**Due to popular demand, this is Notion** and how I use it to organize my life - from
personal **travel checklists** to **workout programs** to **running a YouTube channel**.
In this video, I'll show you how you can **set up** and customize your Notion just like mine,
and at the end, I'll **share** with you **my templates** and how to use them.
**So, what is Notion?** It is a collaboration platform with modified markdown support
that integrates kanban boards, tasks, wikis, and databases, or so is the official and a
bit intimating description of the software. The better way to look at Notion is as an all-in-one
workspace for note-taking, project, data, and task management, combining the capabilities
of apps like Microsoft To-Do, Asana, Trello, and others. My way of describing it is a note-taking
app on steroids that is slowly turning into a world-famous productivity juggernaut.
What's excellent about Notion is the fact that it can be as minimal and straightforward as you want
it to be. Yet, when its power is unleashed, it can run a business. Using it in its simplest form
is my Notes page example. BTW, everything that you create in Notion begins as a page or a blank
piece of paper. I use this Notes page to dump and gather all sorts of information that I might refer
to later. Notion offers a wide variety of input information that organizes random information,
unlike no other note-taking app. There's really no specific order or valuable information on
this misc notes page. Still, I wanted to show you the numerous ways you can organize data.
Perhaps my packing page will be more useful to you. Notion has a bunch of pre-built templates
that anyone can download, and this travel packing page started off as a default Notion page too.
However, I tweaked it a bit to reflect my needs. Let's be honest, I don't like using makeup and
added a few more categories and extra columns to space out everything and make it look neat.
I've added a weather widget through a third-party service that I'll link below to take this simple
packing page to the next level. Notion can embed pretty much anything, which helped me end up with
this beautiful travel page that I use all the time. I can't tell you how happy I am to not
have to create silly reminders or tasks in other apps that I later have to unhide and uncheck
forever. Here, I can just select all my items, and as I uncheck one, I uncheck all. Beautiful.
Before we get to the nitty-gritty part of my YouTube organization, I'd like to show you
my Workout page, which I am very proud of. I've called it G Y M. By the way,
I prefer to use spaced-out cap letters for my main pages and templates because
that way, everything stands out more. Second, BTW, if you end up enjoying this video,
Subscribe and click on the bell icon because (pause) WHY NOT (SPACED OUT)?
The power of Notion can be glanced in this workout page and specifically this table. Notion is
great at creating robust tables and databases (which are still tables but in co-relation).
In the case of my workouts, this is a simple database that consists of rows of
separate pages that hold some pre-defies fields. Suppose I open the chest workout, for example.
In that case, you can see that it is a page that contains some pre-defined areas, like the date
I plan to do the training and whether or not I plan to do cardio at the end of the session.
The rest is a simple to-do list within the page itself. I use it to tick the exercises that I plan
to do for a specific workout. As I expand this list of activities, I can create various routines
and make each workout more challenging and exciting. I have created templates for each type
of workout based on my home equipment. This Notion structure leaves me to only spend a few minutes
planning my week or month of activities. It is not the most sophisticated template,
but that's on purpose because I don't want to waste time imputing information already
collected by my Apple Watch, like intervals, heart rate, and calories. I can visualize
my workout schedule as a calendar or a simple table filtered by date depending on how I feel.
I've created another page dedicated to tasks, which are not so much date-specific or
urgent that I've called Backlog. These are things that I plan to do as soon as my schedule allows
it and are organized using the Kanban method. Each task is again a page that can hold single
or multiple items. A task page can contain a task list and reference materials, notes, and images.
Since a task might consist of numerous execution steps, it can't simply be completed. Therefore
it goes through the usual stages of the kanban methodology to-do, in progress, and complete.
There's a fourth column for things that cannot be categorized, perhaps just concepts or ideas.
Alright, let's talk real work. I'll start simply by showing you my rudimentary Newsletter template
under my shared This is E space. BTW, sharing and collaborating are a massive part of Notion
and a cornerstone and reason to use it to manage this YouTube channel. The Newsletter template is
again a simple page that holds the structure of each of my newsletter emails. I copy and
paste that backbone to my email software each time I write a newsletter, and that's about it.
As you can see, the channel space consists of 9 main pages, which aside from the sidebar
can all be glanced at by clicking on the main page. I don't use the main page that often,
but when I do, I might dump random ideas or notes for the upcoming project
and quickly put together video ideas under my pillar categories.
Videos are my main topic when it comes to the YouTube structure, and it is the reason for me to
start using Notion in the first place. My video page is a database that holds each of my video
scripts. There are several essential components to each video, and they are broken down into columns
in the table itself. The first element is the publishing timeline or the date when a video
is supposed to go live. Next up is the status of the script and then the sponsor of the video
if there is such. For example, the great people at Notion bring this video to you, which is marked as
sponsored by Notion item. If I open a script page, you'll see a structure that I've created myself as
a template. This template evolves over time, and I keep improving and adding things to it as time
goes by. The template is broken into two columns. The left column holds vital components for each
video, like the main idea, structure, the viewer's journey, and the thumbnail concept. The right
column is the script itself, and at the bottom, I have some don't forget items like the fact that
I talked about my newsletter template a minute ago. Yet, I forgot to ask you to subscribe to it
if you are interested in BTS content, tutorials, and other fun aspects from the kitchen of this
channel. Each time I create a new video script, I just import my template and start filling
up everything in the left column first. My own structure keeps in at bay and does not allow me to
deviate from the main topic and idea of the video, and helps me structure each video as best I can.
Since this is a database, I can change its view, which I've done in a separate page, and display
that same database in the form of a calendar, where everyone can see what the schedule looks
like - and by everyone, I mean the agency that I work with, the sponsors and my colleague. With
the calendar in front of me, I can quickly move around each video and re-schedule it
drag-and-drop style with ease.
The next important component for each video is the shots. I've created a b-roll shot list template,
which is a table broken down into various columns that matter to me.
Each shot is broken into a short description of the type of shot
(whether a b-roll, top-down, stock footage, drone shot, etc.). Next up,
there's the shot attribute where I choose if I want a shot to be wide, medium, close-up,
and a one called Laowa, which points to the quirky long-barrel lens that I use in moderation.
I've even created a top-down set of decors to choose from that correspond to my accumulated
sets over the years. It is a lot easier to use this template (which I duplicate for each project)
and organize my work based on the script, instead of having to guess and just glance at what I want
to shoot as I do it. It eliminates guesswork and leaves more time for creativity and recording.
Another remarkable aspect of Notion, which is what differentiates the software from anything else out
there, is the ability to share everything that I created like I plan to do with you in a minute.
One way to share is through workspace invitation of collaborators. As an example my YouTube
workspace is shared with my agency. This way we can easily move around topic ideas and deadlines
and also discuss sponsor integrations on the spot. To give you a perspective, the
guidance materials for my last video’s sponsorship integration were provided to me via a Notion page,
which I just duplicated in my workspace and used as reference when I was preparing the script.
Also, my video page and b-roll template is shared with a colleague of mine who helps me shoot
b-roll for each project and aside from me being able to help him organize the list of shots,
I can easily leave comments as we collaborate, even sometimes from a distance. And while on
the topic of collaboration. A second way to share something on Notion is publicly,
with the community like I just did with you. In the description below, you'll find links to
some of the pages that I've made, which you can duplicate yourself in your Notion and tweak them
to fit your workflow or even use them as-is if you like. I'll also put a link to the custom
Notion icons that I created myself, which you can download for free. They are meant to be
used in Notion's dark mode but also look good in default white. So, here's how everything works.
If you click on my shots template, for example, you'll see the empty version of it,
and at the top right corner, there's a duplicate button. When you click it,
that template will now end up on your Notion page, and you can begin using it right away. If
you are familiar with the software, be sure to uncheck the Database Lock and feel free
to make the structure even better...and maybe share it back with me later to improve my own.
If you enjoyed this video, chances are you'll find my Gears and How's Playlist
useful, which I'll link right here. If you have any questions, feel free to list them
in the description below or ping me on Twitter.
As always, it's been an absolute pleasure,
This is E
Over and out