You keep track of important events on Google Calendar, record your goals in a Google Doc, and prioritize your tasks on Google Sheets. You are planning everywhere, and soon you feel overwhelmed and unmotivated. Say goodbye to this feeling, and say hello to Notion!
What is Notion?
You’ve probably heard of Notion before as the free productivity tool that functions as a workspace, a note-taking software, and a tracker. This productivity tool is as good as it sounds, and it allows you to organize your life on a single platform. With its many functions and tools, it can seem daunting at first glance; however, with a few helpful tips and tricks, you’ll become an expert Notion user in no time!
Step 1: Signing Up
You can continue with your email, Google account, or with Apple. If you sign up with your school email, you get an upgraded plan.
Step 2: Downloading the app
While I recommend that you use the webpage on your computer, you can use the Notion app on any device. When you’re waiting in a line outside, you can just pull up the Notion app on your phone!
Step 3: Login
Once you are ready to go, login to take your first glimpse of what you will soon call home!
Features that you should utilize:
Navigation:
You could create multiple workspaces or even create a shared workspace with the navigation bar! The navigation bar consists of the following workspaces to help you get started: the getting started page, quick note page, personal home page, task list page, journal page, and the reading list page. When you log in for the first time, the app would direct you to the getting started page, which consists of many basic tips and tricks to help you get started. The quick notes page provides a template that you can use to take notes, create a to-do list, embed links, etc. If you want to learn more about these pages, go create an account and check them out!
Trackers and Note-taking
Many users use Notion for tracking and planning, and may write to-do lists and their goals for the day, month, and year. It’s easy to make your trackers overcomplicated, and you might be tempted to give up. I am speaking from personal experience. When I first started using Notion, I was excited by its capabilities, but soon my excitement turned to stress, and I ended up abandoning the platform because I wasn’t optimizing my use: I created many sub-pages that I forgot even existed.
When I came back a year later, I realized that simplicity was key.
How to keep it simple:
- Start by focusing on one or two specific trackers and setting your goals.
- Studies have shown that organizing tasks based on priority has been effective, so try this method if you didn’t find the right planning method for you just yet.
- There are many templates on the Eisenhower matrix on the Internet
- After adding one to your dashboard, you can customize it however you desire
- Make a daily planner using a single-column list.
- When you feel satisfied with it, add a weekly goals list.
- Use some basic commands like /divider and /todo.
- If you have no idea where to start, the Internet provides many free, lovely templates for you to choose from.
Once you get the hang of Notion’s rudimentary features, you can start branching out.
List of other types of common pages Notion users have:
- Movies you have watched and movies you want to watch
- Countries you have traveled to
- Recipes you want to try
- Budget tracker
- Note-taking
- Itinerary
- School subjects
- APs
- Students can create a calendar for their assessments
If you don’t want to design your page, feel free to choose from the plethora of elegant templates that the Internet and fellow users provide.
Shortcuts
Notion offers many easy to understand shortcuts. To enhance your Notion experience, you should incorporate the following shortcut tips. To search for a certain page in your workspace, press CMD + P. Like I said above, I highly encourage you to keep your workspace simple to leverage its potential. If you find yourself struggling to navigate through your many pages, work on simplifying your platform. Forward slash is a shortcut to find basic blocks, such as a to-do list. CMD+ D duplicates the block your cursor is in. If you find the above shortcuts enticing, make sure to search for more shortcuts on the Internet. Also, if you want to personalize your workspace, you can change the cover by using the change cover button. Knowing these tips and tricks can make your life easier.
https://www.notion.so/help/keyboard-shortcuts
Templates
I have to add in my favorite template, the Pomodoro Notion Template, which has ultimately changed the way I organize my life. If you are a fan of the pomodoro method, where you work in 25-minute chunks separated by five-minute breaks, you would find this template appealing. With aesthetic visuals, daily summaries, a table for tracking agendas, and the expectations vs reality chart, this template is to die for. If you’re a fan of the Pomodoro method and haven’t yet tried this template, I highly recommend giving it a go.
From tracking your budgets to tracking the movies you have watched, you can utilize Notion to organize your life. It’s a game changer.
tl;dr
Notion is a free productivity tool that can be used as a workspace, note-taking software, and tracker. It allows users to organize their life on a single platform. To get started, sign up, download the app, and log in. Notable features include navigation, trackers and note-taking, shortcuts, and templates. Simplify your workspace and prioritize tasks based on importance, and feel free to check out templates such as the Eisenhower matrix or Pomodoro Notion Template to make planning easier. From tracking your budgets to tracking the movies you have watched, you can utilize Notion to organize your life. It’s a game changer.