Why You Need To Start Taking Digital Notes - 1 Year Using Notion
Introduction
Around March 2019 I started using Notion (an awesome note-taking application); and getting interested in the concept of building a second brain and personal knowledge management (which is simply storing all the things you want to remember, learn, or would like to have reference to at some point; in digital note form). And now it has been about 1 and half years of using Notion and really getting into digital note-taking; and it has positively impacted my life in so many ways.
Note-Taking Apps Vs Traditional Note-Taking Apps
In reality, we all do digital note-taking in one form or another. But, the majority of people use tools such as Microsoft word or google docs for example, and are missing out on this awesome world and mind blowing features that some of these other note-taking apps have.
As a someone that uses Notion for their note-taking; I have met a lot of people online that use Notion for a variety of things. But, I have only met one or two people in real life that use Notion, and there are so many features these tools have that loads of people are missing out on; whether your a student, working professional, creator, entrepreneur. Essentially if your taking notes; you could probably use tools like Notion.
What's the difference?
So, you might be asking; what exactly is difference between these note-taking apps and traditional note-taking apps, why should I use an app like Notion? Well, I am about to answer that and it might just change your life like it changed mine.
We have traditional note-taking tools. Most commonly known are tools such as Google Docs and Microsoft word.
And these type of applications have a structure like this:
You have a folder, and in that folder, you can have more folders, and in those folders, you can have more folders or documents etc. Quite self-explanatory and something we probably already know. And all those notes are individual documents. Meaning if you want to open another document; your going to have to wait for it to open; and it's not that fast and fluent.
Then we have note-taking apps; such as Notion, Evernote, Bear, Obsidian, One-Note; and the big difference here is that we can switch notes in instantly and all your notes are based inside of one application.
And they have this type of hierarchical structure; where you can essentially have pages inside of pages, inside of pages, inside of pages and so on.
For example in Notion, for university; I have this university page, and inside of that I have a variety of pages for the different things I am involved in at university, and if we take one for example such as my note-taking hub; inside that we have pages for different classes and inside those pages, we have more pages for the notes for those classes.
Overview of how digital note-taking changed my life
Using Notion and having a hub where I can organise all the different areas of my life; from university to the things I am trying to learn; has really had a massive impact for me. It has built structure into my life and let me able to clearly see all the things that I am involved in and working on.
I have used Notion for so many things and it is has been so helpful. From planning my days, to writing scripts, as well as having a knowledge hub for the things I am learning or want to have access to at some point or reference frequently. As well as, having checklists for my projects and working in a team.
The Start & Using Notion
The first time I came across the app Notion and the concept of building a second brain was is one of Ali Abdaal's email newsletter issue's in March 2019, and after I read it; I ended up reading some of Tiago Forte's blog posts, downloading Notion, and consuming a load of content about how to use Notion; and got really interested in personal knowledge management.
So from then, I started to set up my workspace in Notion. There was a lot of learning, a lot of consuming content and seeing lots of other people's Notion setups.
There has been so many changes to my setup in Notion in the 1 and half years of using Notion. And it is at a point where I am pretty happy with my workspace. There will most likely be more changes; as I am always tweaking things, also as I learn more things about the app and consume more content about it; things are bound to change.
I am also at a point, where I use Notion for the majority of my writing and note-taking. Last year I actually used One-Note for my notes at university; and this year I started using Notion and it is so much better!
Once you start using Notion, you will start to come across the features which are a bit more complicated for beginners, such as using things such as databases, and applying filters and sorting and creating linked databases. If you want to find out more about this and Notion; you can check out some videos I have made about Notion on YouTube here.
Some caveats to note about my use of Notion: Sometimes I still use tools such as google docs or word; such as when working on group projects for university. As everyone knows how to use these tools; it makes everything much easier, and for some things it just not possible to use Notion such as putting together presentations. Also, I use my hard drive on my computer/google drive to store files from classes such as PowerPoint slides and other resources for classes; this is because I feel that is better suited in my opinion; instead of attaching every related document to said note.
In addition, at this moment in time, I don't currently use Notion for essay writing; I use word. I think I am going to give essay writing a go in Notion; I can definitely see the benefits of using it for this. Just thought I would point out that I have not used it for that yet.
Impact & Recommendations
Digital note-taking and using Notion has created more structure into my life; and has allowed me to visually see the different things I am doing and be able to manage them. Yes, being able to manage doing multiple things does come down to effective time management; but, using Notion has allowed me to manage the projects I am working on more effectively.
For anyone getting started using Notion or any digital note-taking tool; I would say; don't think you need to have the perfect setup straight away. Otherwise you might spend so much time creating the structure of what you are going to use instead of actually using it.
Thanks for reading,
Alexandro
[Researched & Written by Alexandro Theodorou]