Looking to take notes and structure your tasks in a more visually pleasing manner? Notion can be your best friend! Let me walk you through how I use Notion as a visual learner to bring more structure into my day-to-day life!
Since the beginning of my college career, I have always been someone who appreciated both aesthetics and productivity. I was always on the lookout for a platform that let me take notes and help with navigating my professional and personal life.
Notion is a project management and note-taking software. It is designed to be an all-in-one workspace for business professionals, students, and independent artists. Even though Notion is usually marketed for businesses, it is an extremely flexible productivity platform for anyone to use! I was introduced to Notion through one of my work friends and was immediately intrigued by how simple, yet useful the platform was. I was able to take notes, make sub-pages for different topics, save important links and videos, and even code in it!
The one thing I loved about Notion was how much control I had over the aesthetic of my notes and pages. Notion makes it possible for you to customize your workspace in different ways and experiment with your resources. One thing I liked to do with my Notion was to add pictures and affirmations on my home page so I could motivate myself every time I accessed my tasks.
Notion helped me a lot with setting a roadmap for college and doing things that motivated me. As a visual learner, it is really important for me to be able to visualize what I have to do and have it all in my sight. With Notion, I was able to have a calendar and base my class schedule, set goals, have a resources page for myself and potential jobs, save my coding notes, and also have a task manager!
Notion did intimidate me a lot when I first started using it, but through some research and help from friends, I was able to utilize it and use it to its fullest potential and I really do believe my productivity has increased very much!
Here are some tips and ideas that helped me!
1. Watch some Youtube videos on Notion
When I was first starting out, I wasn’t sure how to make my page look visually pleasing like others did. The YouTube video by Michelle Kanemitsu (https://youtu.be/8T_qrsTWnyk) helped me a lot with background colors, using widgets, structuring columns, writing notes, and other factors! I highly recommend going through it if you want to get into working with Notion.
2. Have trouble deciding how to format your pages? Find a template!
Navigating the platform, in the beginning, can be difficult. I was confused about how to add pages and other applications such as a calendar. To help, I started looking for Notion templates online, or through Pinterest to get inspiration. I found my first one on TikTok and I used it to structure mine and change some things to fit my activities.
3. Look up Notion Icons/Gifs to make your workspace more interactive
Notion is known to have a very clean look and online, you can find icons for your subpages! Look up ‘Notion Icons’ online and use the ones that fit well with your pages.
4. Using the Task Manager
Notion offers an option for you to be reminded of your upcoming tasks (similar to Google Calendar, Apple Calendar) which helps with keeping track of your assignments and being on task!
Let us know how you use Notion, or if you are going to start, on Instagram @HerCampusSJSU!