How To Stay Healthy as a Developer

Spending long hours sitting in front of a computer screen, coding all day, dealing with bugs and deadlines — As software developers, it’s easy to let things get a bit out of control in regards to health.

When health is absent, wisdom cannot reveal itself, art cannot manifest, strength cannot fight, wealth becomes useless, and intelligence cannot be applied. — Herophilus

If software developers would adopt more health practices they would be more productive and accomplish more tasks in less time, Let’s try to imagine a possible outcome here — a developer works super hard for a solid 20 hours but neglects his/her health, and over time the developer is not able to give 100% in whatever he/she is doing, Which would inevitably lead burnouts. Here are some tips you can implement to help you stay or improve your health.

React Testing Library

React testing library is a very light-weight testing library for testing React components, It provides light utility functions on top of react-dom and react-dom/test-utils, It also encourages good testing practices.

Get Enough Sleep

Sleep helps remove brain toxins that build up while you are awake. The more you deprive yourself of sleep the more these toxins build up, Which could harm your ability to think. Generally, sleeping recharges your energy and helps in a lot of aspects, On average we need at least 6–8 hours of sleep, Which should be enough.

Take a Breather

Most times our minds work best when we take a break, This will let you think about a problem from a different angle and probably come with an answer at the end of the break, Personally the technique I use is called the Pomodoro technique which I highly recommend.

Sit Correctly

Maintaining a good posture while coding in front of your computer is important — it helps to mitigate strain on your lower back and neck pain. You can also try working on a standing desk, this way you can alternate between sitting and standing.

Your posture now determines your portion later. — Bradley Cooper

Watch What you Eat

Just like a car wouldn’t run without the right fuel, the same applies to our bodies, Make sure you find time to eat a properly balanced meal — preferably a big breakfast to give you enough energy for the day, a good lunch, and a light supper but when working odd hours you can adjust accordingly.

Exercise

The body needs movement, staying in front of your desk all day long is not really a good thing to do. It’s definitely a good idea to stretch at least once every hour or two, I have found that taking walks or jogging is a great way to refresh your mind especially when you’re trying to find a solution to a problem.

As software developers, Time is very precious — we can get back a lot of things but we can’t get back our time. To ease the burden of our daily duties at home in the aspect of cooking, cleaning, gardening, and other necessities, We can leverage home management services to assist us in doing so, Eden Life is a good example.