As a web developer, your time is in high demand and you are valuable to the success of creating a well-functioning website. However, the problem comes when you find yourself over worked and you can’t seem to stay organized to keep everything flowing well. If you find that you need some help in organizing your day to complete projects on schedule, the following is a guide on the top 10 organizing tips for web developers to make their time more valuable.

Tips To Keep You Organized And On Schedule

Establish A Routine And Reasonable Expectations

When working on a project make sure you try to establish a steady routine of when you start and when you finish. You also need to work out some expectations of what you expect to achieve in a particular day. These expectations should be reasonable and not impossible to meet. Also tackle the harder problems first and any projects which have limited deadlines. This way you’ll be able to move at a slower pace later without any looming deadlines on your back.

Depend On To-Do Lists And Calendars

Calendars and to-do lists are vital to keeping your project organized. At the end of each day or at the beginning of each week, mark down what jobs you’re going to complete each day across the week. This will help you free up your mind on what you need to remember so you can better utilise your time more efficiently. You will also be able to get to work faster each day because everything is already organized for you.

Clearing Clutter

When working in any job you tend to build up a lot of clutter around you unexpectedly. This can be chaos when finding things on your work desk. As a developer it’s important to keep your work area clutter free to minimise time wastage trying to find items. This also goes for your computer as well. Make sure your desktop is organized with folders and only keep relevant items on your computer screen that you will use. Everything else place in a ‘not important’ folder.

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Utilise Folders More Often

While working with many clients across the years you can build up a great deal of content on your computer. This is where utilising computer folders (or paper folders) can come in handy. Depending on which format you receive the information for the job, always use folders and name them accordingly to the client at hand. This will allow your projects to be easier to find and won’t cause clutter along the way. Make the folders your friends.

Schedule Time For Admin Stuff

Occasionally you may need to work on admin tasks but some web developers tend to leave them go until they build up. Try to avoid this as this will cause major delays by the end of the week. Instead try to schedule a time at the end of each day or every second day to complete any admin tasks that are required. You could even complete them earlier in the morning if you wish. By keeping on top of these tasks you can easily manage your project a lot less headache free.

Keep Testing Your Project As You Develop A New Website

While it may seem odd as an organisation tip, keeping on top of any bugs or issues that you have with your website can actually keep you more organized across the day. There’s nothing worse than building an area of a website to find out at the end of the day there’s a major error that sets you back. Utilizing tools such as DebugMe can help to save time greatly by finding errors along the way. This will not only help to keep your project running on time but keep everything organised as well.

Do As Much As You Can By Video, Email, Slack Or Phone

When talking with clients it’s best to do as much as you can by phone, video conference, Slack or email. While it’s important to meet with the client, save the meeting until after the initial proposal has been accepted to try to avoid spending time driving or meeting in person. This allows you to have more time to complete other client jobs.

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Keep Your Inbox Tidy

Your inbox is one of your key areas where the most work will be received. So it’s important to keep it tidy and up to date at all times. When you receive an email, don’t stop and respond immediately but deal with them in batches every one or two hours. This will not only keep you more productive and on top of your emails, but allows you to have insight into client changes as well. If you can’t get to an email in a couple of hours move it to a ‘check folder’ that you check at the end of each day.

Batch Processing

If the client is not in a hurry for their work, it’s best to try and process each client’s work in batches. This helps to promote more time usage while limiting downtime. If a client waits an extra hour for their work, it’s ok as long as you plan to get the work finished that day. Processing work in batches can help you save additional time and energy across the day.

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Set Policies About Change Requests

While working on different client jobs, there’s always going to be changes that need to be addressed with a project. It’s important to lay out a policy of how you want to receive the changes and when you can complete them. Instead of calling, see whether they can send the change requests via email so you have a copy to fall back on. It also helps you to defend yourself if a client tries to go back on a project, saying you didn’t do the job asked. Also create a request deadline that you can meet. Tell your clients that the requests will be handled within 2 to 3 days as you’re working on other client’s projects as well.

Conclusion

Being a website developer is a difficult job, but if you keep yourself organised you can really make your workplace much more efficient. So are you going to incorporate any of these tips into your daily life?

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