Tech Productivity Issue #158 (The Four Levels of Reading)

Issue #158 (The Four Levels of Reading) 02/21/22

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Beginner JavaScript: A Practical Video Course
88 HD videos. A fun, exercise-heavy approach to learning modern JavaScript from scratch. For absolute beginners to intermediate devs who want to nail their JS fundamentals.
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I've used Chromium-based browsers forever, and I often have at least 10 tabs open at any given time. In fact, it's not unusual that I have 30+ tabs open in a single browser. I make it a habit of regularly reviewing my open tabs to make sure they're serving a purpose in my writing, coding, and research.

One Chrome tabs feature that I often forget about is the tab search feature, which is accessible via the CTRL-SHIFT-A shortcut or by clicking that little innocuous looking triangle that I've apparently ignored for years.

This gives you a searchable list of your open tabs. You can easily read each of the page titles (which isn't the case when the tabs are small) with the option to visit or close any of the tabs. At the bottom of the list, there's also a "recently closed" tabs section, so you can access anything you may have inadvertently purged.

And as a few extra bonuses, the search filter includes all open tabs across all windows and recently closed tabs. I sometimes have two separate sessions of the same browser, depending on the work I'm doing, so this will come in handy.

Overall, a really nice feature for those who regularly work with dozens of open tabs.

Now on to this week's hand-picked productivity links!

Tools & Apps

Gifski - Open-source Mac app to convert videos to high-quality GIFs, with various settings you can apply before conversion.

Doodle - An online meeting scheduling tool with cross-time zone features and no need for multiple emails and back-and-forths.

Kopier - Chrome extension, with keyboard shortcuts, that gives you quick access to various links that you often copy and paste (e.g. your bios for LinkedIn, Twitter, etc).

Email Monster - Mask your email address online with unlimited forwarding addresses. Control inbox noise with scheduled future emails.

myRemoteDay - A simple, free cross-platform app that balances remote work life, integrating with your existing apps to establish and share boundaries.

Notion2Sheets - A Google Workspaces add-on that keeps your databases from Notion automatically in sync with Google Sheets, with support for formulas, charts, backups, and more.

React for Beginners - A high-quality web development course consisting of 29 HD videos to learn React.js, the world's most popular UI library. sponsored

Articles & Resources

Bias Busters: A Better Way to Brainstorm - The suggestions are based on anonymity and silent votes, which help abolish power struggles and focus on the actual tasks rather than the politics of it all.

Small Things You Do Can Make You Way More Productive, Here’s How - These six suggestions will help if the hours pass and you feel like you haven't done as much as you expected.

The Four Levels of Reading: Improve Skills One Level at a Time - This is the first article in a series covering how to read with better understanding.

How to Tame Your Wandering Mind and Actually Get Some Work Done - Researchers believe that when a task isn’t sufficiently rewarding, our brains search for something more interesting to think about. Of course, that doesn't seem to happen when I think about chocolate cake, and that's definitely not rewarding.

How Disrupting Your Daily Routine Can Actually Make You More Productive - From the Trello blog where the author argues that disruptions aren't obstacles or distractions, they're learning opportunities.

The Weekly Review: 10x Your Productivity With Just One Hour a Week - Definitely worth a shot for such a big productivity gain, but I think realistically a weekly review might do maybe 2x or 3x for most of us.

Beginner JavaScript - 88 HD videos. A fun, exercise-heavy approach to learning modern JavaScript from scratch. For absolute beginners to intermediate devs who want to nail their JS fundamentals. sponsored

Suggestions?

Have a suggestion for a productivity-related tool, article, or other resource? Send me a direct message via X (@LouisLazaris) and I’ll consider including it in a future issue.

Stay productive!

Louis
techproductivity.co
@LouisLazaris

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