If you perform tasks more effectively, you have more time for self-learning and development of new skills. Increase your level, learn new technology. This directly affects on the salary and overall sense of self-confidence as a professional.
Everyone is used to finishing a project two days before the deadline. When a programmer uses the appropriate time management methods, he does not have any stress before handing over the project, because everything is done on time.
Time management will allow you to correctly set priorities, allocate time for hobbies, recreation, and family. You will be able to establish a mode of work, rest, family affairs and hobbies. But most importantly, you will be able to do your job more productively.

The manager must control what employees are doing during the working day. He should correctly distribute tasks among all, so that each programmer or manager has the same amount of work, but not be overloaded. He also needs to know what stage each task is at and when it will be completed. Then he will be able to make a list of the most urgent tasks and create a new plan for the next week or month.

Why is this important? Because if you manage your available resources correctly, you can significantly increase your company's efficiency. If the manager adheres the basic rules of time management for programmers, the company has:

• rallied, well-working team;
• timely completion of tasks;
• completed projects quickly and efficiently;
• more projects over the same time period;
• increasing the company's revenue level;
• improving working conditions for employees, increasing salaries.

  How to achieve maximum efficiency?

  You are already acquainted with the general recommendations on how to manage everything at work and in your personal life from the previous articles. Now let's look at the problem of time planning from a narrower perspective, namely, effective time management for developers.

  Consider the following time management techniques for developers:

  Planning for a day or for a week

  You can go from the opposite - make a list of tasks that need to be completed in a month and divide them into small tasks for the day. Then every morning you will know exactly what to do.

  Increasing of the concentration

  Don't be distracted by conversations, smartphone apps or by Internet. We recommend using the "Pomodorro" technique: set the timer for 25 minutes and work without paying attention to distractions. When "pomodor" is finished, you can take a break for 5 minutes. Continue until you finish important tasks. After every fourth "pomodor" take a break for 15-20 minutes.

  Prioritizing of the tasks

  To avoid taking on all tasks at once, determine what needs to be done in the morning and what can wait until the evening or the next day. That's why we need to use time management. We can offer the following methods for setting priorities for different tasks:

  • consider deadlines to form an order of tasks solving;
  • use the Eisenhower Matrix: do the most urgent and important things first, and postpone the unimportant and non-urgent ones for later;
  • start the day with " frogs” - first of all, solve unpleasant tasks, then during the day you can do what you like more.

  

    Using a time tracker for software developers

  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 engaged in programming, but also for anyone else. Each application has its own characteristics, but the general principles are the same for all:

  • at the beginning of the work, you can plan all your tasks for the day and write them directly to the time tracker log, you can edit the plan;
  • start the timer when you start performing one of the tasks and stop when you go for a break or finish your task;
  • you can even count the time you spent on vacation - also start the timer, but in a new interval;
  • at the end of the working day, view statistics about what you did and how effectively you solved all the tasks;

  
  Time trackers will help you get an general vision of what you do during the day and adjust the following days. After using such programs for time management, you will see what mistakes you make and will work more productively. We recommend to read our article on this topic or to use the free trial period of the Checkiant time tracker.