Notion is a productivity tool designed for both teams and individual users. It’s a combination of Google Docs, Sheets, a calendar, and reminders, and so much more all in one. My favorite part about Notion is that it’s completely customizable, so you can tailor it specifically to your needs (and design tastes) in order to really get the most out of it. Notion works by creating an account, and you can then access everything on the web, as a desktop app, or on your phone.
Pages
Pages are the backbone of Notion. When you create a page, you can choose from three font options for the whole page (sans serif, serif, or mono) by clicking the three dots in the top right corner. You can also add an icon for this page, either an image or GIF, and a header image as well. I love doing this to add personality and color to my main pages as you can see above. If you don’t add an icon, Notion will automatically put a page icon as a placeholder. You can also change the bolding, italicization, underlining, strikethrough, font color, and highlight color for text by highlighting it and selecting what you want.
Within each page, you can add more pages (I do this to create tables of contents – I think of them as folders to get me to specific notes or assignments). You can also add built-in elements like a calendar, table, list, divider, embed images, links, PDFs, code, and so much more (I’ll get into this in a bit). Notion allows you to share pages with others like you would with a Google Drive file, so if you want to share your class notes or a calendar with someone else, this makes it very easy. This person can view, edit, or duplicate your page as a template.
Blocks
Blocks are the second most important aspect of Notion, as they allow you to customize your pages even further. To add an element simply type “/” and all block options will automatically pop up. You can also start typing for a specific block after the backward slash if it’s not easy to find. For example, if you wanted a calendar you would type “/calendar” and the two calendar options (inline or full page) would pop up to choose from.
Notion has so many blocks, so I won’t go into full detail for all of them, but they have categorized them into six main types:
- Basic: text, pages, headings, lists, dividers, quotes, links to pages, and callouts
- Inline: mentions, reminders, emojis, and equations
- Database: tables, calendars, boards, galleries, and timelines
- Media: images, web bookmarks, video, audio, code, or files
- Embed: PDFs, Google Maps, Google Drive files, Tweets, and tons of other project types
- Advanced: table of contents, block equations, and more
Since there are so many blocks to choose from, I recommend taking the time to play with them and see which ones would benefit you the most. I stick with the basic blocks, database, and embedding categories for the most part, so here are more specifics for the blocks I use the most!
My Favorite Blocks
When you create a calendar, you can add different tasks and set reminders. I also have the mobile app, and if you turn on notifications, these events or reminders should show up like they would with your reminders or calendar app. You can also set reminders through the inline-block if you don’t want them in a calendar.
Other blocks that I like to use are headers and lists as these help me visually organize my thoughts. There are three different header sizes to choose from. When it comes to lists, you can create toggled, to-do, bulleted, or numbered lists. You don’t always need to type “/” to access these. Notion is very intuitive, so if you type “-” or “1.” to start the last two, Notion will automatically format them for you.
Finally, embedding images, code, and PDFs is a game-changer. With the free version of Notion, you are limited to a size of 5 MB for these files, so if what you’re trying to embed is too large, I recommend reducing the size until it’s 5 MB or smaller. There are TONS of websites that will do this for free), but my go-to is Adobe. If you delete the file on your computer, it will stay in Notion, so you don’t have to worry about them being linked to each other.
A Deep Dive Into My Notion
Because Notion varies from person to person, I wanted to go into specifics of how I get the most out of it. On the left, there’s a sidebar with all of your pages. As I mentioned earlier, I like to think of pages as folders, so I have six main ones which hold EVERYTHING else. These are Home, CTD (school), PINK CU Boulder, The Chatter Club (work), Her Campus, and Other (travel, my sticker biz, random thoughts, etc.).
My home page is very simple and includes a clock and daily quote widget! I used Indify to get these two. You can also add your Google calendar, a countdown, a counter, a life progress bar, or a weather widget. I added a divider below these then created a personal to-do list for the week.
When it comes to my CTD (school) page, I have pages for each school year and within those, I have pages for each class I took or am currently taking. For each class’s page, I include basic information at the top (instructor name, class dates/times, location, and my instructor’s contact information). Below that, I have a “table of contents” with pages to assignments, notes, and resources (syllabus, readings, random links) pages. Finally, I have a to-do list for that week’s tasks as well as a calendar overview with major projects.
Final Thoughts and Advice
Notion was so daunting for me at first because I was trying to follow other tutorials and use pre-made templates. While these are great for inspiration, I recommend starting with the basics and taking it one step at a time. If you’re unsure about something, Google it! It sounds silly, but there’s going to be a tutorial for almost everything Notion-related. The Notion website is also a great resource to learn more about what you can do with it.
My biggest piece of advice is to customize it as much as you can. Try something, and if it doesn’t work, try something else. Trial and error after a few months was how I got comfortable and actually excited about using Notion instead of stressed out when using it. Notion might not be for you either, and that’s okay. However, I do suggest everyone give it a shot because it’s an awesome productivity tool that I truly rely on and use every day! I’m also always open to help you out. Just DM me on Instagram @hannnahcurran, and we can chat!