Apps To Boost Your Productivity

We are in the age of apps. There's no denying that.

There are millions of apps out there but I've found a couple to be very useful in helping me be a more productive developer.

Let’s dive in.

Google Calendar

No matter if you're freelancing or part of a massive corporate, you're going to be using a calendar. That's a given.

Most people see their calendar as something that confines or restricts them from being productive because of meetings. My Google Calendar is actually the tool that makes me the most productive.

I use it to schedule meetings (obviously) but also to put aside focus time, track tasks and plan out the work that I need to accomplish each day. There is an entire newsletter issue on it's own of concepts here but for the sake of time, just try the following:

• Each day: Schedule focus time each day in your calendar where you're going to do nothing but write some code. Mute notifications and just focus on getting things done.
• Each week: Plan out the tasks or items of work that you're needing to get done that week. This will help you set goals and keep you aligned with the amount of work that you have on your plate.
• Each month: Do a review of your past month's calendar and see if there are any patterns or areas that you could improve

Miro

I'm not smart enough to plan out a full feature in my head. That's why I need to write things down.

That used to mean using a pen and paper but that's not the most efficient in this day and age as well as not the most ecofriendly.

Now, I use Miro to plan out a feature before I start writing code. Diagrams, notes, snippets of code. Everything is in there and that becomes my source of truth when writing code.

The best part is that I can refer back to that Miro board when I'm looking at that code again in a couple of weeks or months. My brain would have forgotten why I did certain things but the Miro board will help explain certain decisions.

Try it.

Postman

Most developers use Postman or an equivalent but it's still worth mentioning.

Working with APIs can be tough, never mind when some APIs have little to no documentation.

Postman allows me to easily build up a collection of requests that will sync between all of my devices (I alternate between a Windows desktop and a MacBook Pro depending on if I'm travelling) so that I can easily integrate with an API without missing a beat.

Fork

Git can be a blessing and a curse.

A blessing in it's power, versatility and what it can accomplish but also a curse when you have a bad merge conflict. Considering most developers work within structured teams, merge conflicts are a common occurrence.

​Fork allows me to easily manage all of my git operations but, more importantly, it's one of the best tools out there for merging branches or resolving conflicts.

I've tried many tools and some IDEs have a built-in system but something about Fork just makes it my favourite. It's so easy to use and very accurate.

Give it a go.

CodeSandBox

Sometimes you just want to test a quick theory or try a new library.

Doing that within an existing production-ready codebase is not easy. That's why I use CodeSandBox.

It allows me to quickly create a tiny, bare-bones repository in a variety of different frameworks where I can quickly test a bit of code I wrote or investigate a new package.

Just like Miro, I'll often use CodeSandBox before I actually write code into my working repository. I can then categorize the project I made in CodeSandBox and use it to reference later or help explain my thinking to another developer.

Notion

On any given day I'm reading articles, watching videos, searching StackOverflow or scrolling through Twitter threads. All in pursuit of finding an answer to a question or helping explain a concept.

This results in a lot of useful content being consumed. The problem is that I'm never able to remember where I found an answer or what content explained a concept really well.

That's why I use Notion as my second brain. Anything that I read or watch gets thrown into there, categorized and dated. This allows me to easily reference old material that I used at any point in time without having to try hunt it down in my browser history. It creates a library of content that's accessible from anywhere and doesn't rely on me needing to remember where I found answers.

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Hopefully you heard of one or two useful apps that you aren't yet using. If that's the case, give it a go and watch your productivity increase.

See you again next week.

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