0:05 my studio has a metal roof hi it's Simon
0:07 today I'm going to show you busy people
0:09 and notion newbies out there how to get
0:12 started in notion quickly and easily so
0:14 that you can Fast Track that steep
0:16 learning curve and harness the power of
0:19 notion to organize your life a little
0:21 more easily now let me tell you as a
0:23 notion Ambassador I get a lot of
0:25 messages from people saying that they
0:27 want a try notion to escape that
0:29 overload and get organized but that
0:31 learn in notion itself is too
0:33 overwhelming when you start well I
0:36 totally hear you it can feel complex and
0:39 time consuming to get going well this
0:41 video is my answer to that problem by
0:43 the end of it you will have fast-tracked
0:45 the essential learning that unlocks the
0:48 key things in notion and built yourself
0:50 some simple and Powerful tools you can
0:52 use today now I've split this into three
0:55 areas getting started using databases
0:58 for task projects notes and all the rest
1:00 and finally the power of C customizing
1:04 from templates for your
1:06 needs and it's raining a lot can you
1:08 hear that that's the most rain I've seen
1:11 in so long it was the aesthetic
1:14 Simplicity of notion that Drew me to it
1:16 in the first place and so if you can
1:19 learn the basics formatting and just
1:21 creating things in it that will go a
1:23 long way to creating a workspace that
1:25 you want to spend time in so these are
1:27 the real keys to it that you should
1:30 focus on when you first get started so
1:31 the first thing you want to do is open a
1:34 free account and create a new page so if
1:37 you see in your menu here you can go new
1:39 page just start there now obviously you
1:41 can see I've built loads of stuff but we
1:42 don't need to worry about that for now
1:46 and the first thing I would do is play
1:49 so in this space if you type forward
1:52 slash you will see options forward slash
1:55 anything for some good Aesthetics to
1:57 start you might want to play with
2:00 headings so you can do this by going
2:04 H1 I'm putting in a heading you can
2:08 do SL divider to create divisions one of
2:12 my favorites is to do for slash call and
2:14 create two columns and every single
2:18 block can be moved by just doing this
2:19 other things you might like to play with
2:21 with this if you scroll down you can see
2:24 everything in there you might want to do
2:27 a bulleted list quotes various toggle
2:29 lists toggle lists are actually really
2:33 good cuz you can place things within and
2:35 collapse them so in my simplified notion
2:38 template I have actually done this to
2:40 reveal different pages and it gets
2:43 really exciting really quickly but when
2:46 you're playing one of my favorites is a
2:48 call out this is great for Aesthetics CU
2:51 you're able to set select an icon uh or
2:56 Emoji into it and create a menu page and
2:58 within a callout block you can then drop
3:00 another block and my favorite thing to
3:03 know about for navigation within notion
3:06 on a page is to do at and you can at
3:08 mention any person page whatever you
3:10 want to do so for example if I wanted it
3:13 to be my journal page that I created I
3:16 can find my journal and drop a link in
3:18 and then if I click it it'll jump
3:20 straight to that page every block can be
3:22 edited by clicking here you can select
3:26 things like colors and you can do things
3:29 like turn into and you can change one thing
3:30 thing
3:33 into another another way to do that is
3:35 to do forward SLT turn and you can
3:38 change whatever you want it to be into
3:41 different things pretty cool now let's
3:43 not forget that notion is a an aesthetic
3:47 space make sure you add an icon either a
3:49 customized one like my notion icon pack
3:52 that you can download or an icon that
3:55 exists within notion by selecting your
3:59 color of choice and dropping in an icon
4:01 and of course add a cover so that you
4:03 can click here this is really cool if
4:05 you go to unsplash and search for stuff
4:08 you can do whatever you like for
4:11 example pain the final trick for
4:13 formatting is to remember that you can
4:15 click in this top corner and customize
4:17 the page but one of the best things to
4:19 do is go to full width and it just gives
4:23 you a lot more space to play and create
4:25 different views and Designs so I might
4:28 quickly turn this into my homepage
4:44 and there's a great example of how
4:47 quickly you can get used to editing and
4:53 work so this all looks good but without
4:54 trying out the wonderfully creative
4:58 world of databases you'll always be
5:01 stuck on using notion as a set of simple
5:05 documents so let's add a database using
5:09 SL dat and you can either create a full
5:12 page that will sit as a new page within
5:16 your home screen so this might be tasks
5:18 database and maybe
5:20 I call
5:24 this system databases or you can set up
5:28 your database as a SL inline database
5:30 and you will just see it turn up on the
5:33 page now both are the same thing my
5:35 favorite approach is to build a database
5:37 down here and then create views of them
5:39 which will come to in a moment but for
5:40 now let's take a little look at our tasks
5:42 tasks
5:45 database now first of all with databases
5:47 let's not get overwhelmed they can seem
5:49 like a lot but you can actually start
5:52 really simply in databases you can pick
5:54 a property type and just add new
5:56 properties and build what you like so I
5:58 can click on this button it will bring
6:00 up the properties list and these are all
6:02 the options that we've got and you've
6:05 even got things like AI options within
6:07 notion let's save that for another day
6:10 so for my tasks database I would like to
6:11 add a
6:13 status I'm going to drop that in here
6:16 for the task I would like this one to be daily
6:18 daily
6:21 priority and I can edit the property and
6:24 I can add options within it here so for
6:31 example I might want to do top of mind
6:34 morning evening and you can order these
6:36 tags so that they
6:39 order as you want
6:41 them pretty simple so there's my daily
6:43 priority when I click in here I can say
6:46 I want it to be top of mind uh now if I
6:49 wanted to change what the property is I
6:51 can click edit property and I can make
6:54 this a for example a select rather than
6:55 a multi select and that means I can only
6:57 pick one which is quite good for that
6:59 and for my task database I'm going to
7:03 change this to be task I would like to
7:05 also add a date property another place
7:07 you can do this is clicking into here
7:09 and selecting properties and add a new
7:11 property and I would like to add a date
7:14 property and I'm going to call that due
7:18 date when I want to do the task and that
7:20 opens up no's calendar system let's add
7:22 one more property cuz my favorite
7:26 feature in this is also to add a button
7:29 and this button can be something like this
7:30 this
7:33 completed and when the button is clicked
7:36 I can add an action edit the status
7:39 property to be
7:43 done so when I click this it marks it is
7:46 done so for example I can set my due
7:49 dates of when I want to do things and
7:52 I'll know when they're coming up so
7:54 there's a task database really simply
7:56 created but you might want to go a bit
7:58 further and use these two buttons here
8:00 and the power of the buttons in a
8:02 database is that they will allow you to
8:04 sort the order of how you view something
8:07 and also filter things so for example I
8:11 can set my sort by due
8:14 date and if I change this one to this
8:15 you'll see that it's at the top of the
8:17 list that's quite nice I might want to
8:20 filter and a really great way to filter
8:23 a database view would be to select
8:27 filter select by status and where status
8:30 is not complete
8:31 and that means that when I Mark
8:33 something is complete it disappears from
8:37 The View command Zed undo it and see it
8:39 again so filters and sorts are really
8:42 fantastic and really easy to use and as
8:44 you start to play with databases you'll
8:45 start to see there are loads of other
8:47 great things like group where you might
8:50 want to group by the due date and then
8:52 you can see things in these little drop-
8:55 down menus of today and so on and so
8:58 forth select none and it will go back so
9:00 loads of ways to play with it but the
9:02 final thing you need to know about
9:06 databases is to create views so here I'm
9:08 going to do a
9:12 heading and I'm going to call this
9:15 inbox and here if I do forward slash
9:19 viiew I can select a view of a database
9:21 now with this it allows you to create
9:24 focused views of data in each database
9:26 without affecting the original it's
9:28 great to make something like an inbox so
9:31 I'm going to s SE a table View and
9:33 databases can be viewed in loads of
9:34 different types of views and then it
9:36 will bring up this database View and it
9:38 says I need to select a source I'm going
9:40 to select my task
9:43 database and there it is now if I rename this
9:45 this
9:49 as tasks to process I can change the
9:52 icon give it a little inbox tray I've
9:55 got my source and here if I now change
9:57 the filter that we copied from the
9:59 previous one I can change change the
10:02 filter to be only stuff that is not
10:04 started so if I turn this one into in
10:08 progress it disappears from the inbox
10:10 pretty cool right and if I want to see
10:13 today's tasks I just repeat the same
10:16 job today's
10:18 tasks for SL
10:21 view table view I'm going to select the task
10:22 task
10:25 database and this one I'm going to
10:30 call this week add the logo and and here
10:32 I can filter this one and we can even
10:36 use things like Advanced filters and go
10:41 where status is not done
10:45 and where due date is relative today to
10:48 today this week there you go look at
10:50 that we've got a filtered view of this
10:52 week's tasks and this is how quickly you
10:55 can create views using databases so that
10:58 is database Basics but they get really
11:01 cool when you start to use relations the
11:03 single best feature of them in my
11:04 opinion so let me show you how easy it
11:06 is to create a relation in about 2
11:09 minutes and you'll have a tasks and
11:11 projects management system so first I
11:13 want to create myself a projects
11:15 database I can do that really simply I'm
11:17 going to go here and do for/ database
11:19 you kind of type what you want I want a
11:21 full page I'm going to go in and call it my
11:23 my projects
11:29 database let's just customize it
11:32 I'm keeping mine clean and simple and
11:34 here I'm going to name it as
11:37 project we probably want to change this
11:43 one into a let's say uh type let's make
11:45 this one a
11:49 date and we'll call this start and end
11:50 and why don't we create oursel a status
11:53 for this as well for projects but with
11:55 this one when it says in progress I'm
12:00 going to edit that to say live
12:03 just an idea and done that works really
12:05 nicely and you can add multiple options
12:07 within it so you might want when you've
12:09 got in progress to have live and you
12:11 might want to have
12:14 planning for example so there's our
12:15 project database now the cool thing
12:17 about this is I can now create other
12:20 views within a database and I'm going to
12:23 create a timeline
12:25 view so when I go to my Project's main
12:28 View and go let's call it my side hustle
12:30 I'm going to set an end date so I want
12:34 it to start on the 1st of April I'm
12:36 going to add an end date and I want it
12:39 to end end of June so when I go to the
12:42 timeline I can now see my side hustle in
12:44 that view and within views you always
12:47 have the option to show what properties
12:49 you want to show so click the properties
12:52 and you can show the status there you go
12:56 a timeline view again rename it so we've
12:58 got a really simple projects page so if
13:00 we now go back home I'm going to open
13:03 this up and in this side I'm going to do
13:07 slash View and I'm going to select a
13:11 gallery view of my Project's database I
13:13 want a new empty
13:16 View and there are my projects again I
13:18 can within this view click on the menu
13:21 show the properties that I want to show
13:23 can show the start and end date there as
13:25 well there you go you get the idea now
13:28 we want to link these up so I'm going to
13:29 also bring in here
13:31 the Project's database and just bring
13:34 the main view here so we have it now for
13:36 the co bit I want to link the two
13:38 together and this is where real change
13:40 can happen in notion so I'm going to add
13:42 a new property and we're going to go
13:46 down to relation select relation and I
13:49 want to relate the project database to
13:51 the tasks database and it will bring up
13:55 this view if I click this it will show
13:58 the tasks and projects I'm going to name this
13:59 this
14:03 related tasks in the task database I'm
14:07 going to call it related projects and
14:09 add the relation don't be overwhelmed
14:12 cuz it gets really good from here now
14:14 now that we've done that we have related
14:16 tasks here and in our task view related
14:19 projects it means that meeting with an
14:22 editor I can click on related projects and
14:23 and
14:26 select the project I want to link it to
14:28 now my favorite thing to do with a task
14:30 and project manager is to filter the
14:33 inbox this filter I'm going to turn it
14:35 into an advanced filter I can add a
14:40 filter rule where related
14:44 project is empty and that means that
14:55 project it disappears from the system
14:59 and there I'll be able to see my tasks
15:03 only down here but this time related to
15:06 the project that is the power of a
15:08 relational database you can mess around
15:10 with your formatting as much as you like
15:13 here in my Essential notion task manager
15:15 I've done just that I've got a week view
15:18 I've got a menu where I can look into my
15:21 projects dashboard and see my projects
15:23 there's loads you can do so if you want
15:25 to go further with this or just see
15:27 what's possible this is a free notion
15:30 template download that you can grab on
15:32 better cre.com sign up to the mailing
15:34 list and you'll receive this you can
15:37 duplicate that template into your
15:39 workspace and see what's possible or
15:41 just use it so that's formatting
15:44 shortcuts and basic database functions
15:47 but notion is pretty boring if we just
15:48 stop at a to-do list I would say that
15:51 the real power of notion is in the world
15:54 of templates where you can go down to
15:56 the bottom of the side menu select
15:59 templates and there are hundreds of
16:02 great options for you to duplicate into
16:05 your workspace and use it as a basis for
16:07 building in notion there are Endless
16:10 Options particularly if you search under
16:12 particular areas there's a reading list
16:15 there's a journal there's loads of
16:18 things blog posts mood boards trip
16:20 planners from here we can simply pick
16:25 one we want to use and get the template
16:29 I can add it to a space there it is and
16:35 home there's the page I can even move it
16:38 up into my main
16:41 menu and I can click through to it edit
16:43 it as I want to see it so I might want
16:46 to now see a table View and create that
16:49 improve it as I want I can go back to my
16:52 home this is a great way to drop it as a
16:54 database down the bottom and then get a
16:58 view of it do view a list View and let's
17:01 find the gy Jour I might move my
17:03 projects underneath here maybe I want my system
17:04 system
17:06 databases on this
17:09 side that's how easy it is to drop in
17:12 readymade elements and edit them to your
17:14 needs but you can go a step further we
17:17 click back into here and go down to
17:19 templates you can also find more
17:22 templates in the notion templates
17:23 gallery and there are loads of great
17:26 examples let's have a look for
17:29 a resonance calendar that's
17:33 abil's template love it and you can
17:35 simply click through to
17:38 it there it is I can see it and if I
17:41 want to duplicate it I can click
17:43 duplicate select the workspace I want it
17:50 into and it is as easy as that to add it
17:53 to your system I can drop it into my
17:57 home click in and maybe with this
18:00 resonance calendar I want to rename this
18:03 my notes and clippings and Away you go
18:04 you have
18:07 yourself your notes and clippings and
18:10 that is the power of templates to make
18:12 your own space exactly as you want it
18:14 now the final trick to really Master
18:17 notion is to use database templates
18:20 where you can create a default page
18:21 which will give you the view that you
18:24 want and they will essentially turn a
18:27 page into a focused view so that you
18:29 don't have to start from scratch every
18:31 time but for that I recommend jumping
18:33 into my task and project builds where
18:35 you can learn all the powerful features
18:38 of notion customization creating what
18:41 has come to be known as a digital second
18:43 brain a place to hold and organize your
18:45 ideas so that you can focus on taking
18:47 some action with a little play in
18:49 practice you'll be inventing and
18:51 Building Systems tailored to you that
18:54 make life so much easier and for those
18:55 of you thinking but why spend all that
18:57 time building a productivity setup
18:59 rather than just doing the work work
19:01 well trust me honestly I found a few
19:04 days or hours building something here
19:06 can transform the efficiency when you
19:09 come to just use it otherwise you could
19:11 just learn the basics on this video and
19:13 LeapFrog the build process by
19:15 downloading one of my readymade
19:18 templates that use these principles and
19:20 you can go straight past the designing
19:22 cuz I've done it for you ah so we've
19:24 learned how to start using notion for
19:26 getting organized but if you don't
19:27 understand the thinking and strategies
19:29 behind this kind of personal
19:31 organization then the tools are totally
19:33 useless so I recommend watching this
19:34 video next where I share the
19:36 productivity strategies that have had
19:39 the biggest impact on my life and helped
19:41 me build a successful business from
19:43 scratch from home it would be awesome if
19:45 you subscribed amazing if you left a
19:48 like and a comment and well I'd better
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