Productivity

Why even take notes? Depending on the industry that you work in, or study in, note taking can be a very effective habit to get into. How you take notes can look a little different depending on the type of person you are but why you take notes can usually be boiled down to a few reasons. The most obvious reason is to use as a reference, whether that be to help you remember the latest concept you learned in class or just to document part of your progress at work or on a project. A not so obvious reason why you might want to take notes is because note taking can help you create cognitive connections in the subject of your notes. Basically, taking notes can actually help you gain a deeper understanding of the subject of interest. ...

Background You might have come across our post about learning how to code as a beginner. If not, you can read all about it here. After embarking on our code learning journey we have discovered a not so obvious tool that you can use to help you learn that no one is talking about it. That tool believe it or not, is Apple Shortcuts. Hear us out In that post we talked a little bit about why it’s valuable to focus on gaining a deep understanding of fundamental programming operations. IF statements, for loops, switch statements, these are concepts that are not unique to any one programming language but rather are ubiquitous foundations that exist in many languages. The syntactical differences between programming languages, although important to learn will come naturally with repetition and we recommend focusing energy elsewhere. ...

Background The Getting Things Done (GTD) system was developed and popularized by productivity guru David Allen. It was introduced to the world through his book so appropriately titled Getting Things Done. Being highly efficient and therefore highly productive is something that we are a bit obsessed over and GTD is our favorite system so far for staying on top of all of our tasks and completing them in a timely manner. Although we do take our own creative spin on the system and don’t follow the method exactly as prescribed it still maintains the core elements. ...

Overview Drafts is a markdown text editor. It’s a note-taking system with some unique features that distinguish it from similar apps on the market. The app lends itself well to the super user that is versed in Markdown and proficient with JavaScript but the beauty is that even a novice can have a really positive experience with the platform. Think of it as a powerhouse that is lightweight and easy to use but at the same time can go into overdrive and deliver custom and unique solutions to improve anybody’s workflows. ...

Background Here at Red Bear we consider ourselves lifelong learners. We believe that everything has a science and everything is worth learning about. Since we’re all such voracious learners and we believe in being as efficient at learning as we can, it only makes sense that one of the topics we like to learn about is… learning. Learning about learning. We don’t really believe there are too many bad ways to learn new things. Generally speaking any method of learning new things regardless of the mechanism, given enough time will eventually lead to positive results. Efficiency is key however, and time is money so being as efficient as possible with our learning will only further help us. ...