Looking for remote software developer jobs? 14 time management tips that you should remember

Time is a valuable commodity that can never be replaced once gone. While there are only 24 hours in a day for each of us,some people succeed in completing their work better than others.! All of this depends on how well you manage your time.

Time management for software developers is a hot topic. Developers value it more because they have to keep up with technological and creative advances while simultaneously engaging in critical thinking.

If you’re a developer who struggles to complete daily work efficiently, you need to manage your time better to get hired for remote software developer jobs. I still remember the hiring process at  Turing, the company I’m currently working for. It was my time management skills that impressed the recruiters at Turing the most.

In this post, I will walk you through fourteen time-management ideas that will help you in effectively managing your time. So, let’s get started.

Must have time management tips for software developer jobs

●     Set goals

Setting goals is the first step toward achieving anything. You wouldn’t know whether or not you accomplished anything if you didn’t establish goals.

So, make SMART goals for yourself. What is a smart goal?

(S)pecific:- Be specific about what you want to finish in a day to set the plan

(M)easurable:- Make sure that your goals don’t make you overwork. Measure the work through self evaluation

(A)ttainable:- Always make sure that the goal is achievable.

(R)ealistic:- Be realistic about setting the goals. Otherwise, you will end up disappointing yourself

(T)imed:- Everything should have a time limit so that you squeeze out the maximum of your brain’s focus juice.

●     Make a schedule for the day

It’s a good idea to start planning your day to achieve that. To prioritize your responsibilities, make a To-Do list the night before. You may lose out on the most crucial tasks if you engage in them at random. Therefore, create a priority list, identify the most critical and urgent initiatives, and go to work. The ones that aren’t as vital or as urgent can be tackled later.

Try to finish your most important tasks first thing in the morning or at a time of day when you are most productive. However, make sure you don’t overbook your day to the point where you don’t have any room for unexpected jobs. Overworking should never be an option. It will affect your work-life balance. I consider myself lucky as I work at Turing, a company that is known for providing work-life balance for its employees. (If I were to give an honest turing.com review, I would say I love this company 🙂 )

●     Prepare small scripts or templates

Developers receive a lot of emails everyday. Checking and responding to each of them consume a considerable amount of time from your productive working hours. What can you do about it? A developer like you can solve this very easily in two ways.

• By maintaining a basic framework or template on hand
• By creating customized emails through coding
• You can also maintain a small script for website coding to save time while working on different projects. Many websites offer free JavaScript and PHP scripts to make the procedure easier for you. You might be already relying on them to prepare for remote software developer jobs. So why not leverage the maximum?

●     Keep distractions at bay

Distractions have the potential to sabotage your productivity. According to research from the University of California, it takes an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to return to work. If you use social media, you will undoubtedly receive notifications. Consider being distracted only five times every day, how can you prevent squandering hours on it?

When working on a project, turn off the notifications on your social media apps like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Keep your email or any other work-related platform’s messages set on, so you don’t miss anything important and waste time.

Aside from notifications, there are a variety of other potential distractions at home. Try to work in a quiet atmosphere with few distractions so that you can get things done quickly.

●     Keeping track of time

In today’s technological age, time monitoring can be a valuable tool for keeping track of what you accomplish during the day. You should not manually record your tasks because it will consume much of your productive time. Use a project time tracker to effortlessly measure your time on different projects and increase your productivity and performance.

●     Prioritize your tasks

Although there is no silver bullet that can solve all priority problems, there are a few pointers that can help:

• First, get the proper task ordering and prioritization from a client or manager. Make sure you do it ahead of time because not every customer can respond right away.
• If someone else is reliant on a particular task, complete it first.
• Set priority based on task difficulty for equal tasks: chores first.

●     Block off time on your calendar

You can schedule time on your calendar as follows:

• Make a list of your top priorities.
• Calculate how long each task will take to finish.
• Schedule these jobs just like any other appointment on your calendar.

These pointers will help you manage your time and perform the best in your remote software developer job.

●     Get in the habit of saying no

Although it may be tempting to say YES all of the time, it is not practicable to accept and work on every responsibility. You should learn to say NO anytime you feel like to have a healthy work-life balance, prevent productivity loss, and for delivering excellence.

When you’re swamped with work and don’t have any more capacity, you can say no. You may not feel comfortable saying NO at first, but you must learn to do so.

●     Take regular breaks

It is critical to take breaks to remain productive. No one can work for more than ten hours in a row. Taking regular intervals might help you stay focused on your work by recharging your batteries. To split your duties and breaks, you might utilize time blocking tactics. The Pomodoro technique is one of the most widely used time management approaches.

So, what exactly is the Pomodoro method?

The Pomodoro Technique is a five-step method for keeping your mind fresh and relaxed. (I do this and find it useful to finish my tasks at Turing.com!)

This is how it works:

Step 1: Decide on your task.

Step 2: Start a timer for 25 minutes.

Step 3: Finish your assignment before the timer runs out.

Step 4: Take a 5-minute break before continuing to work.

Step 5: Take a 15-30 minute pause after every four Pomodoro sets.

This strategy can help you stay focused because the pauses serve as incentives and protect you from being mentally exhausted. After all, the focus is the key point for everything, including getting remote software developer jobs.

●      Know project management basics

While you may work with a project manager, knowing the basics of project management will help you manage your time as a software developer. It’s easy to see how project management can make projects run more smoothly and cut project time in half. You can save time and energy by learning how to effectively manage projects, break them down into milestones, and communicate progress and roadblocks. Slack is one of the best project management software (our team at Turing company use this and it’s very effective, I must say).

●     Participate in time management courses

In the Harvard Business Review, productivity expert Maura Thomas stated that “conventional” time management classes aren’t fit for today’s workers. She suggests that a good time management course should include the following three elements:

• Rather than clear job priorities, there should be clarity around role priorities.
• Rather than time management, attention management skills are required.
• An all-encompassing workflow management system should be there

Consider allocating your budget to a high-quality time management course. Udemy and Coursera provide quality time management courses. On the other hand, if money is tight, reading time management techniques can be beneficial. There are plenty of resources on web including Time Management Tips by Purdue University Global and

Effective Time Management by Duke University.

●     Seek guidance from your coworkers for remote software developer jobs

Risks are present in almost every IT project; they are either hidden or evident at the outset. Developers must resolve them. It can take days or even weeks to work on any of them, even a little risk. To prevent wasting time, seek the help of a colleague or friend.

●     Split/divide tasks into to-dos

When we don’t have any work, we recall (or our manager recalls) several significant works that are both urgent and important. The only way to avoid such scenarios is to have a to-do list of tasks. When a task comes to you from your boss, coworker, or mind, add it to a list.

If you don’t have access to a computer or can’t recall the work, scribble it down on a piece of paper. If at all possible, move it to the main list. Estimate each task and establish your timeframes. This will prevent you from doing stuff at the last minute.

●     Reward yourself

Everyone expects a reward or recognition for their efforts, especially when they have completed a task. Our drive to work can be stifled if we are not rewarded for our efforts. This frequently results in a decrease in productivity. That is why we prefer to work for someone else rather than for ourselves. After completing a task or completing a job, promise yourself a reward. Allow yourself to watch an entertaining movie or eat some sweets when you finish designing a page or a new feature, for example.

Wrapping up

Software development requires a lot of time and effort. Every software developer faces an endless list of demands and a limited amount of time to complete them. Improve your time management as a software developer by setting goals, making daily schedules, preparing short scripts, keeping distractions away, keeping track of time, prioritizing your tasks, getting in the habit of saying ‘NO’, taking regular breaks, understanding project management, attending time management courses, seeking guidance from your coworkers at your remote software developer job and splitting tasks to to-dos and rewarding yourself. With these tips, you’ll not only do all your tasks in time but also lead a healthy life.