How to study efficiently using Notion [Active Recall]

Hi guys, it's me Dodie! Today, I'm going to be showing you guys how I take study notes using one of my favorite apps, Notion. I'm so, so glad that this video is sponsored by Notion because I've been using Notion for a couple of months. If you go to my old videos, you can see that I've been using it and getting obsessed with it because it is so useful.

When they contacted me for sponsorship, I was like, so hyped up! I was like, "Yes, yes!" because it was one of my goals to get sponsored by Notion. So, I'm so happy, you guys, and I appreciate every single one of you. Thank you!

Before jumping into how I use Notion for taking study notes, let's talk a little bit about Notion. If you're into productivity, if you're into time management and business, and you know a lot of productivity stuff, you would probably have heard about Notion because Notion is really popular and really useful.

What can you do with Notion? For example, I manage all of my YouTube tasks with Notion; I plan my videos, I write scripts for them, I even do sponsorships using Notion, and I also take study notes. I summarize every single book that I've read, and I also track my habits. I manage my daily, weekly, and monthly schedule, and I do make to-do lists so that I know what I'm gonna do every single day, every single week, and every single month. I will make videos about those as well, but today we're gonna be talking about how I study with Notion.

Notion is so awesomely customizable! So, if you want to do something, you can customize Notion, and you can create a page in your taste. That's what I like about Notion; you can use it basically for everything!

Okay, when you go to Notion, I made a section for study. So, I have a page for study, and I'm going to be showing you guys how to make that. Firstly, when you download the app (you can download it for Mac, Windows, or whatever computer you're using), you come to the left side and you click to add a page, and you can create whatever page you want to make.

So let's say "Study," and you add an icon to it so that it looks better. Let's say I'm going to be studying biology, chemistry, and physics. I type "slash," and then I come to the page, and I click on the page, and I create a new page in a page. So, let's say "Biology."

Okay, and when I go back to the study section, you can see that there is a study page, and then I have a subpage for biology. So, let's create a chemistry page again. Type "slash," and you click to the page for chemistry. You added an icon, and when you come back to the study page, you can see that we have a biology section and we have a chemistry section.

So, let me show you my actual setup for study. When you come to the study section, I have scores after solving past papers or something. I write the scores that I've done. So, I have a score section, and then I have a general knowledge section, and then a biology section, and a chemistry section, and a study planning section where I plan my studies.

So, let's click on the biology section and let me show you how I study. When you click the biology section, I made other subpages for every chapter. So, I haven't done with that yet, so we only have two chapters. But, for example, the first chapter is "The Cell as the Basis of Life," and the second chapter is "Biological Molecules."

So, when you are studying a thing, knowing the chapters you're going to be studying is very important. So, I really have to do that. Let me remind myself as well. Let's look at the first chapter "Cell as the Basis of Life." When you collect the first chapter, I've listed the things that I have to do.

I'm going to be showing you how to make a to-do list. This is very important in my opinion because whenever I'm studying a chapter, I always write the topics and subtopics in that chapter, and I make sure that every topic is covered. So you click again "slash."

When you scroll here, as you can see, you can add a lot of different things such as tables, boards, calendars, galleries, timelines, audio, videos, and images and files, and you can add things from Google Drive, Google Maps, and a lot of different things. But today we're gonna be adding a to-do list.

So, for example, I'm going to be doing a revision. I'm going to be doing that after getting done with that. I'm going to click to check so that I know that I've done that. Then, let's move to the questions. As you can see, I created a lot of pages. So in the study section, we have biology, chemistry, and when you click on biology, we have different chapters, and when you click on the different chapters, now we have questions.

So, active recall questions that I answer every single time when I want to do revision. The only way to learn things is by testing yourself. If you reread your notes or highlight your notes to learn something, you are literally wasting your time. There are a lot of researches and research papers about how to learn effectively. I will link Alia's video, which is one of the best videos that I've ever seen, so you can watch them. But I can also create my version of that if you guys want.

So basically, active recall is testing yourself. You make questions for yourself, and you answer them without looking at any cues or without looking at the answers. You always test yourself in order to understand if you know that topic. So, whenever I'm studying, I do active recall, and I make myself questions like this using the function of toggle list.

You click on the "slash," and then you scroll, and when you click that, you can make simple questions like this. When you click on that, you can write your answer, and you can hide that. Here we have the sample question, and when you click that, you have the answer. This is how I do active recall by using Notion.

Whenever I'm studying or whenever I'm doing revisions about the chapters, I come to the chapter where I want to do a revision, and I answer all of these questions. Let's do an example: "What's the function of the nucleolus?" The nucleus is a control center of the cell, and it basically controls everything, and it also contains DNA.

So, I look to the answer and it says, "Store DNA and act as a control center." So I got it right! If I got it right, I don't do anything, and then I move to the next. "Through which process do mitochondria produce ATP?" For example, I got it wrong. So, cellular respiration. When I got it wrong, I do a minus here, and I move to the next question, and I answer all of them.

After finishing these questions, I come to the questions that I put a minus on. This means that I got it wrong at the first round, and I'm gonna answer these minus questions. If I got it right the second time, I'm going to delete the minus and I'm going to continue this process.

I talk about making toggle lists and how I effectively use them. As I showed you here, I added an image from YouTube. Let me show you how I do that. So, firstly, as I said, you click to "slash" and you go to the toggle list, and you find that toggle list. Then, let's say question one.

Say you want to add an image again; you click to "slash," you scroll and scroll and scroll, and there you find image. Okay, so now the image is added. Let's see how it looks. "What is Rudy's nationality?" And you click here, and you see Japanese.

You can add images in that way. So when I'm making active recall questions, I add images so that they support my question, and I can remember more. You can do it that way. Making flashcards, I think it's also a great way to study, but managing flashcards is really hard when you study for a year or so.

You have a bunch of flashcards, and you don't know where to study or what to do. But when you categorize them with Notion like I do, for example, biology chapter 1, chemistry chapter 3, or something, all of the things are organized, so you know exactly where to start and what to do.

So, it really cuts the time, and it really helps you to be more productive. So, I would highly, highly recommend downloading Notion because Notion is free, and you can start from right now. Although it seems complicated when you start with a few little steps, it really helps you to understand Notion as an app.

When you get used to it, you can add more and more things. You can use Notion for basically everything in your life. So today, I introduced you to very basic things about how to use Notion and how I study. I'm going to be making more videos about Notion because understanding Notion in one video is kind of impossible.

So, today's video was a very basic introduction to how I study with Notion. I hope you guys liked this video! I'm thanking Notion for sponsoring this video, and I hope this video added a little bit of value to your life. I will link the app down in the description below so that you can download it and start using it from today.

I don't think that you will regret it. Download it, and let me see you in my next video. Bye-bye! The Notion app, I will link the Notion app downloading link. So, for example, because I miss you so much!