Christine Cheng
Contributing Writer
As we shift into our third quarter of online school, many students have found the days blurring together. Without physically going to class to separate the days, important classes and meetings become difficult to track. I found myself accidentally napping through sections because I had forgotten what day of the week it was. Then, Notion came along.
I was introduced to Notion by one of my friends. She sent me a quick message on Discord, pinging me about this new organizational website that she was obsessed with. Within a few clicks of exploring possible templates and aesthetic spreads, I was instantly hooked. I probably spent the next three hours that day personalizing my own Notion page from a template, from collecting school Zoom links and to listing the dates and times for my finals.
Despite being separated by the pandemic, it seems like everyone is thinking the same thing: Notion is everywhere. I see people talking about it on Instagram and sharing their spread template on Twitter. Even though I don’t use Tiktok, it spread like wildfire from there. Gaining such traction from the influx of new users actually overloaded the Notion servers and crashed the page.
But what is Notion exactly? It’s super versatile. It’s marketed as a platform used for management, whether for projects, personal, data, or more. However, the organizational aspect of Notion makes the possibilities endless. Most users utilize it to organize their school or work, but it can also help track personal goals or be used to journal. The collaborative aspect also allows for club planning, economic budgeting and tracking, and any other management needs.
While Notion’s popularity is skyrocketing, it’s nowhere near a new idea. The sudden boom of Notion users is from people who enjoy following study accounts like studyblrs or studygrams, which are accounts on social media dedicated to aesthetic journals and creative spreads for school.
Notion provides a relatively easy way for those (like me) who aren’t neat enough to fill their own beautiful spread needs. While you can easily customize with pictures and unique gifs, Notion has already taken care of the formatting. Everything is already in a set font and color palette that seamlessly flows together. You can easily drag and drop to rearrange the layout of your pages. I know if I tried to create a bullet journal, I would probably give up in less than a week due to the desire to keep it as pristine as possible, but Notion allows for an easier digital version.
Personally, I have used Notion for school and life management. I have a weekly calendar for classes and other activities, a spreadsheet of internships I am researching, to-do lists for my short-term and long-term needs, and collages for art inspiration. It’s definitely helped me see what I have coming up weekly and personally become more accountable.
I recommend everyone should try using Notion. It provides easy ways for visual organization, not to mention the absolute fun in customizing your pages, from Timothée Chalamet gifs to screenshots from the app Sky. The user interface is super easy and intuitive. Do be warned, it may suddenly turn into a procrastination trap, by making you think you’re being productive and organizing your life for hours on end! You can easily find templates on Twitter from study accounts to get started on organizing your own life in an aesthetic way.