Notion for Students: A Comprehensive Guide to Enhanced Productivity and Organization

Notion is a versatile online workspace and organizational tool that can significantly benefit students. It offers a centralized platform to manage classes, assignments, course materials, and collaborative projects. This guide explores how students can leverage Notion's features to enhance their productivity and stay organized throughout their academic journey.

Getting Started with Notion

Setting Up Your Account

To begin, students can create a free individual account by selecting "For myself" when prompted with "How are you planning to use Notion?". This grants access to Notion's core features and allows for immediate customization. Upon logging in, users are directed to the "Getting Started" tab, which provides an overview of Notion's editing capabilities.

Exploring Templates

Notion's Template Gallery offers a variety of pre-designed templates tailored for different purposes. Students can use the Search bar to find specific templates or browse categories in the left-hand menu. Once a suitable template is found, it can be duplicated into the user's workspace by selecting the workspace from the dropdown menu and clicking the "Duplicate template" button. Alternatively, the "Templates" link in the sidebar provides access to the gallery.

Creating Custom Pages

To create a new page, select "Add a page" from the sidebar. This allows users to enter a title and choose the desired page type. To personalize the page, an icon can be added using the "Add icon" button, and a cover image can be added using the "Add cover" button.

Core Features for Students

To-Do Lists

To-do lists are essential for managing tasks and deadlines. In Notion, they can be added to any page using the "/ command" and selecting "To-do list" from the drop-down menu. Each item can be typed out, and pressing "Return" creates a new item. Items can be selected and edited like any other text in Notion.

Calendars

Calendars are useful for scheduling and visualizing important dates. A calendar can be added by creating a new page and selecting "Calendar" from the list of options. The "properties" tag allows users to toggle the visibility of properties such as tags or comments on each day in the calendar view.

Cornell Notes System

The Cornell method is a note-taking technique that improves memory and understanding. It involves dividing a page into sections for detailed notes and a sidebar for key words, phrases, and questions. Notion offers a "Cornell Notes System" page with instructions and a blank template for taking notes in the Cornell format. The Cornell Notes System page includes instructions for taking Cornell-style notes as well as a blank template for taking notes, already organized in the Cornell format.

Databases

Notion's databases provide a powerful way to sort, filter, and track information. Once a database is set up, the "Properties" feature can be used to add tags and other useful information.

Collaboration

Notion facilitates collaboration by allowing users to share pages with others. This is particularly useful for group projects. To share a page, open it and click "Share" at the top right.

Publishing Pages to the Web

Notion allows users to publish pages online, making it easy to share school projects or create helpful resources for other students. To publish a page, click the "Share" button at the top right and toggle "Share to web" to the "on" position. The Share menu also provides other sharing options. Whether you have a school project that you want to put online or you’re creating a helpful resource for other students to use, Notion is a quick and easy option. Once you’re ready to publish your page, click the Share button at the top right side of the page. Flip the toggle next to Share to web to the “on” position. Under the Share menu, you’ll also see a variety of other sharing options.

Notion for Education: Free Plus Plan

Notion offers a free Plus Plan for education to individual students and teachers, which is a free Plus Plan for a one-member workspace. If you’re currently paying for the Plus Plan, you can still take advantage of this offer. Downgrade to the Free Plan first by going to Settings in your sidebar → Billing → Change plan.

Eligibility Requirements

To be eligible for the free Plus Plan, you must meet the following requirements:

Only have one member in your account. The Plus Plan for individual students and educators can only contain one member. Remove any additional workspace owners and members before upgrading.
Upgrade using Notion for desktop or Notion for web, not mobile.

Upgrading to the Free Plus Plan

Once you’ve met the above requirements, follow these steps in the desktop or web app to upgrade to the free Plus Plan:

Go to Settings in your sidebar.
Select Upgrade plan.
Select Get free education plan.

Student Organization Plan

Student-led organizations at select verified higher education institutions can access the Plus plan and add all their org members to collaborate for free. With the Plus Plan, student orgs can upload unlimited blocks and files, add members to their workspace, get 30-day page history, add up to 100 guests, and more - free of charge.

Tips for Using Notion as a Student

Make a List of Necessary Pages

When creating a Notion workspace, it's important to focus on creating pages that will actually be used. Avoid creating unnecessary pages just because they look appealing in templates. Digital clutter can be counterproductive. When you first start using Notion, think about what you might actually find useful when organizing your semester.

Read also: Landing a Notion Internship

Experiment and Iterate

Don't be afraid to try out new things and delete them if they don't work. The flexibility of Notion allows you to easily add and remove pages and features. The beauty of a software-based organization system is that you can just throw out anything you don’t feel like using anymore, so make the most out of it.

Prioritize Utility Over Aesthetics

While aesthetic layouts can be motivating, the primary goal is to create an organization system that is functional and helps you stay organized. Your organization system should help you get organized first and foremost, even if it doesn’t look the prettiest.

Explore Notion Tools and Widgets

Notion offers a wide range of tools and widgets for processing and visualizing information. Explore these options to find the best way to present your data. If the basic options aren't sufficient, there are many additional widgets available online, often for free.

Student Dashboard

Kick off your Notion workspace with ready-made pages from the template gallery.

Practical Applications for Students

Class Notes Organization

Notion can be your home for everything related to school. Take class notes, draft essays, collect resources and references, brainstorm ideas, and keep all your information connected and findable. You can even use AI to extract insights from notes and research and enhance your creative thinking.

The Class Notes template is the perfect place to store your notes. Instead of jotting ideas down in various notebooks or having a bunch of disorganized files on your desktop, you can keep all lecture notes in one Notion database and tag each page with key information so they’re easy to find and refer back to later.

To create a new note, click on New, give your page a title, and start typing your notes. As well as text, you can add all kinds of blocks to Notion pages - headers, bullets, checklists, images, videos, files, and embedded content from other apps. Open the / menu to browse all the different kinds of Notion blocks available.

You can categorize pages in your Class Notes database with useful information. These properties allow you to categorize notes with different kinds of information and refer back to them. When you create a new note, it will automatically capture the created date. Then, you can tag the relevant class, type of class, attach any files, and check off when the note has been reviewed. You can click on any of these properties and edit to reflect your classes.

To add a new property, open one of your notes and click + Add new property. This will open a menu where you can choose from Notion’s range of properties.

Here are some ways you might use properties to categorize your class notes:

Status: Use the Status property to mark your note as Not started, In progress, or Done, so you can see whether notes are finished or still need work.
Topic: Use a Select or Multi-select property to add topic categories to your notes. This comes in handy later, as you’ll be able to filter your database to show all notes about a certain topic.
Last Edited: The Last edited property shows when you last made changes to a page and can help you understand how up-to-date the content is.
Course/Project: With a Relation property, you can connect one database to another. So you could, for example, connect class notes to a projects database. Then, when you want to work on that project, you’ll find all the relevant notes in one place.
AI Summary: Adding an AI Summary property to your database will generate an automatic summary of the page contents. So, you’ll be able to get an idea of what each note contains with just a glance at the database.

Adding properties to your notes means that you will be able to sort and filter the database content based on different criteria.

Use the Sort feature to change the order that items appear. If you sort by Created date, notes will appear in chronological order. Sorting by Class or Type will arrange your notes according to those properties.

You can also filter the database to only show a subset of the content according to how properties are completed. To take this further, you can create new views for different filtered groups of information. So, you could have a separate database view for each class and one for all notes.

Here are some helpful ways you could filter and sort your database:

Unfinished Notes: Filter to show all notes where the Status property is not Done.
Notes by Topic: To view all your class notes about a particular topic, filter to show the topic or topics.
Class by Class View: Add a new view and sort the database by course. Now, all notes will be grouped together according to the class they relate to.

Resource and Reference Management

An important part of your studies is collecting and consuming content, which you’ll need to reference later on when it comes to writing essays and your dissertation.

In Notion, you can save resources from the web straight to a database in one click and enter all the relevant information that will make it easier to reference in your work.

To collect resources or build a reading list in Notion, first create a new database page in Notion - you could call it Resources.

Next, download the Web Clipper extension for your chosen browser. Once you've installed the Web Clipper, you'll see a Notion button appear to the right of your browser search bar.

Anytime you’re on a web page, you can click the icon to save the page Notion. You can select your Resources database as the place to save the content. When you save a web page, text and images from the web will be brought over to the page, so you can read the content in Notion.

You can keep anything from research papers, books, podcasts, articles, and more in your Resources database. Categorize each entry using properties for content type, publication date, author, etc.

As with your Class Notes, you can filter and sort items in your Resources database.

Notion AI can be particularly useful for extracting value from resources you save. There are three types of AI autofill properties: Summary, Key Insights, and Custom, and you can add AI blocks into page content as well.

Here are a few ways to use Notion AI to get more out of your resources:

Key Takeaways: Use the Key Insights property to generate the main takeaways from any resource you’ve saved. This will help you sort through the most valuable articles you’ve saved.
Simplified Text: You can ask Notion AI to simplify the text to make it easier to digest. Just highlight the text, click Ask AI and select Simplify language.
Translation/Summarization: If you’ve saved an important resource that’s not in your first language, you could ask Notion AI to translate the whole piece or just provide a summary in your language. Either highlight the text and ask AI to translate, or, using a Custom AI property, prompt Notion AI to “Write a summary of this page in Korean”, for example.
Keyword Highlighting: Again using a Custom AI property, this time, you can prompt Notion AI to highlight the key words from a piece of text, or categorize the content in one or two words.

Relations are Notion properties that allow you to connect databases, so you can create links between information in those databases.

By linking your resources to other Notion databases, you can make sure you have all the necessary materials readily available for your work, and also make the job of adding references to your thesis less confusing.

To add a Relation property, go to + Add new property in the Properties menu and select Relation. There, choose the database you want to connect to. You could connect your Resources database to your Class Notes, and this would allow you to link reading material to each note. If you had a database for drafting chapters of your thesis, you could also link this to your Resources databases, so you can attach Resources as you go chapter by chapter.

Instead of painstakingly going back to search for all your references at the end of a project, in Notion, you can attach sources to your drafts as you go, so nothing gets lost or forgotten.

Managing College Life

Your first experience of living independently can be daunting. You’re suddenly responsible for so many areas of your life - groceries, cooking, cleaning, socializing, extracurriculars, and sticking to your student budget.

Notion is ideal for juggling the demands of college and will help you keep on top of everything you have to do.

Here are some ways to use Notion for everyday life:

Household Chores: Sharing a place with fellow students is both exciting and challenging. Avoid potential conflicts over chores by keeping track of everyone’s responsibilities in Notion.
Club/Group Homepages: Create a homepage for your club or extra-curricular group in Notion, and keep resources, notes, and information for everyone, whether it’s your book club or hockey team.
To-Do Lists: Make your to-do list in Notion by creating a list or table database with a checkbox property to tick off tasks once they’re done. You can categorize tasks according to whether they relate to school, home, family, etc.
Budget Management: Track your income and expenses in Notion to make sure you don’t go over budget. Tag expenses and income in a table database and review how much you’re spending every month.
Meal Planning/Shopping Lists: If you’re on a budget, you probably want to avoid constantly ordering takeout. Instead, plan your weekly meals in Notion and get all the ingredients you need to pick up from the store. Ask Notion AI to suggest different types of recipes (easy, healthy, vegan, etc), then ask for the list of ingredients for each recipe.

Notion AI: A Powerful Assistant for Students

Notion AI is a built-in AI assistant that can help you improve your writing, check spelling and grammar, brainstorm ideas and more. Discover Notion AI here.

Notion AI has a lot of features like: Improve writing, fix spelling & grammar, make a text shorter or longer, change tone of the text, simplify the text. It can also summarise information, translate it and even explain it in much simpler way.

It is particularly helpful when you are writing an assignment on a topic and you don’t know if it’s grammatically correct. You will need to use ChatGPT or other AI tools after your free trial of Notion AI ends.

Commands: Enhancing Note-Taking and Organization

This is a very unique feature of Notion. I think this is what sets Notion apart from all other productivity tools. There are different types of commands, which are divided into different blocks. There are basic blocks, which include headings, to-do list, table, bulleted list, numbered list, toggle list, quote (where you can write a quote), a divider, and so many more. And then there are advanced blocks which include equations (where you can write mathematical equations in separate blocks), synced blocks, code ( where you can write your code as a block). There are inlines where you can insert emojis, equations, dates, reminders, etc. into your text. You can embed PDFs, Google Maps, tweets, gists from Github, Loom recordings, etc. You can also view various files in your text, such as those from Adobe XD, OneDrive, Dropbox, etc.

Commands help you take notes effectively and organise them. The blocks are especially helpful to make your notes literally look like a textbook.

Spaced Repetition System

Every subject page has a table of topics in it. The main characteristic of the table is that it has an automated spaced repetition system that will tell you when you need to revise the topic based on your first review (but there's no reminder). So, once you insert the first day you have reviewed a certain topic, the table will calculate the next review dates through a formula based on a review frequency of 1,7,14 days (you can change the frequency as you like). Here is the Notion template.

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