Master the Art of Note-Taking in Notion: A Comprehensive Guide
Taking notes is an essential part of our daily lives, whether you’re jotting down thoughts, organizing your tasks, or capturing invaluable insights from meetings or lectures. With the digital age firmly upon us, gone are the days of scattered paper notes. Instead, sophisticated tools like Notion have revolutionized how we take, store, and organize our notes. But, with great power comes great responsibility—or, in this case, a learning curve. Fear not, for this guide will walk you through creating an effective notes dashboard in Notion, transforming you into a note-taking wizard in no time.
Why Notion?
Notion stands out in the crowded space of note-taking apps for its unparalleled flexibility and all-encompassing features. It’s not just a note-taking app; it’s a workspace where you can integrate tasks, databases, calendars, and more, all in one place. For those of you who have dabbled with Taskade or Todoist, think of Notion as the next step in your productivity journey, offering deeper customization and integration to streamline your workflow.
Building Your Notion Notes Dashboard
The beauty of Notion lies in its ability to be anything you want it to be. But with such freedom, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. Let’s simplify the process by creating a structured notes dashboard that caters to your needs.
Step 1: Setting Up Your Workspace
Begin by opening Notion to a new page, which will serve as the foundation for your notes dashboard. Consider this space your command center, where all your notes will live in harmony.
Step 2: Creating a Multi-Functional Dashboard
To build an effective dashboard, incorporate elements that reflect your note-taking needs. This includes:
- Inbox: A dumping ground for all your unprocessed notes. Think of it as your digital scribble pad.
- Favorites: For those notes you refer to constantly. This section is your go-to for important references.
- Recents: A chronological list of your most recently updated notes, ensuring you can quickly pick up where you left off.
- Tags: An organizational feature that allows you to categorize your notes for easy retrieval. Whether it’s ‘Work’, ‘Personal’, or project-specific, tags help keep your notes neat and findable.
Step 3: Enhancing Your Dashboard
With the basic structure in place, it’s time to add layers of functionality:
- Quick Add: Implement a button for adding new notes to your inbox, streamlining the capture process.
Noteboard: A Kanban-style board for visualizing and moving notes between categories, enhancing your organizational flow.
Step 4: Making It Accessible
For those constantly on the move, optimize your dashboard for mobile access. Create individual pages for each section (Inbox, Favorites, etc.) and link them in a ‘Quick Links’ section at the top of your dashboard. This ensures that no matter where you are, your notes are just a tap away.
The Final Touch
Your notes dashboard in Notion is now set up and ready to go. As you grow more comfortable, you’ll find yourself tweaking and adding to it, making it a truly personalized command center for your digital life.
Remember, the key to mastering Notion is experimentation and patience. With time, you’ll discover the most effective ways to use it for your unique needs, making it an indispensable tool in your productivity arsenal. Happy note-taking!
Timestamps
00:00 – Stream start
01:44 – Introduction
05:39 – Tutorial Overview
12:36 – Build Starts
@seanivore
Await can any databases send to the same archive ?!
@seanivore
Ugh I should have been here live. So many questions. Next time. Next time
@seanivore
Ugh I feel like all my questions would be semi answered by templates, but I don’t learn anything unless I do it myself, from scratch
@seanivore
I get so confused between making one database with different views (which I’d prefer if the “New” button would not show ALL the database properties and not just the properties in that view) vs. More databases. More databases just ends up being piles of old databases after time. Whereas one database I can pragmatically build for a future where I’ll be running all my own analytics across social platforms. I.e. I love that my CRM and CMS is combined. Though I use a separate Projects database for tasks and production. Basically everything is just those two databases though.
@seanivore
What is a use case where you wouldn’t want duel direction relations? Also I often end up using relations to the same database which is amazing but would be more amazing if when adding linked entries i could sort them by type (Project vs Task for example, which I have a mental logic struggle with separating as two databases — it is too black and white)
@ThomasFrankExplains
Hey all!
Introduction starts at 01:44, overview of the build starts at 05:39, and the actual build process starts at 12:36.
If you want this note-taking system as a template, you can get it here! https://thomasjfrank.com/templates/notion-note-taking-template/
@seanivore
Ah-ha, okay I do that with my databases. Yay. But wait is it just going to sit there under Note Board? Like go away link to databases . Ohh okay Notes board is a dumping place, potentially to make other views from?
@seanivore
lol who shows database title unless on the main database page where hyou can’t hide it
@seanivore
Re: tabs vs side view, I wish I could open new instances of the actual notion app window
@seanivore
Omg advanced filtering makes so much more sense and “advanced” makes it intimidating. Damn you notion!
@seanivore
Interesting. I build backwards. Using template to build the database and then default different views to new filtered tabs or sections. Your way is way faster.
@seanivore
“Six dot” menu and “three dot” menu makes me LOL
@seanivore
Cute studio. AI?
@seanivore
Soon we’ll just tell AI what setup we want for a new tab view lol
@seanivore
What is that bar on the left of the web browser?!
@seanivore
I wanna be in that test flight lol
@seanivore
I see the flylighter waiting list is a Notion Page as a website. Been so curious about the SEO of that. I’ve read it isn’t great
@javito19
Hey Thomas, you can add Spanish subtitles to better enjoy the content. Greetings!! 👋👋
@seanivore
Woah fly lights needs a new logo brah — maybe even just drop the booger/puke green that does not make me feel like something is trustworthy. Something that makes “fly lights” more intuitive a name cause it’s a thinker atm. Not a huge one but takes a moment. Like the idea of “highlighting” is … i mean idk the last time I used a highlighter and even with text (usually in notion) i don’t use it i color the text. “Capture” is modern. Idk why “copy paste” doesn’t trigger the word highlight in the brain. Copy is gold to pay into. lol now I’m getting asd fixated in unsolicited advice when all i wanted to say is the color theory of that logo is off for trust
@seanivore
How is hiding columns helpful when you can see them all in the “new entry” page??? Do people enter entries in the actual table view?? I just feel like if the “always hide” customization would DEFAULT to that entry page view pop up (slide over?).
@seanivore
Was curious about the Notion as a webpage SEO effectiveness because I love the idea of making my portfolio a database with a display page that served as the website, but am not sure this is realistic.
@thomasagustian8520
It is annoying, especially when i have to apply (sort and filter) everytime i add “tag template”
Anyway thankyou for the tutorial 🙏🏻
@Frank-gk6rc
Thanks Thomas, very useful video. A valuable source of ideas to update my work Notes Dashboard.
@detalikota
Man, why does this guy have to be so perfect?
@sujit1858
Why create tags as a page vs using the tags property?
@salman_babar
just curious why not multiple tags to one note?
@casperx9
Amazing content, Thomas! Thank you.
Maybe you know how to make that Notion consider the end date as the 'due date', instead of the 'start date'? I've seen one of your videos explaining that, but it's from 2020 and i can't find that feature available in that place anymore. Do you know where it could be? Would be amazing if you could guide me on that. Many thanks again!
@estebangodoy386
A must watch for sure
@constancephoto6512
Thank you!
@moutarde87
Thank you Thomas, for such an informative and thorough video. It's packed with useful insights! Could you offer your advice on how to handle nested subfolders—essentially, a good practice for organizing a 'tag within a tag'?
@jeanschoenlaub3314
Awesome Notion masterclass! I'm loving the way you are breaking down each step and showing us how to build a Notes Dashboard. I'm definitely going to use this to help me to better organize my projects in Riples, the social platform for sharing and collaborating on projects.
@NilsLangfeldbigred09
Very nice your live performance thx for all those insigths
@kaudamful
Great tutorial! I have one question: how can I sync data from separate databases?
For example: I have one database in which I have calculated a column.
Now I want to sync in a second database a column with the results from the first database to do further calculation.
Is that possible?
@devakinandan23
53:48
@devakinandan23
37:00 – new page layout
@devakinandan23
41:15 – advance filters
@devakinandan23
1:11:00 – quick links
@followthegood1
I want to use it. But I have no idea of how to feed your template. Plz do a session for how to use your template.
@devakinandan23
58:30 – Tags
@covaloo
Thanks for the great course on Notion. For me, by the way, such a course is a training in English, because it is not my native language 🙂 Speaking speed of the presenter knocks down, but they give advice. Thanks.
@cesileythorson3633
I have been watching your videos, and you have helped me SO MUCH with learning Notion.
Quick Question: How does this ultimate notes database and the tags work alongside the PARA system? I can't seem to work this through myself. Maybe it's super obvious, I'm a noob. Lol
@qiaohaojie
When you mention you can add "Favourite" page as widget on iPhone or Android, do you mean you have to use mobile browser on phone and add the page as shortcut on phone?
@evanwalker3513
I love this, but I just finished the "Building a Second Brain from Scratch" tutorial and I don't know how to integrate this with that workflow…any tips?
@ahmedfarhanraja
What is inbox? Your every template has the inbox. I do not get this concept of Inbox. Can someone explain, please?
@ahmedfarhanraja
Please do explain what tags, favorite, recent etc pages are for? what is there aim?
@harargey9126
I am new to this Notion. I am a beginner and don't even know how it works. some one suggested i need to look in to this product for collaboration. I have a couple of questions
1. Does this product support other language locals ? example Arabic, Japanese, Amharic..etc ..fonts ?
2. do you have a basic beginners course step by ste that i can use to actually start learning ?
@CeibeProyecto
SUGGESTION FOR FLYLIGHTER As a musician (it would change my life)
I already have my playlists to organize my references, but sometimes you save a song in "chorus ideas" and it would be great if you could leave a note developing the idea further ("see how the bass interacts with the…").
A lot of times you just forget. You know the song has a good chorus, but maybe you don't remember everything you thought of the first time.
I've always wanted to be able to make notes on a video that catches my attention and have them there when I go back. IT WOULD BE GREAT if it worked with spotify, but if it worked on YouTube music, I would definitely leave spotify for YouTube music, 100%.
PLEASE MAKE THIS POSSIBLE