My cliff notes on working with git remote branches.
create a branch
git checkout -b wip/charts
see your branches
git branch
see all branches
git branch -a
switch to the main branch
git checkout master
switch back to your branch
git checkout wip/charts
merge your branch with the main branch (makes the changes to your branch)
git merge master
merge your branch with the main branch, but keeping your changes on top (recommend doing this until you make a remote branch, see below)
git rebase master
create a new remote branch from your branch:
git push origin wip/charts:wip/gerad/charts
push new changes to your remote branch:
git push origin wip/charts:wip/gerad/charts (you can also edit .git/config if you want to just do a git push)
checkout a tracking branch that follows someone else's remote branch:
git pull
git checkout --track -b wip/selection origin/wip/gerad/selection
(subsequent git pulls while you're on that branch will work as expected: new work on that branch will come in just like it normally does for when you're on master)