Here's how I use Notion to stay on top of life

As a business owner, journalist, and man of many varied interests, I realized the importance of life-organization tools early on. I was an early adopter of Evernote before I dabbled in OneNote and even hacked together my own web-based solutions. That’s before I discovered Notion — a single tool that’s become central to managing everything from my businesses to chores, writing assignments, reading lists, and even my thoughts.

Here’s how I stay on top of life thanks to Notion.

Notion can be anything you want

Like the Room of Requirement from Harry Potter, Notion is a tool that can be as simple as a notepad or as complex as a fully functional client resource management system, complete with automations and AI-driven workflows.

As a proponent of work-life balance, I opted to segregate Notion into different workspaces based on the roles I play. My work as a journalist gets a specific workspace while my business gets another, and then there’s one for my personal growth and life. You can have as many workspaces as you want, and if you run shared team spaces for coordinating across businesses, you can even have a workspace to manage teams across workspaces. It’s a blank canvas to mold as you wish.

When I first started using Notion, I made the rookie mistake of dumping everything — notes, links, sheets — on one page. Getting the most out of Notion requires deliberate action and thought before you start creating a workspace best suited to your needs.

Here’s an example. There are many ways to create a to-do list for chores. Notion will let you create a standard checklist for chores. It’ll also let you create a database of chores with tags for delegating responsibilities, priority orders, or any other filter and tag you want to apply to it. You can even apply actions on those databases. So if you’ve ever wanted to quantify your efficiency level in ordering groceries before you run out, you can. But, predictably, that can lead to over-complication.

To get around that problem, I make use of templates. And there’s no dearth of free or paid options. Searching for a to-do list will present you with dozens of well-designed templates to suit any need.

Another feature that I make copious use of is the Kanban board. While predominantly useful for keeping an eye on business goals and roadmaps, it’s also been very useful for tracking long-term home projects. For example, I’ve been planning out a redo of my living room and the Notion board is incredibly useful for tracking vendors, delivery timelines, and more.

But it isn’t just productivity. Notion is very handy for keeping track of pretty much anything. I use a personal finance template to keep tabs on cash inflow and outflow. It’s replaced my old money tracking app and Excel sheet for good reason — my data isn’t bound to a file, app, or even a single page. While I have a page detailing business expenses, I can just as easily draw up a chart on a dashboard I’ve created for my partners and employees. There’s a lot of flexibility.

I’m a compulsive consumer of horror and science fiction and keep tabs on interesting new reads. Previously, I’d just add them to my Amazon Wishlist and forget about them. Now, I’ve got a dedicated reading page in my Notion workspace. Moreover, it can be configured with as little or as much information as you want.

While I initially dabbled with the idea of a virtual library of books to read, complete with covers, I found it unnecessary for my use case. Enter yet another database. It gives me an overview of every book I want to read, lets me tag them by reading status, and filters out books I’ve already read. This database feeds into my personal dashboard where I can easily glance at the next book on my reading list. Pretty cool.

I’m even using it as a replacement for Pocket with the accompanying Web Clipper. If I come across an interesting article in Chrome, I just tap the button, and it’ll automatically save the article. As someone who is into Soviet modernist architecture, I keep an eye out for interesting places and monuments when I’m traveling. That’s just one use case, but filing it under travel and country makes it much easier to revisit. I can even tag pages by interest and find them in one spot.

Like I said, the possibilities are endless, and just today I came across a Notion plugin that can tap into your Spotify account and create a database of every song you’ve ever listened to. It’s like Last.FM, but infinitely flexible as you can take action on that data and build things like your own Spotify Wrapped or do deeper analysis. Linking a mood journal with the kind of music you’ve been listening to? Yup, it’s doable.

The advantage of building a second brain in Notion is that the tool itself is constantly evolving to suit varied needs. While it was previously possible to create forms using third-party plugins, Notion recently announced a built-in form tool. Like Google Forms, it creates a database of responses. However, the advantage here is that I can use those responses across my entire workspace instead of them being locked in a spreadsheet.

I’m already brainstorming ways to use it for my business with customer surveys being a key use case. Meanwhile, while I’ve long since gravitated to professional invoice management software, some templates let you generate invoices, track them, and even output PDF copies — perfect for freelancers or anyone just starting out.

A very cool use of Notion is the ability to publish any page and sub-page to the internet. You can even use it as a rudimentary website if you so choose. Splurge for the premium plan and you can even have a custom domain. But I digress.

Alongside all the other use cases I’ve talked about, Notion is also the dumping ground for my home knowledge base. Password for my smart washing machine? Check. How to access photo backups? Check. What to do if my rather complicated Wi-Fi network goes down? Double check. This is exposed to the internet using the aforementioned feature and my family and close friends have access to it. It saves me being the troubleshooter of the group and has come in handy while I’ve been traveling.

Between the handy templates and web-publishing capabilities, you can even create group travel pages or perhaps a page with details for a house party, complete with links for Google Maps, directions, and more, and share it with a group. It really is just limited by your imagination.

Once you get used to it, there’s no going back

Could a lot of what I’ve talked about be done with a notepad, Google Sheets, or even just keeping it in memory? Sure. However, using Notion as a second brain to offload dates, tasks, and activities makes me more effective. You don’t have to commit to Notion, either. There’s no dearth of productivity enhancement apps ranging from Obsidian to Anytype. However, just keep in mind that all of these do have a somewhat steep learning curve unless you’re a very basic user.

However, the fact of the matter is that ever since I dived into the world of life organisation tools like Notion, I no longer have to think hard about my to-do, to-read, or travel-to list. I can just glance at names, places, or dates. A few hours of effective organization hasn’t just made me more productive and organized, but calmer as well. That’s priceless.