In this digital age, more and more solutions are out in the market for uploading, storing, and retrieving files. With so many choices in the market, what's the best solution to go with? While Google Drive and remaining apart of the Google ecosystem is a great option, I have decided to use Notion.
It is a powerful tool where you can upload your information and find it. After all, what's the point of storage if you can't find it when you need it?
What is Notion?
Notion is a free service that can be used on the web, your desktop, and your smartphone. As most 'freemium' services, the free package only is meant for you to test out the system and to get the full benefit, you are going to need to switch to one of their plans:
Personal - $4 per month
Personal Pro - $4 per month (I have this one!)
Team - $8 per month
Enterprise - Contact the sales team
In the simplest terms, Notion is like having your own personal Wikipedia.
In the simplest terms, Notion is like having your own personal Wikipedia.
Notion can:
Take notes
Create tables
Provide a Kanban board for productivity
Be a to-do list
Give you reminders
Integrates decently other services, such as the previously mentioned Google Drive.
It's a powerful piece of software that is continuously evolving, and I use it daily.
How do I use Notion?
Notion has become my database for my life. It also doubles as my external hard-drive since I don’t want to pay for extra storage on Google Drive when I’m already paying for Notion.
Notion as my Dashboard
My main page is my dashboard. There I can have an overview of various aspects of my life that I want to keep track of. This includes the following:
Projects + Tasks
Relationships
Restaurants + Stores
Personal Inventory
Reading List + Movie List (dubbed Resonance Calendar)
Notes + Quotes + Definitions
Meeting Notes
Files
Images
Misc to be sorted
Each one of those categories has their own ‘pages’ which I could click through to keep track of the various aspects of my life.
This means that whenever I want to see when I last contacted a friend of mine, I can check my Contact Master page.
I could also easily go back and click on my ‘Restaurants’ tab if I ever want to give a recommendation to someone about where to get some delicious Uruguayan food.
Having an overarching dashboard allows me to quickly and efficiently check out the main topics of what I need to look for. Then once I click through that, I could continue until I find what I need.
Notion as my Relationship Manager
One of the many aspects of my life that I want to continuously improve is my relationships.
Those who know me can say that I'm a delight to be with in person. I love chatting with people, I enjoy hanging out with people, and it's great whenever I find the time to spend with those I love. However, what I need to improve on are my communication skills.
Due to how busy I can be at work or working on my own personal projects, I lose touch with people. I do not do it out of maliciousness, it's just with everything going on, I do not take the time and think, 'gee… maybe I should reach out to that person'. Whenever my mind does remember to reach out, it's like 7 in the morning. Who wants to have a call at that time?
Don’t know what someone wants for their birthday?
As people tell me what their interests are, I keep notes of that information on their pages. The same goes for anything that they may say in passing about what they want, would like, or need. This way if a special occasion comes up, I could quickly find something that they may appreciate having in their life. This saves me time, stress, and energy. This also gives me a better chance of giving the person I care about, something they’d actually like instead of just picking a random thing and hoping they’d use it.
Saving Files on Notion
I work as an office administrator while also running my own projects, business, and life. This means that I have to store and find a lot of files at the drop of a hat. I realized that while I was using Notion as a database for information, I could also use it to keep a backup of my files. Notion can save PDFs, Word Documents, PowerPoint, MP4s, and all kinds of Video Files. What is even better is that Notion handled my PSD (Photoshop), and AI (Illustrator) files without any hassle.
How I Store Files on Notion
The way I use Notion is evolving every day, but this is the current way I store files.
All my files are put in a table
Within that table, I have two columns: File and Tags
Files are where I upload the file. Since I name all my files, it eliminates the need for an additional column, which would be 'name.' However, if you do not name your files, I would encourage you to have a 'Name' column.
Tags are how I can sort my files. The tags I use are as follows:
File type: PDF, PSD, MP4, etc.
Keywords: These are one to three words that could quickly let me know what the file is about. Examples of this could be ‘Insurance’, ‘AT&T’
Names: If a person is associated with the file, I’ll use their name as a tag
Version: If a file is constantly changing, I’ll have a tag for version history
Year: If the file is one that changes from time to time, such as a driver’s license, or is affiliated with a date, I’ll put in the year for easy sorting.
How I View Files on Notion
I use the table view 85% of the time. Since Notion allows me to quickly create multiple ways to view files, I tend to have a secondary view in which I can see my files.
Gallery View: For visual files such as receipts and drawings
Calendar View: For files that are date centric such as meeting notes
List View: For everything else since it’s simplistic and is easy on the eyes.
These views do not do anything to change or alter my files. They simply enhance the viewing experience whenever I decide to reference my file page.
Additional Notes about File Storage on Notion
Notion allows you to take notes within notes within notes. So if you have any additional comments to add to a file, you do not need to create another column.
All you need to do is click on the file, click “Open as Page”, then you could add comments or additional notes about that file. At the moment I don’t do this for my files but it’s most certainly an option.
Adding an additional "Date Created" column, however, may prove to be helpful, and it's one that I'll add to my file storage tables. This is especially true for my receipt pages.
How did I learn Notion?
I did not learn Notion overnight. In fact, I am still learning new things about it every day. This is because this is a complex solution to reduce the number of applications that we use every day (task manager, word document, online storage, excel sheet, kanban board, wiki, etc.), and it is being continuously updated with new features and integrations.
My #1 Instructor for Notion is Francesco from Keep Productive on YouTube. He has a playlist of over 40 videos to show Notion users of all skill levels on learning and mastering the software. If you don’t want to watch all his videos, then here are a few I highly recommend:
Another way I’ve been learning how to more effectively use Notion has been through the website called Notion Pages. Notion Pages has lots of templates for you to edit and play with.
I am still learning how to best use Notion Pages and how to copy their databases onto my own. Still, the ones I have managed to copy have been absolutely amazing. Here are a few that I recommend:
Keep in mind that the ones I recommended are for the most part, complex. Thus, I’d recommend you use Notion for a week with the help of Keep Productive’’s videos before going for the Notion Pages.
Want to try Notion?
Notion is free to use and try out.
The free plan used to consist of '1000 content blocks', but as of May 2020, that's no longer the case. You can now have as many blocks as you want on a free plan.
If you have any questions, feel free to tweet at either me or the Notion team.
Otherwise, if you have other solutions similar to Notion, please feel free to share them with me in the comments below. I’m always eager to learn new ways to become more productive with less stress.
