How I use Notion for taking notes as a college student!

Hi! 

If you are here, I guess you are thinking about taking the step towards digital note taking or maybe you already did but you are looking for new apps, and let me tell you, you are in the right place!

What is Notion?

Notion is a web page and desktop app that lets you create pages full of your notes, plus it's totally free!

Why should I switch to digital note-taking?

Now, in case you are still unsure about not using paper anymore for your notes, let me say a little about why I switched to digital note taking and I think you should too:

• It's a lot faster to write in a computer than to write by hand
• You are helping the environment by not wasting paper that you maybe won't ever read after you pass that class, and those plastic pens that you just throw in the garbage when you run out of ink...
• It lets you edit them, add things in between, very helpful when you take notes in the lecture and when you get home you realize they're all over the place but you don't want to start a brand new page!
• You can add links and photos and copy-paste text from books, lecture pdfs, etc.
• You can access your notes from any device... no more carrying around all your notebooks and sometimes forgetting that one notebook that you needed...

I switched to digital notes a year ago and let me tell you, my understanding of the subjects got a lot better (because I have more freedom to organize things in the page and in my head), I don't spend any money on pens, all I need to have when I'm going to study is my computer and I can access my notes from my phone when I don't have my laptop...

How I use Notion for my college classes...

In Notion you work on pages, that are like infinite scrolling space... You can get pages inside pages and so on.

Creating a "notebook"

Every time I start a new subject, I create a central page, from wich I have everything related to that subject. It looks a little bet like this...

I always put an emoji that has to do with the subject, a cover to make it prettier, and then I add a table-inline and a toggle at the end for general links.

The table-inline can be created with the command /table-inline This is the most important thing, I modify the table adding the columns that I need for that subject. 

Here is a list of ideas of what you can add as a column:

• Class number
• Date
• Module name (some teachers like to group classes in modules) to do this I add a tag column and just create a tag with each module name
• Bibliography (just add a text column, write down the titles of the books you have to read, and then cross them down once you've read them by selecting the word and using the command strikethrough ctrl+shift+s on windows)
• Type of page (you can add to the table class notes, assignments, tests, etc.) to do this just add another tags column
• Review with stars: you can do this to review how well you know that lecture... you create a text column and just add star emojis (from 1 to five) to quickly see how well you know each one and how many you should review again...

You can also add on the bottom new pages with the list of books to read, a calendar to write down the date of all the assignments, and so on...

Then, on each lecture I just start a new page on the table, fill out all of the columns that I have on the table, and just start writing! I like to just write everything I find interesting on the class and when I get home I put everything in order, complete with titles and subtitles and highlighting what is most important, and also I copy some stuff from the lecture pdf like quotes and definitions.. sometimes even the pictures. 

I also like to use toggles to keep everything organized... I start by breaking down the lecture in parts by making subtitles that I turn into toggles, and then I just fill them up with the notes that were scattered around.. it helps a lot to organize things in my head too!

This is what my fresh-from-the-lecture notes look like...

...and this is what my processed notes look like!

I hoped you like this, and if you do this please let me know!

Leave a comment below, let's chat!

Thank you for reading me :)