In this video, I want to give you a tour of how I’m using notion in 2022, specifically how I’m still using the methods from Building a Second Brain. How I now write in my journal every day and also how I track my mood.
One of the many ways that I use notion is by making it one of my tools as a second brain, I collect and organize information there, but not only that, I also write, edit and produce things within notion.
Building a Second Brain and PARA
A Second Brain, It’s a set of dynamic tools where you can not only store knowledge but move decisively through projects and express yourself in a way that feels easy.
One of the methods that this building a Second Brain world has for us, it’s the PARA method. I’ve talked about this in a previous video where I’ve explained how PARA means projects, areas, resources, and archives, and how I manage that information in notion.
When we hop into my notion, we immediately see that in my sidebar, there are only four levels of organization. This is the PARA method that I’m talking about.
I actively mentor and coach clients and students from the course to feel confident about their systems and para this method gives a lot of freedom in that sense projects. It’s all about what are we actively working on right now? What do we need so our project flows easily?
We start with Projects because this is the most actionable information that I have and the things that I want to get the fastest. I know I’m going to find things very soon because I’ve organized things in this way.
Areas are the departments or the parts of my life that I’m managing. So that means your fitness, the challenges that you have, clients that you manage, your own self. All of these different areas can help you manage your life. This information is not as actionable that’s why it’s a level below. I still have it on my projects page so I can just quickly go to where I want to go.
All of the resources are the pieces of knowledge that I know I might use in the. These are collections of interests that I’ve gathered over time.
The archive is the things that are not needed that I have completed and they’re no longer relevant for me to see every day. That’s why it’s all separated.
Projects, the most such actionable information and archive are the least.
My Journal Database
The first thing I see when I opened my projects page is my to-do lists, my mood boards, my projects, my areas, my habit tracker, and the things that I’m collecting from many different places online.
My journal database is a place where I can vent, where I can talk about my day, and where I can write and be creative. I also have many different things that can help me focus, like my goals for this quarter. I have my review from the past week and the things that I want to do in the future. I have templates that can help me with focusing on this moment and also daily prompts that can kind of motivate me to continue.
The to-do list is basically connected to my project, and also to my Google. Now, with Notion API out and about, it’s amazing how we can connect and integrate different apps together.
I also have my projects where I grouped them by priority. The things that I’m working on Now, I can find it here. But there are projects that are just ideas or things that take time, like a slow burn which I have separated, so they don’t clutter my space.
My Productive MoodBoards
Another fun part for me is my productive mood. Sometimes I don’t feel like I want to be working much and other days I feel like I want to go, go, go. So I created different dashboards depending on my mood. For example, the one that you see right now is more of a creative good day, but what happens when I’m not feeling so well?
The emergency page for me make creates a speed. Where I can go to, to the issue. So if I’m feeling really shitty, then I can just open the emergency mood and go through the different resources that I left for myself. So I can follow some instructions depending on how I’m feeling.
Sometimes I’m inactive. I don’t want to get out of bed. And that means that’s a one or two mood. So that’s the lowest of the lowest. I may have been triggered. I need to vent. And I have all the information just in case each one has another level of functionality. If I’m not doing so well, or I know I’m getting a little bit depressed.
I go through kind of like a prep depression checklist, where I manage a lot of things before it hits. Cause I know it’s a cycle. Sometimes I need to have a space to journal where I vent or talk about a specific issue. That’s not helping me. And then I also give myself some resources and videos to calm myself down three to four mood means that I’m a little bit anxious.
I might be crying a lot and I’m getting to a space of emergency mode. And in order to not get to the emergency mode, then I just go into. Last year I was using my journaling to journal my moods, and I found that luckily I’m most in a six to seven mood, which is great.
Habit Tracker
And finally, I have my habit tracker, the way that I track my habits is a very tiny one. I’m not tracking everything, but just what I want to kind of installing my life. For example, I want to build a habit of exercise and I don’t exercise at all. So I just start with one thing each week. So these are weekly goals of habits because changing habits too quickly may overwhelm your sense of safety, which is kind of needed to build a foundation of trust.
Small habits can help you succeed very easily. I just have to do one squat for exercise. And that’s the thing that I need to do is consistency. And over time, I build again that trust and confidence with myself after years of not keeping these promises, because I just overwhelming myself. So I intended to follow very tiny steps that I can improve or iterate over.Eventually by the end of this month, I will be able to go to the gym every other day. That’s the goal.
The way that I’m breaking the goals down is by following the 12 week year. And I give myself 12 weeks of progressions and how I can improve my goal. For the habit of exercise, I create weekly mini goals that can over time, to iterate into something bigger.
If you’re also looking to track habits in notion and better integrate the habits and be very intentional about why you want to do, then I suggest you check out my six-lesson mini-course on habits. And it’s all in notion you can go through brainstorming session and making sure that you’re reviewing each habit each week.
So that’s a systematic way to think about your habits and what you want to build for yourself.
I have a question for you. What is one thing that you said today in this video that you can implement in your own school? I also want to know, what do you want to watch? What do you want me to show you about notion or productivity or knowledge management?
So leave a comment below. What do you want to see next?
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