Disclaimer: This is not sponsored by Notion. This is just my experience with it and I just wanted to share this amazing program with others. Enjoy!
I live a chaotic life. I work, I am a university student, I have many hobbies and aspirations. Like I always say, my life might be a mess, but lets at least make it pretty! This blog will be all about how I use Notion to organize my life.
I started using Notion last year and it has been a life-changer. I just wanted to share some tips on how I use Notion that has helped me stay motivated and organized. I use Notion for absolutely everything: finances, work, University courses, to keep a journal, to track my habits and more.
This is going to be a lengthy blog about the different things I use Notion for and the different features that Notion has. In this blog you can read about:
An Overview of Notion - Is this the platform for you?
How I use Notion to Organize My Life - The different things I personally use Notion for
How YOU can use Notion - An overview of the different features that Notion has
What is Notion?
There are so many apps and platforms like Notion but I would really recommend this one since 1) it is free, 2) it is very easy to personalize and 3) it is a really good tool to keep things organized.
It is free: Yes, many other apps are free but I believe that this one has all the tools and essential features that I haven't found in any other apps. You can sync your notes and layouts with any device too! So you can keep it all in one space. Whether you are on your mobile or on your iPad or laptop, the app is compatible with any of those devices.
It is very easy to personalize: Notion is very intuitive and it is really easy to play around with and customize your layouts however it works for you. Whether you want a more simple style layout or a more artistic or complex one you can add or change things in a very simple and fast way. The last thing we want is to spend too much time trying to figure out an app but Notion makes it very simple to use.
It is really good for an organization: I am pointing this out because, for me, I believe this is one of the best apps for the overall organization. I will get into more details about notetaking later in the blog. By organization, I mean that this app is very helpful if you want to have one place where you are able to keep everything compartmentalized. You can add videos, links, documents, pdfs and all of these features allow you to bring all the things that you have scattered around in different platforms and websites all in one space.
One of the things that I love about Notion is that you are able to share your templates with other people. This means that, if you liked the format that someone else used to track their habits, for example, you can ask them to share their template and you can use that same template, change it, customize it to fit your own needs.
I personally used this wonderful template shared by twirlingpages. She made a video of her Notion page and shared her template so that we can use it and customize it.
How do I use Notion?
This is a screenshot of my dashboard. Everyone's Notion will look different because it really depends on how you use each page and how you want to organize it. Here is my main dashboard. This is the first thing I see when I open my Notion.
1 - You can customize the heading background and profile photo to match the aesthetic you want your main dashboard to look like
2 - You are able to choose the 'title' of each page you create. For me, I decided to have an overall dashboard but you don't have to have one, I just decided I wanted a page where I could access everything I have
3 - You can add widgets! There are pages online where you can download and add different widgets to your pages. I decided to add this weather widget that keeps me updated with the weather
4 - This is totally optional but I just wanted to show how easily you can customize your pages. For this dashboard I decided to divide it into these sections because this is what works for me. I love Spirited Away so of course the images had to match that aesthetic I was going for.
There are so many different templates online or on Youtube and pages you can gain inspiration from. I highly recommend you start by playing around Notion and then searching up these templates in case you are interested in customizing them.
As I said before, you really can customize everything! The system is very intuitive and you do not have to be good at designing pages or good at technology. Notion has pre-made templates for you to use. But if you want to explore a bit more you are free to customize every single aspect of the page.
In my homepage you can see some of the many aspects of Notion that can be used. You can add several columns and rows and divide the pages easily.
1 - You can add soundtracks to your pages! So you can listen to your favorite sounds while you are working.
2 - One of the best parts about Notion is that you each page acts like a "website". Meaning that they each have a link attached to them. For instance, my money log page has its own link and I can link it up in the homepage for easy access.
3 - You can add images and change the border (into a square, circles, etc). I thought this was a very useful tool to make your page look much better.
4 - You can add Spotify playlists!
You can also organize your tasks, your week, your month! This is a super easy way to have everything you need in one space.
You can easily make charts to track different things. The charts do not work as efficiently as Microsoft Excel but they serve the purpose of easy organization of data. The tables have different tools similar to Excel, like calculators, filters, formulas and more.
The best thing about Notion is that you can make your pages as complex or as simple as you would like them. You can have a page full of images for inspiration.
I use Notion to take all my university notes and to study. This is an example of one of the course I took this semester. As you can see, I was able to make a table to divide all the lessons, the assignments and add information. Each 'Lesson' in the table is a clickable link that takes you to a separate page where you can add information.
For instance, when I click Lesson 1 from the table, it takes me to this page that has all the notes and information I need for that lesson.
I also use Notion to organize my creative life. It works similarly to my academic page but as you can see this is organized a bit differently. This only shows that there are many different ways you can organize your pages.
Finally, I also use Notion to keep my digital diary.
1 - Since you can link up pages, it is easy to make reminders and link the page you have to update.
2 - I decided to make a table to write down the entry dates, my moods, my happiness rating, a highlight of the day and then the actual journal can be accessed by clicking on the date.
3 - You can also change the 'view' so that in the Default view I can see the table and in the Mood in Memes view I can see all my moods throughout the year in images!
This was a very long blog but I hope it gave you an overview of the different features Notion has. Check it out if you are interested in organizing your digital life this way.