As a professional developer, what does your daily routine look like?

Every professional web developer's day is a balance of code, collaboration, and creativity. Those trying to break into the industry often wonder, “What does a web developer's daily routine look like?”.

In a recent community discussion, we asked our Discord community what their usual routine is as professional web developers.

Here’s what they had to say 👇

Morning: Prime time for coding

For many community members, mornings are prime time for coding. It's when their minds are most alert. One community member describes the beginning of their day as a deep dive into tasks, carefully selecting the one that makes the most sense to tackle first. The quiet before the daily scrum is prime time for solving the most time-consuming tasks.

Here are some examples of what our community members do with their mornings:

• Check task management tools (such as Asana or Trello) to assess tasks assigned to them.
• Have a morning check-in call with their team to discuss what’s on their plates for the day.
• Check Slack, emails, and any other messaging platform used for work communication.
• Catch up with PRs (pull requests) to see if any have been assigned to them or check up on those not yet approved.
• Finish off tasks from the previous day.

Midday: Collaboration and strategy meetings

After the focus of the morning, the day branches out into collaboration with the rest of the team. Meetings with product managers, designers, and back-end engineers become the afternoon focus. These meetings could be about:

Front-end strategy

Front-end strategy meetings are key platforms where teams put their heads together to shape the future of their web projects. In these sessions, they focus on combining ideas with practical strategies to ensure their projects are aesthetically pleasing and functionally robust. A front-end strategy discussion could be about any of the following:

• Design discussions: Teams look into design aspects, ensuring they are both appealing and user-centric.

• Guideline Updates: Regular updates to their style guides and documentation maintain the code’s clarity and uniformity.

• Project planning: Strategic planning for current and upcoming projects to keep their work focused and efficient.

• Idea exchange: Valuing each team member’s input. This encourages a dynamic exchange of ideas and solutions.

• Strategic alignment: Aligning the teams' technical efforts with broader business objectives to create impactful web solutions.

Pitch refinement

A pitch refinement meeting could involve meeting with a product manager, designer, and back-end engineer to solve a problem the team expects to work on in the upcoming weeks.

This could involve:

• Defining the problem and the objectives.

• Collaborating with the different team members and brainstorming.

• Developing and refining the proposed solution.

• Addressing technical and design constraints.

• Creating an action plan.

Pairing sessions

Pairing sessions are done in order to help or get help from other team members. During a pairing session, two team members sit together (physically or virtually) and work on the same task. This could involve coding, designing, problem-solving, or any other work-related activity.

Here are some benefits of paired programming:

• Knowledge sharing: They facilitate the team's transfer of skills and knowledge.

• Problem-solving: Two heads are often better than one for solving complex problems.

• Quality improvement: Having two people work on the same task can improve the quality of the work, as errors are more likely to be caught and addressed.

• Team building: Pairing sessions help build stronger working relationships and improve communication within the team.

Pairing sessions with the back-end team

Pairing sessions between the front-end and back-end team are conducted in order to address any issues.

Similarly to the above point, team members from the front-end and back-end teams get together to assess issues in collaborative meetings where front-end and back-end developers work together to identify, analyze, and solve issues that may be impacting the overall functionality or performance of the application.

General company strategy meetings

In these meetings, leaders and key team members from different departments come together to discuss and shape the company's overall direction. Topics might include long-term goals, market positioning, product development plans, or expansion strategies. The focus is on aligning departmental objectives with the company's overall strategic goals.

Developers can also have meetings with managers or team leads to discuss approach, implementation or to ask for feedback.

KPI (key performance indicator) updates

Meetings focused on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) involve reviewing and discussing the metrics that are used to gauge the company's performance. Different departments present their progress towards these KPIs, which could include sales targets, customer satisfaction scores, production output, marketing campaign effectiveness, etc. These sessions are critical for tracking progress, identifying areas of concern, and making data-driven decisions.

Customer research outcomes

These meetings are about sharing and analyzing findings from customer research. Insights could be from market surveys, user testing sessions, feedback forms, or social media analysis. The goal is to understand customer needs, preferences, and trends, which can inform product development, marketing strategies, and customer service improvements.

It's acknowledged that while meetings may feel like a distraction, the communication within them is crucial for saving time in the long run.

Afternoon: Coding and quality assurance (QA)

As the day progresses, the focus often shifts back to coding. This is also when developers review others' code or work on smaller tasks if blocked.

As for the coding side of things, one member mentioned that they spend around 40-60% of their day coding. Coding can look like:

• Building new features

• Fixing bugs

• Doing QA (quality assurance)

• PR reviews

• Refactoring code

• Writing tests

• Writing: Writing a technical solution for upcoming work, reviewing others' solution documents, or proposing new technical initiatives.

Community tips: Maximizing productivity in development

Take regular breaks

Sometimes, taking a break when you’re feeling stuck can allow you to approach the issue with a fresh perspective. Consider working out, taking a tea break, or even making a sandwich.

Plan ahead

Always have a clear idea of what you will work on the next day, especially when your energy starts to dip in the evening. Planning ahead can help you reach deadlines and manage your workload clearly.

Communicate

Asking your team for feedback or asking questions about implementation methods is important! It’s necessary for a team to be on the same page when working on the same project. Don’t hesitate to reach out and ask questions.

Workload management

Breaking down tasks into bite-sized chunks helps keep things manageable and ensures regular progress.

If you want to learn more about implementing soft skills into your work, please read our article on the importance of soft skills for developers.

Conclusion

In the world of web development, each day presents a unique blend of challenges and opportunities. While the specifics may vary, a typical day often revolves around a mix of coding and collaboration. For many developers, mornings are reserved for diving deep into code, tackling tasks ranging from building new features to fixing bugs. As the day progresses, the focus shifts to collaboration, where strategy discussions and meetings with team members are done. These interactions are not just about staying aligned with the team's goals; they're also a chance to seek support, brainstorm solutions, and ensure everyone's efforts contribute to the broader company objectives.

This balance between solitary coding and interactive meetings is notable. It ensures that while developers have the space to be creative and solve problems independently, they also remain integrated within their teams, contributing to and benefiting from the collective knowledge of each team member. Understanding this work rhythm can be influential and inspiring for those aspiring to join this field. It's a reminder that web development is not just about the code you write but also about the relationships you build and the strategies you contribute to. In this environment, every day is an opportunity to learn, grow, and build more projects!

Add your insights to the discussion

If you would like to share your routine with the community, please feel free to add to the discussion in Discord.