Notion has become one of the most interesting and used tools to organize our lives and businesses in recent times. And it is not for less:

The platform is amazing and full of resources for those who want to build an integral organization of all areas of life.

However, it often happens to get into that situation where the time to create the organization is so great and the learning curve of the tool so steep that it ends up not being worth it in the end.

I've caught myself in the midst of restructuring my personal system only to realize later that I was more into preciousness than actually being productive.

I even created an article here on the blog and also created a Notion course on youtube on how to create a simpler organization in Notion, but in a way I think it is still worth a greater reflection on the uncomplication of the tool.

Don't let the tool be bigger than your goal

Notion is just one of the means to get to your organization. It is good because it has some very interesting tools to create systems, but there are others just as good.

I am not a promoter of Notion nor blind to its flaws and I think this less attached stance is positive. After all, we don't want to focus more on the tool itself than on the goal we have with it.

We can do almost everything in our organization with pencil and paper. Technology here is only meant to simplify life – not complicate it.

Start small

Although I created the Notion YouTube series with a complete organization, my suggestion today is to start small. Only with what is necessary.

It's more worthwhile to complete your organization with what you need than to have a bunch of areas you don't use.

This does not mean neglecting the idea of structuring the hierarchy of the chosen method. For example, in my organization I follow the PPV in which we have the idea that all our tasks are connected to our goals, which in turn are connected to our areas of life – the pillars of life.

If you want to follow another method, then it is worth following its structure in order to enjoy its benefits. However, we really don't need to spend hours and hours to set up an organizational structure when we are only going to use 10 of them.

Take a Notion course

One way to also go deeper is to take a Notion course and there are several free courses on Youtube.

I myself created a 100% free youtube notion course, where I explain several of its most powerful tools.

Uncomplicating Notion

In the case of Notion, my suggestion to uncomplicate it is to use it initially as a notepad. Similar to Evernote.

You create your pages and notes and, as you grow, create organizations of those notes the way your brain works.

Some interesting examples to get you started:

  • Thoughts
  • Ideas
  • Books read
  • Class notes
  • Documentation of processes

Next, it is worthwhile to start bringing data and records of what is part of your personal or professional projects.

For example:

  • Client data
  • Record of habits
  • Lists
  • Spreadsheets

Finally, I would bring the organization of projects and tasks, with a caveat for the latter.

The organization of projects in Notion is amazing and easy, but working with tasks is still not so good because it involves very annoying hacks to deal with recurrence. So if you need tasks that are done over and over again, use another tool for that.

Conclusion

It is possible to create simple and complex organizations in Notion without having to spend hours and hours at the beginning creating a system.

Slowly creating your own system that suits your needs is a much more interesting and easier way. In fact, you will probably enjoy using Notion more this way.

Does it make sense? Let me know in the comments.

Have fun!