I lost significant productivity by relying mostly on the mouse rather than the keyboard. A few days ago, I took a few hours to ‘sharpen the saw’ and find out how other people use RubyMine (IntelliJ IDE) in their workflows.

I should have done this a long time ago.

Accessing panels by keyboard is much more efficient than taking my hand off the keyboard and reaching for the mouse.

If you’re starting your software development career, take a few days to look at how power users use the tools you most often use. Do it in the first 6 months of programming so that the shortcuts become second nature to you.

Effective Learning

Watching a video or reading a text on shortcuts is not enough. You’ll forget them. I watched a video and paused to take notes and a screenshot. I then repeated the shortcut in my own IDE. I actively used the shortcuts I learned and returned to my notes in a few days to see if I forgot something. This approach worked for me.

Working in Rubymine like a Pro

RubyMine users that want to master keyboard shortcuts, watch this wonderful video by Tatiana Vasilyeva on RubyMine.

This is the video that significantly increased my productivity with RubyMine.