This Simple Notes Management System Changed My Life!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 มิ.ย. 2024
- 📝 Make a copy of the Master Notes Database: www.jeffsu.org/my-simple-note...
In this video, I go over my unique approach to managing a master notes database in Notion, whereby only relevant notes are surfaced when I need them, thus ensuring I never lose track of important information.
Specifically, I go over how to create and manage a master notes database in Notion.
We then utilize different database views to surface only relevant notes for your projects.
We rely on integrating Notion’s relation properties to connect your notes to projects, areas, and resources.
THE NO BS PRODUCTIVITY NEWSLETTER 📧
www.jeffsu.org/productivity-p...
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 How I Manage My Notes in Notion
00:35 Overview of Notion Notes System
01:23 My Notes Template in Notion
03:45 My Workflow for Taking Notes
05:42 Tip for Advanced Notion Users
RESOURCES I MENTION IN THE VIDEO
Thomas Frank's Relations tutorial - • Notion Databases - Ful...
Save to Notion extension - • The BEST Way to Captur...
My Daily Agenda Planner for Notion - • A Productive Notion Da...
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👨🏻💻 WHO AM I:
I'm Jeff, a tech professional trying to figure life out. What I do end up figuring out, I share!
PS: Some of the links in this description are affiliate links I get a kickback from and my opinions are my own and may not reflect that of my employer 😇
#notionhq #productivity #notetaking
Do you already have a similar workflow? Let me know if you have any tips for me!
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 How I Manage My Notes in Notion
00:35 Overview of Notion Notes System
01:23 My Notes Template in Notion
03:45 My Workflow for Taking Notes
05:42 Tip for Advanced Notion Users
More videos about Notion and productivity tips, please! I was so excited to watch this video. Thanks Jeff. Keep them coming!
Will do!!!
this is one sushie wizard! knowledge + effectivity + humor. mum must be proud. kudos from vienna.
I hope she is 😁
Jeff, I’ve been following your videos for a year and you’ve been a lifesaver for me. I also organized my notes in the same way, but I never got the idea to create a button for today’s notes! This will really save me a lot of time and prove to me once again that your approach to things is the reason I will never stop following you 😊
Woohooo! I hope you never do as well 😁
Impressive Jeff! You're videos are always enjoyable and I usually leave with something actionable and practical to implement in my own workflow. Going to work toward getting a similarly solid grasp on Notion during 2024!
No problem, let me know how it goes Martin 😁
Pretty cool! I am always impressed by people who have a real handle on Notion. I have at least 100+ templates from other people and see what they can do, but I can't make it click for myself. Perhaps that will be a 2024 goal. I appreciate you and your videos as always!
Hahaha maybe you just don't like Notion the tool?
@@JeffSu *_Shhhh! They'll think we are speaking heresy! _*
Nah, actually I use it enough with a few things. But I am not interesting enough to catalog everything I do either so... I am working on it. I have an OKR board I made, thanks to your video. I will have to see if I start doing relational databases and the like.
My recommendation for your case would be to avoid using templates. Instead, start from scratch and learn the system by watching tutorial videos. Gradually implement the features that work best for you. Don't attempt to create an overly complex system before adding content. It's important to understand your needs before designing a system and workflow. Notion can be as simple or complex as you need it to be.
Agreed!! @@dxvidmr
@@dxvidmr That's the thing: I am even worse trying to develop on my own, so templates are the ones I lean on because they already have somewhat of a structure I can tweak. Still, it is possible Notion just isn't for me - I can agree to that concept. I have like 300+ templates, 1000+ databases, but I can't seem to get something consistent.
Again, working to make it simple.
Thank you for making this video. Always enjoy watching your videos, fun and very beneficial 😁
No problem 😁
Hi Jeff, excited for this video 😀
Me and you both 😁
I totally agree with you on this type of structure - One Notes DB, One Tasks DB, One Projects DB and then use the views to see information relating to those projects, Areas etc - I've spent lots of time teaching my Notion clients the benefits of this.
Exactly! This guy gets it 😁
A simple yet effective notes management system once one masters it. Thank you for sharing such an insightful video
Woohooo I think so too!
Great Video! I started following you as a subscriber and it was one of the best decisions.
Woohooo that's what I love to hear!
Interesting approach - I think Google Keep is organized in the same way, but more straightforward. You can add multiple features to one note and use them as tags to find relevant notes you've made in the past and filter through them (although you might miss out on notes with no labels).
Love Notion too, though - I think I'd use it more if the desktop application opened quicker (they've really sped up the mobile app though!).
I HAVE THE SAME FEEDBACK regarding the opening speed!! I totally know what you mean 😁
Why are you so good man? Love your work, keep it up
Idk you gotta ask my parents why I was born this way 😉
Many many many thanks Jeff MASTA =)
Thanks for all this tips and productivity ideas and steps-by-steps. I always been easily distracted and by following your ideas and guides I have embarked on first few steps to finally organize my life together. I can't offer monetary support currently as I am in-between jobs and looking for a new job, but nevertheless your videos are great and a life changer.
My heartfelt thank you for you.
No problem, I'm already super happy that you found this helpful 😁
This is the first time I am watching a Jeff Su's video, where I have already implemented the idea. However, I have implemented it in Apple Notes instead of Notion. Not just notes, I believe the PARA method also helps effectively organize your work and personal files & folders.
The tool matters less than the workflow you can stick to 😁
Hey Jeff! You cover many major aspects (tools/processes) with which you remain productive during the day. However, I (& I guess many others), face the issue of actually incorporating all these in our life. For example, how your typical day looks like, during which you are actually using these tools? For example, you write any ideas/thoughts in a tool (like a todo app).. but from there at what point in a day do you put that in Notion (while doing a day job), read books, improve skills, make YT videos? etc etc. Can you please do a video on this idea (like how your typical day looks like on say hourly basis (Yes I know you have covered small bits here and there, but would love to see it in a separate video.
I'd recommend adopting 1 tip at a time to avoid feeling overwhelmed!
Why not do a tutorial on Life OS completely (current one)?
The 2024 version is coming out my friend 😁
@@JeffSu let's go 🙌
@@JeffSu When does it come out 🤯
Later this year 😅@@DaHabub
I don’t use Notion mainly because I can’t use it at work, but I really love the speed of this video and your system on organizing things
What do you use for your personal life?
If you are looking for implementing the PARA method for notes at work, you can use One Note.
I have the same PARA section structure in Microsoft One Note. For reference
[0] QUICK NOTES
[1] PROJECTS
[2] AREAS
[3] RESOURCES
[4] ARCHIVE
I add most of my notes in Quick notes section and organize at the start of every week.
Nice!@@vitheshrajan
@@JeffSu "The most powerful drive should always be Drive B, and B stands for your Brian". Direct quote to quote from an instructor where I got a very specialized license from. He has extremely high social status , so I trust this advice for years.
My system:
- I process with my brain and digest a lot before I take efforts to jot down things. I have a decent memory for events without putting them on calendar.
- As work and life get busier now, I need to re-visit my system so I start to learn from yours again.
- Apple Note app, organize Mac folders, Google Drive, GCal, Google Sheet to link documents; or Apple Calendar on my phone are my tools. Anything accessible and not too complicated.
Essentially, I already map out how I want to organize things in my brain before I actually create any folders/system/database. That means I remember quite well where they are, and how I name them. They are not as structured like yours, but it works for me and I can quickly find them out.
It's just a method that works for me, my idea is: you don't have to follow 100% what other people say work for them, but you shall always be open to learn. Once you pick up a new skills/system, test those out, and use what works for you; adjust along the way because reality always changes faster than you think.
@@vitheshrajan Love those and that basically explains how I organize my stuff too. Except I started with [1] instead of [0]. I also colour code them, or emoji classify them.
Example: Green = On Track, Yellow = Work in progress, Red = At risk, Grey = Archived. I don't like "red" to show dangerous/at risk, it gives me anxiety haha, so I reframe it to be "road block", and add 🚧 emoji (actual use case for my 1:1 note with my manager, and she loves it too).
Come on man.... we need more! 😁
I need a set up from beginning to end of the setup!
Other than that great video as usual!
Absolutely. Jeff, if you see this comment:
Please I am a relatively dummy when it comes to Notion. So could you create a step by step breakdown of Notion and how to use it as effectively as you?
You mean the notes database or another page? 😁
I would love to but honestly I think Thomas Frank's videos do such a good job already
@@JeffSu No, you are clearer than Thomas Frank when explaining things. Only thanks to you I finally understood how to adapt Notion to my needs.
Wait really? Wow thanks!@@PaolaBiondi
Hi Jeff, Been watching your videos for a while now and sharing them with my team. Love your content! Thanks for the time and effort you put into your vids :)
On another note, just wondering why you opted for Notion to take notes as opposed to Google Keep and Google Tasks since you fanboy google in your email management, drive storage and docs/sheets/slides hacks. Not a dig, just generally curious because I don't like how Notion doesn't work offline, and Google keep and tasks function offline for me and sync when you're back online. Plus I feel like your setup can be implemented to a degree in Google Keep. Do you use Google Keep? If you do, curious how you use it. Thanks again Jeff :)
I do use Google Keep for work, and Notion for personal notes 😁
Thanks for the useful insight! I’m curious to know how you find Notions search functions when looking for a specific note. I have many notes from 1:1 meetings and I struggle to surface the relevant note unless I know exactly which date the meeting was.
But your notes would be organized by project, and when I go into that project page, there wouldn't be THAT many notes related to that project
Hey Jeff! What do you thing about a video for the integration between Notion and Drive? Two tools that you (and I) are using a lot!
Thank you for your work! Greetings from Italy 🇮🇹
So my philosophy is that there's no need for integration just for the sake of integration. I use Drive and Notion together to the extent that I add a property in Notion for "Shared Drive" and just input the Drive URL. That's all I need for my workflows!
it's so difficult!! omg, but i want to apply it
Jeff, do you keep your Notes Management System databases separate from your daily planner (Productive Notion Daily Planner vid)? Since there are project databases in both does that get confusing? Do you still default to Todoist for quick capture throughout the day and then update notes? All of this is fantastic though, thank you so much for your excellent content!
Yup completely separate databases
Hi Jeff, Thank for the video. Added the template and have watched the video several times. All is clear except the context of when near the midway point you take from the beginning within a project and start by creating a table versus a note? Is there somewhere this element is covered? Thank you for the great ideas. Keep the usefulness flowing!
That was a "view" of the table
coming here after finishing reading Building a Second Brain was perfect
Go to Tiago for the strategy, and come to me for the tactical implementation 😁
Jeff, I'd like to see more of your system. In particular, how you set up your Project and Areas database, your list of Areas, and finally how you handle archives.
I basically use Thomas Frank's structure haha
@@JeffSu Excellent, thank you for the reference!
I have been looking for a tool like this for 6 yrs! Been trying to do this in OneNote, Smartsheet, Word and Excel. All failed and too manual. This is amazing. Any tips for someone managing a large portfolio of projects? Ex. for a PMO? How would you set yours up if you wanted a Portfolio Program and Project view and is there a way to creeate a MASTER RAID under each project and have it roll up into a MASTER RAID Log at each Program? this might be a big ask but wanted to see if this is possible?
It's definitely possible but will take some time to setup in Notion!
Great video, but could a note belong to, for example, an area AND a project at the same time ? It doesn't seems so in the PARA methodology
Yes it could 😁
Hey Jeff! Do you still use Todoist for quick capture? Did you your quick notes from Todoist to Notion in this system?
Yes I still use Todoist for capture! I only organize in Notion 😁
It really looks like rocket science for me. There should be a notion course for evernote users like me.
I think Thomas Frank has a lot!
Thanks for this video ❤ btw i want to see your favourite apps that you use on your phone so make a video on what's on my iPhone *highly recommended please. Btw love from India ❤
"What's on my phone", not "on my iphone".
I might do one in the future, no plans yet though!
Really dumb and simple system, but it really works. I have a very similar system, but more complicated. I simplified my system and it was a HUGE improvement!
Thank you!
You're welcome!!!
Hey Jeff. The [R]esources part of PARA confuses me man. In your video/setup and Thomas Frank's, Resources DB would just seem to then contain rows of areas of interests with no specific end project goal eg. Guitar or Gardening or Tax Evasion. Which also then would seem that it would be achieved with adding tags to the notes to categorise them??. Or TF just combined the two in the same DB.
Whereas in other videos I've seen other people fill the Resources DB with rows of 'notes' which were just ones that are externally sourced with URL eg. Web clippings.
so....given the purist that I am, what is the correct way to have use the R in PARA with Notion?
No need to overthink it. I use Resources like Thomas Frank but if you just wanna add a tag go for it 😁
Newbie to Notion so may be a stupid question.
Can you have an "activity" record that takes on various guises. So it could be a TASK, A NOTE (which could be a project update or outcome of a phone call) in keeping the same record structure I can then closely monitor the time spent on every activity and thus project. The ACTIVITY would be related to a project or resource or area.
You could create it yourself, but I don't recommend having an "all in one" activity since a task and a note are inherently different things
Sounds like your activity would just be a note with a related task, which you'd create from within the note. By having a template that includes the required database view to add tasks on the fly and vice versa from the task to the note. And then you'd have relation fields from the note and task to the project, area and if applicable the resource. That way everything would be inter-connected and as you're taking notes you can add tasks without changing views.
Hi Jeff, and how do you use tasks on this set? What is the difference between tasks and notes? Due date?
Tasks are actions I need to take, and notes are information I want to store
OK, relative Notion newbie question! I'm already using your daily planner template and the project and task databases set up there. How do I connect my existing projects to these projects? Or are they totally separate and I'm missing something?
I'm also wondering how to do this. Did you ever figure it out?
Nope... :(@@unrealdracco
Helo! Thanks for the tips.. how do you link the notes projects database to your daily planner template?
The "new note" button I showed in this video 😁
Question:
What is Jeff Su's intended outcome of having notes in a database?
other than having them in a database.
since there was no actionable metadata in the database.
Elaboration:
What will you not achieve if instead of Notion DB, the notes are word documents and are placed in a project/area/resource folder.
Not sure what your question is. The notes I keep serve as information I can quickly access and review as needed 😂
@@JeffSu so the intended outcome of having notes in a database
as I understood from your reply
is to quickly access notes.
and quickly accessing notes is something a database does quite effectively.
through filtering and grouping of items in the database via different metadata (Notion properties).
however, as you can imagine, the added metadata can easily get too many.
how can one find a good balance between having too many and too little metadata?
does Jeff have a FRAMEWORK FOR DECIDING what metadata to keep and what to discard?
maybe something to look for in your next awesome video?
Is there any way to do something similar to this sorting system organically with Microsoft office suite products? 😭
Certain work entities don’t allow software downloads, as much as I’d love to use Notion
I wish they did this for Microsoft and Google products 😂
@@JeffSu ✌️ thanks
For some projects you use a separate Notion page where you have a filtered view of the notes database?
But you don't use the "Areas", "Projects" and "Resources" databases directly in one view?
What do you mean?
I love this buuuuuttt i am using Obsidian does anybody know if there is a resource about a similar workflow in Obsidian? Thanks so much Jeff for your awesome videos -- such enjoyable and useful content! 🙌
I've never used Obsidian! How is it? Why did you pick it over Notion? Genuinely curious
@JeffSu I switched to Obsidian bc i got fed up with the handwritten notes app that i realized never did a backup eventhough i thought i had it activated and i realized it was not doing it bc i did subscribe to the payed plan (huge panik moment as i realized it bc my ipad stopped working...). So i wanted something that was platform independent and local first that is why i came to obsidian. It has soooo many options to customize which is simultaneously super awesome and can get overwhelming pretty fast. Also since i am using these notes mostly for work (i.e., notes on different projects) i am almost never using links which is one of the main pros for obsidian...
Gotcha!@@rkb4238
@@JeffSu I really like Obsidian because of the non-proprietary files used to store your notes (it's all Markdown). Also, it's ability to link between notes is super useful for creating your very own intranet/second brain. Plus, all the extra and optional functionality from the plug-ins is there if you want to explore further with what Obsidian is capable of!
Every time I've wanted to learn Notion, it always felt so overwhelming, especially for beginners and especially when compared to Obsidian. Your video has inspired me to try again!
It would be great for you to try Obsidian and give us your thoughts. And then you can make another video comparing Notion and Obsidian.
Thanks and keep up the good work!
Gotcha!@@mmmeeelllmmmeeelll
Hey Jeff, quick question ,what's your take on just typing the notes on the project / area page it self, without adding this notes DB. Do you see disadvantages of that?
You might lose track of those notes though, and you won't be able to generate a template page easily every time you take a new note
I stopped using Notion years ago but I was just using it like an old school notetaker with toggable headers being the only differentiating feature.
After seeing what PPV does and seeing videos like yours that shows the power of relational databases, I'm back on the Notion train!
Welcome back!! (what's PPV btw)
@@JeffSu Thanks, Jeff!
It's a systems thinking approach from August Bradley for using multiple databases, called Pipelines, Pillars, and Vaults.
It's basically a way of managing tasks, projects, and goals with personal values and knowledge management.
Interesting!!!@@MiamiHeat872
Could you make a Second brain video on Microsoft loop. Please I'm waiting❤
I don't use Microsoft Loop :(
Hey Jeff, thanks for the video. I tried creating a new project, but I noticed that a template of projects created everything using the button, but I can't make it work.
What do you mean?
I tried creating a new project using the "create" button to use the same template you have, but a blank project was created without any template@@JeffSu
Wait but the template I shared was for notes, not for projects 😅@@Christianrokefeler
Do you get performance issues with the multitude of notes and the relations to other databases?
Nope not at all! Are you??
I know you work at Google and I’m assuming you’re not allowed to take work notes in Notion. I’d love to know how you manage your work notes. I also work at a tech company with restrictions on where notes can be made.
That will be great to get Jeff's insights. I have a similar constraint. Well, I am in another industry... That's why similar.
Great question Veronica! I make do with Google Docs + Google Drive at work. It's not as seamless as Notion, but the idea is the same: Link the Google Docs file to individual meetings
@@JeffSu any trick to keeping track of all the notes?
I organize notes based on the context as opposed to keeping them all in a notes folder and/or title them in a standardized format@@VeronicaSteele
Honestly had no idea what you're saying here.
I use excel to manage my daily To Do. Curious about notion since you and Thomas Frank champion it. I may rewatch or check out other Notion videos to see if I start seeing potential benefit.
Sorry to hear that! Perhaps I didn't explain all that clearly
@@JeffSu Well, a lot of people seemed to understand it, so maybe I'm in the minority.
How do you backup your Notion notes offline?
I don't 😂
I didnt understand how do you made the links. I create a Master Database from zero, i dont have nothing! So I dont know how to link.
I create a page calling personal, to be the Area, and a calling fitness, to be the Project to be linked, but I dont know how to link to the Masterdatabase. I'm trying to put the note "Running" linked to this two. In your video, when you show a exemple in 2:00, you open the Kick-off meeting, that have properties, and link to the project Secret Workshop Project, that have properties too, so you can link. But when I start a page, don't have properties! I'm lost!
i know you give the templete but i want to learn how to make it!
I might do a course on this soon!
Hi Jeff,
I've been asking you for a long time. I sincerely ask you to share the After Effects preset or background animation your editor uses for video editing.
Nothing looks interesting after looking at the editing in your video.
Please, I request you.
You can find everything I use here: www.jeffsu.org/gear/
@@JeffSu I have visited this website before. But I am looking for that dotted floating background. I have also seen it in MKBHD's video background.
I humbly request you to please how you or your video editor do that. Please 🥺
I literally talk about MotionVFX here: www.jeffsu.org/creator-essentials/
@@JeffSu love you fam. I appreciate you for replying to every single comment.
Can you please explain how to add the buttons to new templates on quick capture? Total neophyte when it comes to Notion
/button
My guy thank you for always looking to reply on comments like mine, respect
Sure no problem! @@user-cg4ew3it1b
Very intersting, i kinda struggle because I save ressources (links, articles and stuff) in a database (library) and i take note on them in another which is kinda messy (and take a lot of action) so your notes is a combination of my "library" and "notes" DB
Genuinely curious: Why don't you combine the two and create a new property to filter them?
@@JeffSu well one of the reason was to track content to store things before "consuming it".
The other one was to have in the library / content db small entries so their title / subject would be easier to look for later on.
And this allows me to link "ressources/content" to several project / notes
But this would clearly simplify my notion structure
for me honest, i want a master database to tasks, to my projects! i dont have to organize so many notes, but i have to organized my tasks! is the same process? linking the tasks to projects, areas, and resources? i want to know how do you do to organize your tasks! please make a video about it!
Will do!
Hi Jeff how to do this
LifeOS / Projects DB / Create Jeff at 5:55 ? Thank
/breadcrumb
It’s a great video, but it fails in one important area: the ability of a note to be referenced from more than one project at the same time. This is where tags would come in. I’m not sure if notion supports them without creating a complete system to manage them, But I think they would be helpful in getting out of the mindset of a folder-like approach, which this is.
Oh the notes can be referenced by more than 1 project at a time though 😂
How does your system different from Thomas Frank Ultimate brain?
It's exactly the same, I took inspiration from him!
Love this video! You kinda lost me on the advanced tip #4. Can you dumb that down for me a tid bit? sorry..
You might need to search for "self-referential filter for Notion" 😅
I still don't understand the logic behind the Areas / Ressources / Archive for Notion. A
lright, Projects could be located in Areas, that's fine. Tasks could be in Projects and in Areas, okay.
In Resources you maybe can have some useful templates or some information that you can include in different Areas or Projects.
1. BUT how do you organize Areas and change them later if one specific Area gets too big in your life and you need to expand it?
2. Do I need to create "sub-areas"? If so, how do I move/divide projects and tasks from the former "Big Area"?
Another example, for instance, I have "Work" and "Freelance" Areas. In both of them I could have some projects and random tasks related to my current work.
But what to do if in 1 year I completely changed my job or career path.
So now I work in another company and all the projects and tasks related to "Work" Area are not relevant anymore o_O.
3. Do I have to remove all projects from here and archive them?
4. Or do Areas need to be much more specific?
For example, you never know how long you will be working in one place, so it makes sense to create not a "Work" area, but a "Work" area: Company X". That way, if you change jobs, you can just archive "Work": Company X" workspace and start a new "Work: Company Y" area.
Would be grateful if someone can help me here and discuss it.
Great questions! I honestly don't overthink it. Usually I create 1 area and it doesn't change (e.g. Finances, Health, Apartment, etc.)
0:59
Did you find this part interesting in particular? 😁
Hi 📜
Hello 😁
Bro are you from china?
I'm from Hong Kong 😁
I think he is
I’m still not sold on notion. And I don’t want to pay another subscription.
I can do the same thing on Apple notes
1. The app itself doesn't matter, so you should use whatever app you like 😁
2. Notion is free 😂
I have seen a few times people mention apple notes, but I didn’t think apple notes could do a database. Are you using smart folders with filters? Im trying to learn more about its capabilities.