How to organize your life using Notion| My Notion Tour + free templates

Hi, guys! What's up? It's me, Ruri. Today, I'm back with another video. So today, I'm gonna show you and explain to you my full Notion setup, what I use, how I use. So that you can start your new school year organized and everything put together, you know. So today, I'm gonna explain to you what I do and what you can do as well. I'm gonna also link my template so that you can copy and paste into your Notion and start using it. So yeah, let's get started.

So this is my dashboard. Basically, this is the page that I open when I log into my Notion account, and this is the first page that I ever see. When I click on Notion, it pops up. In Notion, there are so many templates. Templates are basically setups that you can copy and paste and also share so that you don't need to set up all of these together because it takes a lot of time. By the way, I took this template from other YouTubers and I mixed them and matched them and kind of blended it into my style. I will link their videos down in the description as well so that it won't be unfair to them.

I'm gonna show you exactly how you can use my dashboard, copying and pasting into your Notion. These are the templates. So I'm gonna paste this link to my description below, and when you click on that link, it opens my page. All you need to do is create a Notion account and then click on the duplicate button; it duplicates the exact same page into your Notion. For privacy reasons, I'm not going to give the exact same thing; however, I'm going to give a copy of things which doesn't include my data. So it basically copies to your Notion and takes a bit of time, but be patient—it's gonna copy.

Anyways, so when you basically open the dashboard, when you copy the dashboard into Notion and open that, we have four different sections: daily, personal, life, and mixture. So when you go to the daily section, you have agenda, and when you click there, you get a full monthly calendar as well as a non-categorized to-do list, a business habit tracker, and a self-care habit tracker.

So firstly, when something pops into your mind, when some sort of a task comes to you, and like somebody requested something from you, go to the non-categorized to-do list and you add that task. Let's say your mom requested you to go to the market and buy some apples, whatever. So let's say you gotta go to the supermarket, right? And then you gotta go today. Then we're gonna pick the 26th of August, and then we're gonna add the dates. Today is Thursday, so I'm gonna pick Thursday from the dates section, and then we're going to add the priority. Because you need to focus on the tasks that have a higher priority rather than doing tasks that are not really important to you. You gotta spend your time doing high-priority tasks. So I'm gonna pick high because my mom wants me to go today to the supermarket.

Then we have expectations and reality columns. You might think, "What are these?" So every single time when I do some sort of a task, I expect how much time it's going to take. So, let's say it's going to take me like 30 minutes, then I'm going to write 0.5 hours, and then after finishing that task, I'm gonna compare it with the reality. It might take me like an hour to finish my supermarket haul. When you repeat doing this, like writing expectations in reality, then you learn how much time every single task takes you to do them.

For example, it can be a shower, so it can be homework, or it can be editing or writing a script, or something like that. Every single time when you do that, you're gonna have in your mind how many hours it takes. So the next time when you're about to procrastinate, you can remind yourself it only takes me 30 minutes—I'm capable of doing this, let's do this! Or in another case, you might think, "Oh, it takes me only 30 minutes," so I can procrastinate; however, it might take you like three hours or something.

So that you know that you have to plan beforehand in order to complete that task because you know that it takes a lot of time, and by the time you can like detect areas that take a lot of time, you can maybe apply some productivity tips and tactics to minimize that time. So it's a great way to do that. And then we have the monthly calendar. Basically, what I do here is that I most of the time write the activities that I have on that day. For example, today I need to film this Notion video, so I'm gonna add an icon, which you can pick emojis. I'm gonna pick a random emoji and then write, "Send Notion the video." So this is the title of the task. When you go to the calendar, you'll see the title of that, and when you click on that, you can add the details of the plan.

I already created a template for you guys, so if you click here, it will open up the template that I created. You can write whatever time you're gonna do. For example, 6 a.m., let's say, "Wake up at 7 a.m.," I don't know, "Shower." You don't need to use this template; you can just basically start writing whatever you're gonna do. I'm gonna add some to-do lists, so I'm just clicking the slash, and then I'm writing "To-do," and then I created this little box, and I can write whatever I need to do in order to create this Notion video. So, "Set up the lighting," or "Set up the camera," you can just basically write the things that you have to do, and after doing them, you can just click them and complete them.

And also, if you want to add like some bullet points or different things, you can always type the slash and then you can choose whatever you need to do. So you can add text, page, to-do list, heading, and the great thing is that it shows in the right corner what is going to pop up so that you can choose. So, bullet list, numbered list, toggle list, or quote, or divider, you can link to another Notion page in call-outs, and a lot of different stuff. But these are a little bit complicated, which I can explain in another video. I'm thinking about creating a series where I explain every single thing that you can do in Notion, but today we're not going to talk about that.

So let's create the bullet list: "Finish the video until 6 PM," or something. I can just create this bullet point, so you can just use whatever way you want to use it. You might add your projects and your homework, and then you can set the deadline, and you can write the details of that homework or project, whatever you're gonna do. In the right corner, we have a business habit tracker. You can change this—you can change the name of this by clicking here. Like, you know, you can write different things such as "recall," you can change the name of those, or add new columns.

But the thing that we have here is idea generation—writing a script, filming, editing, and posting. And whenever I do a generation on one day, I'm gonna click that. If I do filming on Tuesday, I'm gonna click that and click and click and click stuff so that I can track what I did every single day. And here we have a self-care tracker. As I said, you can change the names; it doesn't have to be reading; you can basically say, "Or I don't know, journaling," or stuff. You did that on Monday, you can click; if you do meditation on Tuesday, click; workout on Wednesday, maybe a morning page on Thursday, and meditation Friday, workout, and stuff.

So, and then when you go to the down section, we have fun stuff. These are the things that I enjoy. So when you open the books, here we have the Ali's books—no template because this is the template of Ali Abdaal, who's my favorite YouTuber. And when you go to there, you have the book template, so you can explain the book in three sentences and then impressions, who should read it, how the book changed me, my top three quotes—so that you won't forget the book that you have read.

And then we have a finance section. I made this empty because I have another finance section, but you can like add whatever you want here. You might add your finance goals or, "I want to retire at 40," so I can write that, and I can create a plan according to that. And we have a learning section; you can add whatever you learned that day or the things that you want to learn, and you know, you can add some links or maybe create bookmarks to different pages or maybe add some different YouTube videos and stuff.

Here we have a recipes section; you can add some recipes that you learned and liked. We have a recipe template; when you open that, you have the ingredients, and you can, you have a basic instruction of how to cook, so you can add how to cook that. Then we have a travel section, so you can like create some travel plans—maybe a Japan trip, Singapore trip—and then you have travel journals, and you also have packing lists. So essentials, password checked, keys checked, travel documents, and visas checked, and stuff.

So this is the agenda section of my Notion. And when you go back, we have another habit tracker; that one was self-care habit tracker, and now we have a different habit tracker. You might delete this page; you might not use this page. In order to do that, you just have to click the six dots and then click to delete; then you can delete that page. But I'm gonna leave it there. And then when we go to the life section, we have the 2021 goals. This is not my goals, by the way, this is from the person that I took the template; I forgot her name, but I'm gonna add her video link down in the description so that you can watch hers as well. You can write your goals, and you know, you remind yourself what you want to do this year.

Then we have a bucket list. You know, travel to blah blah blah, become fluent in the language, get married, skydive, get a tattoo, ride in a hot air balloon, see the northern lights. So you can basically add your bucket list so that you don't live unintentionally. It's so easy to get lost in routines and the tasks and responsibilities that you have, but after creating a bucket list, it's much easier to remember the things that you wanted to actually do. So writing a bucket list is very important. As I said, this is not my bucket list; I don't want to get married right now, I'm 20. I'm literally 20.

And then we have a study section. Here we have a study schedule where you can write the days you have studied, and then I also added a how-to study—an evidence-based masterclass Notion template. This Notion template is from Ali Abdaal's Skillshare class. A student made a Notion page of pages summaries of his Skillshare class, so you can read this study page and you can understand how to study effectively.

So I think it's a great way to do that because the Skillshare class is a bit long, and if you don't have a Skillshare subscription, I'd recommend you to get it and learn how to do this because studying on Notion is very effective, and you can learn every single thing that you need on this page, so I would recommend you to check this page out. And then you can create some study pages such as like I created anatomy. Let's say, let's create a page; let's say health communication. Okay, I created a page, and now I'm gonna add a random. And then when I'm studying, I like to study with toggle list. I created a whole video about how I study using Notion, which you can watch here, so I'm not gonna explain that today. You can watch that video.

Anyway, let's go back to our dashboard. Now we have the personal section. So here are the notes. This page is basically when something pops into your mind, when you need to take a note, you can click this page, and you can take a note about it. Let's create a note about things I learned today, and then you can just like type whatever you learned today, and you can just basically create notes, you know. And then here we have the monthly reflection. It is important to reflect every single month on what you have done because, as I said, it is so easy to be lost and not remember what you have done this month or what your aim was.

So it is important to remember the month and reflect and be better next month. You can describe the month; you can write the memorable moments, things you learned, things you want to improve on, you know, and then write those things. And then we have a money tracker; this is another section that I copied from another YouTuber who I'm gonna add down in the description. Here, basically, you can manage how much money you have spent that week or month, and you can control your money. I do use this pretty often. I cannot exactly share my data because I don't wanna, I don't wanna show it; I might show it one day, but not today.

Here we have the video that explains how to use this Notion page. I'm gonna link that as well. And also, when you open that page, it pops up so you can watch it and learn at the same time how to use this template. But I can show you basically how I use it. So, let's say today I bought a book. I write the price of it—let's say it was ten dollars—and then I'm gonna add the time; it was an expense, I paid it with my cash, and for, let's say it was for books. So you can like add your expenses like that.

But the thing that I recommend is to watch this video and then learn from her because she explains every single thing in detail, so I would recommend you to do that. And here you have your cash, credit card, and banks and stuff. And then here you have your monthly report so that you can see how much money you spend that month and how much you earn that month. And you can add your wish list so that you can save money for the things you want.

Anyways, I recommend you to watch that video. Let's go back. Now we have the mixture section, so this is a random section that you can use in whatever way you want to do. I'm going to add different templates that you can copy down in the description below, so you can maybe add here—feel free to do it. Now we have a journal section; these are like the daily reflections. Things, so today's date, I'm feeling this way because of this.

It's important to reflect daily. It's important to understand your feelings—for a person like me, I'm not really good at my emotions; I don't really realize them; I don't know how I feel, which is a very weird thing to say. So the problem that I have is that I don't really focus on the moment. I always think about the future. Being mindful at this moment is a thing that I really struggle with. My mom always told me, "Why are you thinking about kids that you don't even have?" In my mind, I created an education path for my children; I literally search for schools. Like, why? So it is important for me to be at this moment and reflect and, you know, be mindful with my time.

So journaling and daily reflecting are the things that are important for me. And then now we have the workout section. When you click the workout section, you can pick the date you have worked out. Today, I did work out, so I'm gonna pick today's date, and then I'm gonna pick the workout area.

So today I did my glutes, and I also did my lower body. You can also add new areas; let's say, I don't know, if you want to like train your triceps, you can create one as like triceps. And also, you can like change the color of this; you can make it purple, blue, green, orange, whatever, but I'm gonna delete that. So today, I trained my lower body and glutes. It was hard, and you can link to the video. So if you're working out from like a YouTube video, you can add the link. So if you want to like do that workout next day, you can just basically go there and click the link and do that.

And you can also see by the time if it's getting easier or harder for you to perform that workout. So in that way, you can track your workouts. It is totally up to you to use this or not. And yeah, this is my copy of my dashboard, and also, I'm going to show you some little tricks to use this template. When you click the three dots that you see, you can change the font of the pages.

So this is the default. I personally like serif, so I could click to the serif. Also, you can use the mono, but I, as I said, I like to serif. And if you want to like use your Notion very small, you can turn off the full width; however, I use a monitor and I want it to be very spread out, and I want to see things bigger, so I click the full width part. And if you want to see the text small, you can click the small text part, but as I said, I like to see the text a little bit bigger.

And also, you can change these covers by clicking these three dots, and you can click to replace and choose another photo that you have. But this is the general of my Notion setup. These are the things that I use every single day. I'm going to add a link, as I said, down in the description below. If you want a Notion 101 series, let me know in the comments down below. I'm thinking about creating a Skillshare class where I explain step-by-step to use Notion, so let me know if you guys want that.

Thank you, Notion, for sponsoring this video. I'm gonna add a link where you can download Notion, use that link, and start using Notion from today. I think it's an amazing app to use every single day. I really love Notion; I use Notion for basically everything, and I'm sure that will help you throughout the school time. So thank you, Notion, for sponsoring this video, and let me see you in my next video. Bye! Do do you!