One feature I like in Eclipse is the outline view which shows you the structure (i.e. the variables and methods) of the file you edit and allows you to jump quickly to those code elements (see image).

Outline view

To use this feature efficiently it makes sense to use a convention to structure your code (the example in the image is unstructured hence it is more difficult to find a certain method). And even if your IDE doesn’t provide such a feature it makes sense to follow a convention as it makes your code more cleaner.

The convention I use is simple: first public stuff, then private stuff, both ordered alphabetically. So a CakePHP file may look like:

class A {
    var $a = ...
    var $z = ...
    var $__a = ...
    var $__z = ...

    function a() {}

    function z() {}

    function __a() {}

    function __z() {}
}

Especially if you have larger files it helps to avoid that you get a messy code structure. And it doesn’t require any additional effort.