracker, the plan can be edited;
- start the timer when you start one of the tasks and stop when you go for a break or finished your task;
- you can even count the time you spent on rest – also start the timer, but in a different interval;
- at the end of the working day, see statistics about what you were doing and how effectively you solved all the tasks.
We keep repeating that time is our most valuable resource. Therefore, the words “productivity”, “time management”, “efficiency” are not just a modern business trend.