6 (crazy?) ways to become more efficient as a developer
Why should you read this article? For close to two years I've built Archbee all by myself and needed time for tasks other than programming, so I needed to become efficient.
I know a thing or two about developer productivity.
Read!
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1. Use 1 hour-long pomodoros#
Pomodoro works! But for developers, the typical 25 min is not enough.
It can take up to 10 min just to warm-up and get into beast-mode.
Do whatever you need to avoid interruptions for 1 hour, then stand up from your chair and do 10 pushups or squats.
Rinse and repeat.
2. Do a little research before writing any code#
Yes, having a high-level view of what your task entails will help you.
Because... there are fewer chances of hitting roadblocks and starting over.
Because... once you have a clear view of what you need to do, you can get the hard things first so everything falls into place at the end.
3. Use a language with a tough compiler#
Not shaming the JS, Ruby, or Python folks. Those are great languages and they can get your product started very quickly.
Once you reach as little as 10K lines of code, it becomes very hard to keep it all in your head. So why not trust our oldest friend... the compiler?
Use TypeScript with very strict settings. Python with type hints. Ruby with Sorbet.
If you are fancy and know what you're doing, go for ReasonML or PureScript.
Avoid fake strongly typed languages like... you know what we're talking about.
4. Documentation#
Documentation has very low ROI at the beginning of a product/company. Because there are high chances of pivoting. Because there are very few people to share it with.
As soon as you hit a team of 10, docs are important.
But keeping your stuff in GitHub wiki is detrimental to your productivity. Contrary to popular developer belief, markdown in git repositories is not a productive way to share and contribute to team documentation.
Here you can use Notion, Google Docs, Confluence. Or why not, just use Archbee my product. It has some cool features for developer documentation.
TURN STATIC DOCS INTO INSTANT ANSWERS
Build beautiful knowledge portals that are easy to navigate, search and share
5. Unit tests#
This is a huge time drain, and we hate to write unit tests. Unless you're Uncle Bob.
Ditch classes wherever you can. Classes are for suckers. Sorry, but it's true.
Write pure functions with a single responsibility. Coupled with a tough programming language, you should be ok with just a few unit tests.
But write tons of integration tests. Test at the UI level with Cypress. That will make sure everything from the UI to the Database is hit, so you can have more confidence you're shipping ok code.
In my opinion, unit tests are one of those things you should take the Pareto approach with.
6. Avoid meetings & team chat#
To have as many of those 1h pomodoros as possible, you need to shift your approach to one that's more asynchronous. Write more docs, cancel more meetings, stay off the team chat. Certainly don't spend time organizing JIRA tickets.
What would you add?#
Frequently Asked Questions
Run 60-minute Pomodoro sprints. A full hour gives you time to ramp up, hit deep focus, and actually finish a meaningful slice of work.
How to do it:
- Block a 60-minute slot on your calendar and turn on Do Not Disturb.
- Close chat/email and keep only the tabs/tools you need.
- Write a one-line outcome for the hour (e.g., "Implement auth middleware").
- Work for 60 minutes, then take a 5–10 minute break: stand up, do 10 pushups or squats, hydrate.
- Repeat 2–4 times, then take a longer break.
- If you’re interrupted, jot a quick context note, reset the timer, and re-enter focus.
Helpful tips:
- Track completed focus hours per day; what gets measured gets managed.
- If you’re doing heavy context loading, try 45/15 once in a while—but default to 60/5–10.
- Break work into hour-sized outcomes so each block ends with something concrete.