6 of the Best Productivity Tools for Software Engineers

A software developer is plagued with concerns they can’t even discuss with people from other industries. From unrealistic client expectations to the absence of well-defined deliverables, team experience, morale and more, there are tons of emotions and concerns software developers face on a daily basis. Despite all these, there are close to 4.2 million software developers in the US.

So, how does a developer stay sane during the working hours? If you’re a software developer looking to manage your time more effectively, efficiently and most importantly, hassle-free, here are the tools you need.

1. Proofhub

Now, software development is one sector that involves a number of challenges, including:

• Collaborating with team members
• Meeting individual deadlines
• Meeting team deadlines
• Working on tasks, subtasks or even revisions

When juggling so many different tasks at once, you either get confused about how you should prioritize your work or forget what you’re supposed to do after you come back from your weekend.

Well, not anymore because Proofhub is that central dashboard tool that allows you to create simple to-do lists, prioritize tasks, assign tasks, set deadlines, collaborate with other team members, create personalized workflows, share and discuss documents, manage time and more all from one single UI.

2. Sublime Text

Now that you know what you need to work on and when it’s time to get started, you need Sublime Text, a powerful code editor with a neat user interface.

The code editor is built with long developer hours in mind. That’s why it has a UI that’s designed to prevent eye strain. It’s also great in terms of usability. You can use the tool to program in different languages, toggle multiple projects, move lines of the code and even enable distraction mode to stay productive and get more things done at once.

3. musicForProgramming

Nobody acknowledges the power of music like developers. The way music lets developers focus on their coding process is unparalleled and musicForProgramming is built for that purpose. One of the best things about the tool is that it has a collection of non-vocal music.

This means the tool lets you stay in your zone for longer without getting distracted. You have the choice of background scores, original soundtracks and a range of instrumental tracks from various artists to help you stay productive. What’s more interesting? Its user interface is also designed to mimic the UI of a code editor, so you don’t get carried away by the tracks and lose focus. What are you waiting for? Plug in your earphones and get ready to clock some productive hours.

4. The Silver Searcher

As a developer, you’d agree that we spend more time reading our code or searching for specific elements in our code than writing it.

To help us navigate easily through results and quickly get to where we need is the tool The Silver Searcher. While its features are very similar to that of Ack, the advantage of this tool is it’s 34 times faster. This means it ignores the files you specify and gives you more specific and accurate search results. It offers cross-platform compatibility and is highly recommended for every software developer out there.

5. F.lux

An essential productivity tools that’s built to work more on the physical and psychological aspects of a programmer is F.lux. Intelligently designed to keep your eyes safe from strains that arise due to long hours staring at the screen, F.lux adjusts your display’s color temperature according to your location and time. This means your display gets warmer as the sun goes down, which is essential for the health of your eyes and to maintain a healthy sleep cycle. You can also manually change the color schemes to better suit your working hours and requirements.

6. Codeanywhere

Software development often involves working with multiple team members. With agile and scrum concepts slowly making their way into the programming sector, the concept of staying connected with other team members in regards to specific tasks and projects has become a necessity. Codeanywhere allows you to do just that.

With this tool, you can invite your team members and collaborate with them in real-time. This means all you and your team can work on multiple parts of the project at once and get more things done in less time. You can send an invite link to members, restrict or modify their permissions, choose from over 75 languages and do more with the tool, with mobile apps available for Android and iOS.