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“Many roads lead to code”, “To miss the forest for the Code” and “To make mountains out of code.” Code, code, code. Everywhere we hear code. We know that your work life centers around these four letters and that’s fair enough as a developer. But what if I’d tell you, that, to see the bigger picture, you need to be further away rather than close? You are on that picture, with a horse, riding towards sunset. The sunset is a metaphor for your professional progression here. And if you still don’t know what we are talking about, because you didn't have creative enlightenment at yoga this morning: To be a better developer, it can be helpful to stop making code the focus from time to time.

 

We collected a few tips for you, on how to be a better developer - code aside! Enjoy!

 

 

 

Look for a mentor

We all have someone we look up to. For me, it’s Russel Brand and his beautiful luscious hair, for you it might be Jim Carrey. But jokes apart. With a mentor on your side the chances for a job promotion quintuplicate. Look for a mentor, whose achievements and work experience you admire and study him in detail. Not in a creepy way, but think about if you could work with that person, if he or she is happy with his/her career, can that person challenge you and what can you offer in return?

Finding the right mentor can be one of the most critical decisions in your career - but no stress ;)

 

 

Image Credit: Giphy.com

 

Be a mentor

A good developer should not only like to learn and learn a lot but should also like to teach others. It is an incredibly fantastic feeling to share passion and knowledge with someone and see them grow. Besides this emotional factor, being a mentor can help to better your leadership ability, allows you to view something from a different angle and helps to increase productivity. So go for it, change lives!

 

 

Get new skills

How silly would it look, if a bodybuilder was only training one muscle of his body? Exactly, very silly. You should challenge yourself too. Till you feel comfortable in your “Discomfort Zone.” A great developer is a Jack of all trades; a know it all. And if you want to be that, you should learn about other areas, like marketing, user experience, business... Ask your colleagues what books, podcasts or blogs they can recommend. To understand all the different aspects of a product, not only the technical ones, can help communicating and collaborating with the team and can ultimately contribute to finding better solutions to current problems.

 

 

Freetime

I’ve got a super important definition for you: Freetime = Time that is spent not working. Crazy but to treat free time as free time is hard for many and can become a physical impossibility. But to distance yourself from work and not to occupy your mind with code, no matter how much fun it is to you, is very important. Otherwise, it’s like trying to get water from a dry lake. Plan your well-deserved breaks, that way you don’t feel bad when you have them.

 

 

Image Credit: ReactionGIF.org

 

 

Mindfulness

Get fresh air, be active, eat healthily and meditate daily. We don’t want to lecture you, but this, too, has an impact on your work results. It will help to reduce stress and will have an overall positive effect on your life.

 

Image Credit: Giphy.com

 

 

To sum up, we can say that, if you really want to be a great developer, you need to broaden your horizon - outside of the technical borders. Maybe you find entirely new interests that you didn’t know you had?

And if you think “there has to be more to a great developer,” follow this series and find out what else you can do to become a great developer.