notion in the wild 🌿💻 • issue #1
So, I’ve been thinking about how most of the Notion content online is all tech bro, productivity beast, yadda yadda. Like, yeah Notion does improve your productivity. But you also don’t have to take your productivity so seriously either.
All these super complicated builds that people swear improve productivity 100000% makes Notion feel so out of my league sometimes. Even as a Notion coach!
And don’t get me started on all the second brains, and Notion OS’s for a myriad of things. They’re so boring and so inflexible for my AuDHD brain that craves that sweet, sweet dopamine.
Welcome to my Notion in the Wild series!
I’m gonna showcase how 5 regular degular people use Notion, and also talk you through the Notion features they’ve used to achieve what they’ve done.
So grab a tea (I’m having chamomile while I write this), your notebook, and cozy up with me!
Author Katerina Dennison is getting started with Notion, using it to basically plan their whole life
You can see they have spaces to plan their workouts, budgets, and they even have a dream log in there!
I love that Katerina is making their Notion space their own by using images (/image), columns (/col), and coloured header blocks (/heading2 with a coloured background). This is a gorgeous space that also looks simple and functional!
Ryan is using Notion to schedule out their videos and video scripts
Databases are a great place to host this kind of info in, and you can see they have tags properties to keep their posts organized by week and year.
I also peep a progress formula property in the second photo, so I imagine Ryan is using the checkboxes to help determine when things are finished/ready, and that contributes towards the progress.
I’m not very good at formulas, so here’s a link to making your own progress bar in Notion (formula included!).
It seems like Ryan might be releasing this as a template soon 👀 so I’ll keep my eyes peeled for this one and share it with yall!
Did you know that you can publish Notion pages and use them like a website?
That’s one feature Ferdinando is showing off with their tech guide page. I love how they use the table of contents block (/toc) to make it easier to navigate the long pages of bookmarks.
It’s a simple, straightforward way to store and share resources.
You can make your own public pages in Notion by clicking share in the upper right hand corner, then publish. There are some other settings in there that you can adjust - like allowing comments and edits.
Public pages with Notion have a pretty long, not very aesthetic link, so you might want to use a link shortener to make them prettier.
You can also use a platform like Super.so to turn your Notion website into a hosted domain!
Jessica has an Etsy shop and is making an inventory list in Notion 🤯
They hate using Excel (same, tbh), so they’re trying this out in Notion.
This is what I love about Notion, and something I always recommend to people - don’t look at YouTube videos of what people are already doing with Notion.
What do you need, and how can you make it in Notion? Try that first!
I love how they have different database views for different types of products. My favourite thing about this build is the Dropbox embeds, product descriptions, and product tags within each product page. This is so they can post their products to multiple platforms without digging around for their associated assets!
Honestly, this is something I have to try because I am always digging around for my Notion template images and can never find them 💀 (and I have templates in the Notion template gallery, Gumroad, and Lemon Squeezy)
Soph over at Happi Ppl Co is organizing their small business in Notion
I’m so happy to see that they’re editing templates to suit their needs!
I find that Notion newbies may feel scared to edit a template in case they break it 😖 Big mood, bestie.
My suggestion?
Duplicate your template! That way you can edit one version and use the other version as a reference.
Two things I’d like to point out with this set up - and something you might see in ‘aesthetic’ Notion templates - are the yellow calendar and the yellow counter thing.
Those are widgets made by 3rd party websites. These are nice to add to your Notion workspace to spruce it up and add to your aesthetic. Soph uses the counter to keep track of their posts, which I think is pretty neat!
You can find calendar widgets on sites like Widget Box, and that counter is available on Kairo. I’ve also seen people use pomodoro timers in their Notion spaces!
Actually, one more thing I’d like to point out, is the coloured time boxes on the 2nd image.
This also isn’t, like, a native Notion block. This is done with the use of an equation (I think it’s called LaTeX?). Admittedly, I don’t know much about this.
I personally don’t like to use features like this; they’re way too easy to break if you don’t know what you’re doing, and they’re a pain in the ass to fix for the same reason.
For me, they suck the fun and flexibility out of Notion, but I get why people use them. I just prefer things to be more simple in my Notionspace 😅
Check out this article I found to learn more about this feature.
Wanna see this feature in action? Duplicate this time boxing template from a fellow Notion creator and have a looksee.
that’s all for now 💫
I hope this series shows you that Notion is more than a productivity/journal/project management/whatever tool, and gives you ideas on how you can spruce up your own Notionspace!
still overwhelmed by how to make Notion work with you?
That’s why I’m here bestie!
As a Notion coach, I’m helping regular, degular people like you use Notion is a way that works for you and your workflow. There’s no stuffing you into a box here!
Together, we’ll untangle your thoughts, assess your needs, and you’ll learn how to build in Notion while you’re on the call with me!
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I absolutely love Notion and I'm always so happy when I introduce someone to it and they love it as well 😊 My business is organised in there, my interests, my EVERYTHING!
This is so fun! I live by Notion and once I accepted that I didn’t have to make it pretty and complicated, everything changed. It’s just a hell of a lot of notes and databases. Totally feel you on the ever-changing templates as an ADHDer, too! 🥴