Setting up Notion as source of learning and productivity

What is notion and why notion

Notion is a tool that allows you to think, write, and plan in one place. Capture ideas, manage projects, or even operate a full company – all while doing it your way. This program can be accessed via the website or by downloading an app to your phone or tablet.

If you prefer to avoid ambiguity whenever feasible, and you require an overview, system, or procedure, Notion is an excellent choice.

As a first-year student, I find the concept beneficial in terms of reducing stress and feeling more organized with my lecture notes, research, and keeping my works on track. Today I'll show you how to set it up more effectively as a learning channel, as well as a few more tips to spice up your home page which could boost your productivity.

Now let’s dive into my personal Notion page to see some set ups !!!

Organizing lecture notes on Notion

I enjoy using Notion to organize my notes and find it to be quite efficient. It's pretty simple, and I'm not concerned that my lessons are out of order.

My academia home page, which includes all of my studies pages, is located here. I'll show my Royal University Phnom Penh page to demonstrate  how we can organize notes there.

As you can see, I have a separate page for each subject in which I keep my lecture notes. On my Introduction to Engineering page, for example, I have some lecture notes sorted by order. 

Some note-taking functions to consider:

-Toggle list :  useful to keep your notes neat. By putting a question or title, you can simply store the texts in there. I also find it useful to review the lessons as it functions like a flashcard. Try answering the questions and the click on the toggle to reveal the answers.

-Callout: used for important parts and highlights of the note.

Creating List

For reading

Simply create a table and input in your books. For each column you can edit the property to “Select, date.. etc”

Here in my page I use the select property for my reading status which enables me to choose the options and I also have columns for author and category.

For tracking works

I used the same process of my reading list and I use the select property for my process, class and the due date to simply organize my works. With this list, I can easily see the which works I need to complete and how many tasks I have for each class. This may look like a to-do list but I do not really treat it like so.  I would consider this list as a reminder of my works and I can simply choose which one I want to start working on first.

Spicing up your homepage

-Use pictures, diagrams or charts : From textbooks, internet or Pinterest.

-Add gifs : Creates more motion and make your homepage more lively.

-Use emoji and colors

-Add Spotify playlist in there: background music when studying.