I believed I used to be finished with Notion till I attempted constructing my total information system in it

After beginning with Notion years in the past, I attempted a number of different information administration apps as a result of it didn’t fairly meet my wants — or so I believed. After building my own local knowledge system in Trillium, it ticked all of the containers however one: I couldn’t simply entry it throughout gadgets, which was a major downside for me. So I circled again to Notion and constructed a brand new information base from scratch, leading to a system I’m lastly pleased with.

The homepage is my management heart

The first web page I created wasn’t one other database; it was a dashboard

Instead of a sidebar stuffed with hyperlinks, I constructed a homepage that not solely provides me entry to the 5 areas I take advantage of most, but additionally encourages me to consider the construction of my day. The 5 areas are:

• Projects for lively work
• Inbox for fast concept seize
• Library for reference materials
• Learning for talent growth
• Life for private administration

The precept behind that is that each concept ought to have an apparent vacation spot. This easy idea solves one of many largest points I face with note-taking generally: my concepts are likely to become scattered and disorganized quickly. This single navigation web page retains me on observe and makes your complete workspace really feel purposeful as an alternative of overwhelming.

Every venture is a reside dashboard

The largest breakthrough got here from relational databases

This is the place issues obtained attention-grabbing. Instead of making separate job lists for each venture, I constructed one grasp Tasks database and linked it to a Projects database. Every new venture I begin comes from a single template, and its job listing robotically filters to indicate solely the duties that belong to that venture.

That means my Personal HQ, Language School, Sailing School, and journey initiatives all have their very own dashboards with out duplicating any data. Each venture consists of:

• A Today’s Focus guidelines
• A reside job database
• Research notes
• Documents
• Freeform venture notes

The setup course of was initially a bit of fiddly, however as soon as I obtained the dangle of it and began to get again into utilizing Notion, the whole lot shortly fell into place. This step was essential as a result of as soon as I understood relations, I ended considering of Notion pages as paperwork and began considering of them as dynamic workspaces.

I constructed a library that’s pleasing to browse

I’m wanting ahead to having an organized place the place I can file media

I accumulate books, articles, PDFs, and tutorials, however discovering them once more is one other story. I made a decision to construct a visible library to squirrel this away for later, or to shortly reference for lively initiatives. I initially gave each useful resource a canopy picture, matter, sort, score, and studying standing. Switching between Table and Gallery views turns the identical database into both a spreadsheet or a bookshelf. I can now immediately filter for:

• Books
• Videos
• Financial sources
• Productivity articles
• Audio engineering references

This new system feels a lot nearer to browsing a personal media collection than looking by way of folders, and I hope it should assist increase my productiveness going ahead.

I added a studying hub as a venture

I needed a hub that tracks long-term progress as an alternative of one other to-do listing

This subsequent part was a trial venture to see if I can’t solely be extra proactive in studying, however really doc enchancment and see the place I’m missing. Rather than treating studying as one other guidelines, I created a Learning Hub with a devoted Skill Tracker. Each talent has a class, progress proportion, and long-term aim. These expertise at present embody:

• Notion mastery
• search engine marketing & AEO
• Prompt engineering
• Figma design
• French
• Audio engineering
• Guitar

I hope seeing my progress visually might be motivating, and this part separates private growth from the day-to-day work coated by different sections.

The inbox is arguably essentially the most helpful half

For the ultimate piece of the puzzle, the only web page makes the system stick

While my different note-taking apps are admittedly disorganized, having a random workspace felt like one thing that I’ll miss in relation to jotting down fast concepts. So I created a web page referred to as Inbox, which is intentionally messy. Whenever I’ve an article concept, uncover a helpful web site, or consider a commerce idea, it goes there first.

Once I discover the time to overview it, the whole lot will get moved into its correct place, both in Projects, Library, Learning, or Life. This manner, I really feel much less strain to enter the whole lot completely on the go, and I can replace my information system at any time when I’ve time. This makes me much more prone to seize concepts earlier than they disappear from reminiscence.

Why I got here again to Notion

My Notion information system continues to be a piece in progress, and that’s precisely the purpose. I’ll hold refining it, including new initiatives, constructing new programs, and enhancing its UI so long as I take advantage of it. Still, this has been a great place to begin: relatively than a set of disconnected pages, the whole lot is organized in a manner that conjures up me to maintain shifting ahead.

Once my homepage, initiatives, duties, library, and studying hub all grew to become relational, Notion stopped feeling like a notes app and began feeling like a real working system for my work and life. It seems I wasn’t finished with Notion; I merely hadn’t constructed the suitable workspace but.