Notion, a very handy organization app, that can serve as a calendar, notebook, journal and more. But not gonna lie, I ***almost gave up using it as I am not used to using it. It is so different from One Note, Evernote etc. I spent some time watching different Notion tutorial videos and tried various templates before finding a way that suits me most. So I want to first share how I organize book notes and online information.
🔺 Useful beginner guide on Notion
I recommend watching these videos or websites before moving on, the guides and videos include the most basic functions in Notion.
- Thomas Frank “The Most Powerful Productivity App I Use — Notion” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9S5I3pWz94
The following videos are about linked databases (a very important element to know before moving on), which I use a lot when organizing notes.
- Thomas Frank “Notion Databases: Filters and Forcing Functions” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9tdWi0pCN4
- Notion “Using linked databases” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYzY7W-CofA
- Thomas Frank “Notion Fundamentals: Page Links, Backlinks, and Sub-Pages “https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YO4HYhpR9zE&t=4s
🔺 How I organize with Notion
Books
Video on how I take book notes👇
More on How I take book notes 👇
This is the home page once you enter the book notes page. I used the template from Ali Abdaal’s and modified it. https://www.notion.so/templates/ali-abdaal-book-notes.
I wanted to keep track of books I reviewed and posted on my blog so I linked a database from simplenglow aka my blog (circled in red in the illustration).
I take notes when reading non-fiction, so I only have the non-friction book template which is shown below.
- “❓How it helps me?” is a “cheat sheet” before reading. If I have some specific goals in mind (see the illustration below) when reading a book, I will write them here. As I am reading, I will focus more on those topics, and type something I found useful.
Other resources
Video on how I take online notes 👇
More on How I take online notes 👇
This is the homepage.
- “Waiting to read” are the articles I have not read. I linked the database from “Resources” and filtered the non-read articles
- “Resources” is where I store all the sources. I use the web clipper function that can add the articles online to Notion directly https://www.notion.so/help/web-clipper. For podcasts and others, I will make a new page and type the notes directly. I also categorize them into different genres, mostly the topics that I am interested in: business, health, psychology etc. (as shown below)
- “Knowledge database” is where all the magic happens! I compile all the related content from “Resources” page and “Talks and seminars” page. I will summarize the topic in my own words, then they will shown as cards (I used the board view) So whenever I want to revisit the cards, I will have a comprehensive summary rather than articles flattering everywhere. It serves as my second brain. I linked to 3 databases
- Talks and seminars,
- Sources (aka resource page)
These two are found in the “Note-taking” Page, that records where I found the information.
3. Blog from “simplenglow” page as I want to know whether I refer to the information in this card to write a blog or not.
The following illustration is one of the ‘card’ in the knowledge database.
The video is an example of how I organized an article I saw online.
I really like how much Notion can do. How about you? Give me a like if you want my notion templates!
