Hey Django devs! In our daily grind, it’s easy to get boxed in by routines, technical debt, or “the way we’ve always done it.” But true productivity and growth come from claiming certain developer freedoms.
Here are 10 liberties you should grant yourself to write cleaner code, ship faster, and enjoy your craft more in the Django community.
<ol>
<li>
The Freedom to Use a Debugger
Stop relying solely on print(). Liberate yourself with Django’s built-in debugging tools or use PDB, PDB++, or the excellent visual debugger in your IDE. Step through code, inspect variables live, and slay bugs in minutes, not hours.
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<li>
The Freedom to Write Comprehensive Tests
Free yourself from the fear of breaking things. Use Django’s robust TestCase framework. Write tests for models, views, and APIs. This liberty allows you to refactor with confidence and deploy with peace of mind.
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<li>
The Freedom to Leverage the Django Admin
Don’t rebuild basic CRUD interfaces. Claim the freedom to customize and extend the powerful Django Admin. Use list_display, search_fields, custom actions, and even third-party packages like django-jazzmin to make it a true admin powerhouse.
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<li>
The Freedom to Choose the Right Package
You don’t have to build everything from scratch. Liberate your time by using well-maintained, community-vetted packages. Need REST APIs? Django REST Framework. Async? Django Channels. Forms? django-crispy-forms. Audit dependencies, then use them wisely.
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<li>
The Freedom to Say “No” to Raw SQL (Initially)
Django’s ORM is incredibly powerful. Grant yourself the freedom to use its query expressions (F(), Q()), aggregates, and annotations for 95% of your needs. Optimize with select_related() and prefetch_related() before even considering raw SQL.
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<li>
The Freedom to Use Environment Variables
Never hard-code secrets again. Claim the freedom to use python-decouple or django-environ. This separates configuration from code, keeping your <a href="http://settings.py" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">settings.py</a> clean and your credentials safe across all environments (dev, staging, prod).
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<li>
The Freedom to Keep Business Logic Out of Views
Liberate your views from becoming bloated monoliths. Move business logic to model methods, custom managers, or separate service layers. This freedom leads to more testable, reusable, and maintainable code.
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<li>
The Freedom to Document Your Code (Especially the “Why”)
Free your future self and your teammates from hours of head-scratching. Write clear docstrings, comment on why a complex piece of logic exists, and maintain an updated <a href="http://README.md" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">README.md</a>. Good documentation is an act of kindness.
</li>
<li>
The Freedom to Use Django’s Built-in Security
Don’t roll your own auth, password hashing, or protection against common exploits. Claim the freedom offered by Django’s battle-tested security features. Use @login_required, @permission_required, and let Django handle CSRF, XSS, and SQL injection protections.
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<li>
The Freedom to Step Away and Ask for Help
Your ultimate liberty. When stuck for more than an hour, step away. Take a walk. Then, use the incredible Django community. Ask on Django Forum, Stack Overflow, or your local meetup. Sharing the problem is often the fastest path to a solution.
</li>
</ol>

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A curated list of 10 best practices for Django developers covering debugging tools, testing frameworks, leveraging Django Admin, choosing packages wisely, using the ORM effectively, managing environment variables, separating business logic, documentation practices, utilizing built-in security features, and knowing when to seek help from the community.

10 Essential Freedoms for Every Django Developer