When I was in high school, my methods of organization were the source of many headaches. I had one folder overstuffed with papers from all 7 of my classes, a few loose pencils lost in the depths of my backpack, and nowhere to store important dates or assignments besides in my own caffeine-addled mind. Coming to college, I decided it was time for me to actually get a hold on my schoolwork and learn how to be organized. Considering that every aspect of my academic life had been moved online this year, I found analog planning methods like a classic agenda or bullet journal to be more like chores to keep up with rather than tools to drive my productivity. In need of something more customizable than Google Calendar, I started my quest to find the perfect fully online planner.
Over winter break, I ended up discovering Notion.so, a relatively new note taking and organization application, through a recommended Youtube video, and was immediately intrigued. I loved how customizable it was, and how you could make your workspace as simple or complex as you wanted. I especially loved that I could store my notes from school in the app as well, so that everything I would need to consult for my academics would all be in one place. And best of all, unless I were to want a few (and in my opinion, unnecessary) extra features, the application was entirely free.
After discovering Notion, I spent the next week setting up my workspace and trying to make it as efficient as possible. I watched dozens of Youtube videos, scrolled endlessly through the #NotionTwt hashtag on Twitter, and spent hours on Pinterest and Tumblr finding inspiration for my layout. I quickly realized how many different things could be achieved through the app, and how for some people their Notion truly is their entire life contained in one neat white page.
My Notion layout is, at the moment, quite simple. I have one large database where I enter all my tasks, and filtered lists from that database that focus on what needs to be done today, this week, this month, for each class, etc. I have individual pages for each of my classes where I store PDFs of my syllabus, lecture notes, office hour schedules, and any other resources I might need in one glance. For each week I have a simple 4 column spread that resembles pages of an agenda, where I can easily jot down notes about my week and check off my tasks for the day.
After pouring hours into learning how the application works, my biggest piece of advice for Notion is to set it up the way you know your brain works. For me, I need constant reminders everywhere, and multiple indicators to remind me of the urgency of some tasks. I love the action of checking things off, which is why so much of my Notion is checklist-based, and I like a lot of color to hold my attention. I started out trying to copy other people’s layouts, but some were so complicated that it became counterproductive for me to use. Once I got the hang of it, I felt confident building up something from scratch that really reflected my work methods.
Now, I’m a committed Notion user and I’ve never been so on top of my assignments for a semester. I’m excited for the future of Notion as more features and updates get added, and plan to someday get all my friends to save some trees and ditch their agendas for a Notion workspace.