5 habits I use to stay competitive as a web dev

Hi there,

Today, I'm excited to welcome web dev and educator Deji Adesoga as our guest expert.

He's here to share 5 battle-tested habits any effective frontend software engineer must demonstrate. (You won't want to miss habit #5... it's the one I forget about the most 😅).

Over to Deji!

Hello everyone my name is Deji Adesoga, and today I’ll be breaking down the 5 habits I use to stay competitive as a software developer in 2025.

First, a brief overview of who I am.

I am a Senior Associate Software Developer for Enterfive Inc. I create Youtube tutorials on my channel called The Code Angle and I have also created online courses for both Educative.io and Newline.co. I have written numerous articles on popular blog platforms such as Dzone, Freecodecamp, dev.to, medium publications and Educative answers.

I am currently working on a Saas open source project which I hope to launch before the end of the year.

Let’s begin.

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As we all know, the world of web development continues to evolve at a rapid pace as AI tools have now been integrated into almost every aspect of our workflow as software developers. It is therefore paramount to find ways to remain effective and productive as a developer.

In this post, I’m going to share with you 5 ways you can remain relevant and productive as a Software Developer in 2025.

1) Use AI

Artificial Intelligence has improved tremendously over the past couple of years. New AI tools are being developed to make web development easier, which has struck up some controversial conversations on whether AI is going to take the job of software developers.

As far as I’m concerned, AI tools have not come to replace developers, rather it has come to simplify and make the job of developers more easy and seamless.

For this reason, it is paramount for developers to form the habit of adopting A.I tools into their workflow. These tools range from code editor plugins like GitHub Copilot, Tabnine, etc, to A.I assistant applications such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Llama to be more productive.

If you need resources on where to get familiar and start working with AI tools, check out the links below:

2) Automate

To increase your productivity, one habit you can develop as a developer is automating your repetitive tasks. Automating repetitive tasks could come in the form of setting up your CI/CD pipeline, test scripts or environment setup.

Adopting the habit of automation enables you to streamline workflows and enhance productivity, giving you an edge over your peers as a software developer.

If you need a resource that serves as a starting point for you to learn and adopt automation into your workflow, here is an interactive Node.js course that allows you to gain insight into automating your repetitive tasks.

https://www.educative.io/courses/automating-with-node-js

3) Continue to learn

In the world of software development, one habit you cannot afford to lose is the zeal to continually learn and update your skills. It is so easy to get comfortable with your current skill set as a software developer, as long as it’s enough to pay the bills. The drawback to this is that the tech industry is ever changing, making it necessary to adopt a life-long learning strategy so as to stay updated and relevant.

One of the ways to stay updated is to take courses on platforms such as Educative, participating in community meetups and engagement, subscribing to newsletters and blog publications.

One resource I would recommend to stay updated, is to learn about how modern system design works.

https://www.educative.io/courses/grokking-the-system-design-interview

4) Communicate & Collaborate

Collaboration is a critical skill every software developer must have in 2025. With the possibility of working remotely at some point in your career, one cannot afford to isolate themselves, as communication is now a vital skill to have and not a soft one.

Communication and collaboration could come in various ways, shapes or forms. From using communication tools like Slack, Jira, or Notion to align with your colleagues, to learning how to use collaborative tools like version control to create clear and concise pull requests.

The habit of communication and collaboration will help create a better work environment, one where there is trust and team success can be attained.

If you want to improve your collaborative skills using version control tools, you can checkout the resources below:

5) Take meaningful breaks

An average adult in 2025 will spend a considerable amount of time per day staring at screens, which could be even more for Software Developers. It is therefore pertinent to always try to set out time to take screen breaks and engage in healthy hobbies outside of work, so as to refresh our batteries.

Time away from the screen can help to reduce both our physical and mental stress, which is needed to stay productive on the job. A few ways to take meaningful break could be:

Using a Pomodoro time-boxed system to structure deep work and pause intentionally
Setting a personal time to log off, taking naps, or pausing Slack and sticking to it without question.
Stepping away for walks, stretches, or non-screen activities to reset mentally and physically.

Just like how muscles grow between workouts, developers improve between coding sessions.

That's all! Mastering these 5 habits will help you level up your career in a way you never thought possible.

Thanks for reading this article. If you find this article helpful, you can kindly share it with your friends and colleagues.

If you have any questions about how to level up your career as a developer, feel free to catch me here on LinkedIn.

Deji Adesoga

Frontend Engineer