Shadowing Practice: How to Get Started with Notion (without losing your mind) - Learn English Speaking with Video

Les maken...
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To help you get started in Notion without losing your mind, we'll begin with a completely blank Notion page.
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And in just 12 minutes or so, you have your very own LifeOS home screen up and running.
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It comes with one essential dashboard to help beginners get started.
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And this dashboard is powered by two extremely simple databases.
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And to prove to you, this is literally how I started using Notion years ago, this is my current LifeOS home screen.
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And as you can see, it's basically set up the same way.
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So let's get started.
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First, we give this blank page a name, Life OS, and we choose an icon.
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I like to use the yin yang icon here.
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We press enter, we press hashtag twice, space for heading to dashboard,
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forward slash, blue, you can choose whatever color you want.
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I'll choose blue background here, enter, and triple hyphen one two three to add a divider.
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I just think that looks super clean.
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And then double hashtag again, one, two, and we choose, we type a database here, forward slash gray, gray background,
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and triple hyphen again, one, two, three.
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Now, the most common advice you'll hear from experienced users is that databases are the cornerstone of productive Notion setups.
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So we're going to first build out our databases, then come back to the dashboard pages, go ahead and type in forward slash table and select the table view under database here.
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And then we're going to select a new database.
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We're going to name this task.
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database.
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And because I don't want a table taking up half my screen, I'm gonna choose this button here.
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And I'm going to turn this into a page.
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So I can now click into the task database and work on this in a clean page.
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I'm going to choose an icon and let's choose a checkmark here like so.
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And this is going to be task.
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This property, I'm going to change this property from a multi -select to a date because we want
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tasks are attached to due dates.
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I like to select the month date year because I was unfortunately, fortunately brought up in the US and time format 24 hours.
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And this is going to be renamed to do date like so.
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Let's decrease the size here a little bit.
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And the final property we're going to add is a checkbox because we want to check tasks that have already been completed.
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And pro tip with checkbox properties, you can actually just hide the property name.
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I'm going to drag this to the left here so I can like click this like so, right?
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Oops.
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And I'm going to change this table name to all tasks.
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And I will select a bullet point drop down menu like so.
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So it looks a little bit cleaner.
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Let's add some tasks just for placeholder purposes.
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kidney to afford it.
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Due date, let's say for the sake of argument, today is when I watch a review, tomorrow or in two days, I will sell my kidney.
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Oops, there we go.
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Let's actually clear this up.
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Next, we're going to book a flight to San Francisco to complain to Tim Cook directly.
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And as you can see, this has wrapped columns turned on.
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So I'm just going to go to the three all columns.
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I just think this looks cleaner.
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I'm going to choose a due date here to be two weeks from now.
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And since this is a task database, we're going to add a sort by due date ascending so that the next due task is shown up top.
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And if you're using Notion yourself, you will not see this save for everyone option.
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So you can choose to ignore it for this entire tutorial.
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And now if I choose that dude.
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to today you'll see that it automatically jumps up top.
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And that's it.
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We're done with the task database.
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Now, we can either click the Live OS button here to go back a page, or I recommend getting used to keyboard shortcuts as soon as possible.
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So command or control left bracket to go back a page.
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And we're gonna now start building our next note -taking database.
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So forward slash table, same exact process as before.
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Select a table view, new database.
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We're gonna name this notes database.
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And similar to last time, we're going to click this and turn into a page to have Notion,
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the notes database rather, be in a standalone page, add an icon, and I like to choose one of the writing icons here, like so.
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And when it comes to properties, we're gonna rename this to notes.
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We're gonna change this to date actually, and you'll see why in a little bit, like so.
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Full date, month, date, year, and 24 hour.
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Let's decrease the size of this a little bit.
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And then we're here, we're gonna add select
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property type and we're gonna choose we're gonna type note type
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and we'll come back to this in a little bit we're going to add the fourth property is created time
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so you know when the note was created let's choose the exact same time format
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and we're gonna add a a last updated time
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so how recently the note was updated we're going to change
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that and there you go you might be confused as to one meeting with my manager.
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I'm gonna start the note today, but the meeting is for tomorrow.
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So the creative time wouldn't accurately reflect that.
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I personally have three categories of notes.
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The first notes type is when a meeting occurs or presentation happens and you're taking down notes, summarizing your learnings and findings.
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The second type of notes, for example, let's say my friend tells me about his trip to Iceland.
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I'm like, "Oh, think about traveling to Iceland.
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Sounds like a beautiful place to go." And let's say this is happening like next week in the future.
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This would count as a thought for me, like thoughts, right?
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No meeting happened, no presentation occurred.
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It was just me thinking by myself, "Oh, I should do something," or "This was interesting."
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And the third category of notes is if I clipped a YouTube video or online article,
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for example, "Intro to AI by Google." And let's say this happens two weeks from now.
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I would categorize this as research and you could change the colors of all these notes by clicking through button here.
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Let's say notes is blue.
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Thoughts is yellow and research.
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We can let it remain gray.
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And finally, let's change the view name to all notes.
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And similar to last time, let's select the bullet point one.
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And we can sort by date descending this time so that the most recent notes are shown up top,
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save for everyone, or just save if you're using Notion by yourself.
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Now that we have these two databases, let's build out our first dashboard.
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So forward slash page this time instead of a table, enter, and we're going to name this command center.
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Let's select an icon.
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Let's do the activity icon, right?
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Like so.
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And this is a personal preference, but whenever I create a new page, I like to press enter, forward slash breadcrumb to show the current page location.
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Then enter again, hyphen, hyphen, hyphen, to add a divider line.
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I just think this looks super clean.
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Then top right, we're gonna choose these three dots, and we're gonna actually turn this page to full width to give us more space to work with.
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Hashtag, hashtag.
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Or, yeah, pound sign, pound sign.
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space for heading two, and we're gonna choose weekly task view here.
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forward slash blue again, hyphen, hyphen, hyphen.
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We can select these two elements, command D to copy and paste, move the newly created elements to the right here, like so, drop it.
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And we're going to move the divider line back up here.
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We're going to change this to notes view.
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This next part is what makes Notion so powerful.
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We will now create views of the two databases we just created so that we
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This is why this is called the command center.
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Starting with the weekly view section, forward slash table, we're still gonna select the table view under databases.
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But unlike last time, we're gonna select the task database we built earlier in this video.
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And we're gonna choose to copy an existing view, all tasks.
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Now, before we do anything else, you want to actually left click on all tasks and make a duplicate view.
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So you have the all task view, Still, there and then we're going to play around with this new view.
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We're gonna rename this to upcoming.
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I wanna see the upcoming task in the next seven days.
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We're gonna change the icon here to an eye icon.
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And then we're gonna select the filter to done.
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is unchecked so that all uncompleted tasks will be visible, right?
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We're going to save this and we're going to add another filter
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because I want the upcoming seven day task to be visible only.
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So we're going to choose the due date.
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Bye.
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Go in, start date is, on or before drop down menu one week from now.
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So all tasks between today and And then next week, we'll be shown.
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We're gonna save for everyone and we're gonna make sure the sort due date is still ascending.
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So the next task will be shown first
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So let's say cell kidney that's due two days from now
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if I were to select three weeks from now I it disappears, right?
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Command Z, we bring it back.
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So that's how this works.
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To clean this up a little bit, we can actually click filter to get rid of all the filter and stored options.
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And we're going to click the three dots here and hide the database title.
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Now we can toggle between the upcoming view and the all task view.
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The third and final view we're going to build is something called the inbox view.
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And it's very important for task management.
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And this is how it works.
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Let's first go to the task view, we're going to name this inbox,
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and we're going to select the mailbox.
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icon like so and the only filter option here will be the due date is gonna be empty. is empty.
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Now, The way this works is you can quickly capture
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any ideas or tasks you have in here without assigning a due date, because sometimes you don't know when the task has to be due and you can find them all here.
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The second you add a due date.
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So let's go through an example, uh, rehearse for next presentation.
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The due date is empty right now, but if I select it next week, it disappears.
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And if you go to upcoming, it shows up rehearse for next presentation, right?
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So let's go.
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Let's actually command Z.
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go back to the inbox view.
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So all tasks without a due date will be shown here.
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We can click the three dots and hide the database title.
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And I like to move the inbox view, oops, to the middle here.
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So now you have three views, upcoming, inbox, and all tasks.
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Moving over to the notes view, this is gonna be super simple compared to what we did with tasks.
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Forward slash table, we're gonna select the table view under database.
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And we're gonna select the notes database we just created.
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And we're gonna copy an existing view, all notes.
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date descending.
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So first let's hide this database title to make it cleaner.
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And we're going to click on all notes here and we're going to make a duplicate view again.
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And we're going to change this.
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We're going to rename this to recent notes.
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So recently updated notes.
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I'm going to choose an icon.
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So clock, let's choose a clock, something like this maybe.
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And instead of short by due date, sort by date descending, we're going to sort by last updated time.
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descending.
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Say for everyone, So let's say this meeting my manager is happening tomorrow, but if I just change this to,
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even though the date is still scheduled for tomorrow, but because the last updated time was just now a couple seconds ago, it's going to be a little bit different.
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it's gonna jump to the top.
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And speaking of, this looks a little bit messy, so I'm just gonna actually click the three dots here, and we're gonna choose properties,
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and we're gonna Deselect these two to keep this view cleaner.
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This does not mean we're deleting the column, but rather just hiding them. So click. and click.
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So now within the notes view, if you click on the filter option to
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get rid of the sort options we see the note title the note date
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and the note type
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and we can even tidy this up a little bit more as you use notion more
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and more you'll figure out what other sections you want to
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add to your command center for example for me i have the exact same upcoming weekly task view here, right?
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But I have other sections as well.
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Let me know in the comments if you want entire video on this HQ slash command center of mine.
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In the meantime, let's move on to a must know feature all beginners should use, templates.
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For example, in your notes view, if you click here or click the new button here, you'll be greeted with an empty page, team meeting, and you have to populate everything yourself.
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The date, oh, it's on, okay, not Saturday, it's Monday.
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The note type is gonna be notes, be key takeaways, blah, blah, blah, one, two, three, notes,
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and then you have to do this again, again, every single time.
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A much more efficient way is to first, let's exit out by pressing escape.
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Clicking the drop down menu here next to the new button
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and choose new templates and we're gonna press command and control enter to expand this to full screen.
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Click the three dots and we're gonna click full width and let's title this oops new note.
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choose a meaningful icon, let's say something related to writing again, like a pencil.
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I like to have the note type Moved up below the date and we can actually choose the date to
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dynamically reflect the date you create the note. So today.
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and I like to hide the created time and
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Last updated time last edited time rather to keep this clean
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and within the page content itself hashtag heading to key takeaways and I like to use this, the purple color.
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Let's switch it up right now, three hyphens.
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I'm going to select this like I did before, Command and Control D to make a copy of this.
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Move this to the right, and this is going to be Oops, this is gonna be titled action items.
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I'm gonna move this up top and down here, heading two again, notes, and we're gonna have gray hyphen, and we're gonna have one bullet point here.
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We're gonna have a number here because there's one, two, three takeaways.
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And for action items, I'm gonna have a checkbox.
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Back in our command center view, we can select the drop down menu
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and choose this new note template we just created to be the default for all views within notes database, escape.
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a new note will be generated with our template.
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The three section headers are automatically populated and we can just start taking notes.
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Jeff's intro to Notion video.
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This is going to be a research note type because you're watching this video right now.
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It's a nice video to learn from.
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Action items, like and subscribe.
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So this dashboard is more than enough to get you started, but it wouldn't be a Jeff's video without a bonus tip.
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So back in your Life OS page, and title it tasks view.
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Wait, Jeff, we already have an upcoming tasks view in the command center.
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Yes, but I've only shown you one database format in this video so far, and that's the table format.
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Back in this newly created tasks view, we're going to do this.
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Let's add an icon.
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Let's use another check mark, not the exact same one as before.
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Personal preference, enter forward slash breadcrumb and hyphen, hyphen, hyphen.
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And now we're going to give a heading to calendar view,
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and let's shade in this blue - - - /table, table view database.
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And we're gonna select the exact same task database as before, copy and existing view all tasks.
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Except this time, instead of table under layout, we're going to choose the calendar view.
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Let's toggle off the database title again.
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Let's click X here.
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And now, Let's click three dots and make it full width so it's nice and big.
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Now, although this takes up more screen real estate, so you don't want this in your command center, this is a much more visual representation of your upcoming to -dos.
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And we can even go a step further, clicking through dots here, go to properties and show whether, show the done checkmark property by clicking the eye icon here.
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And I actually don't want the task to disappear
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because I want to see which tasks have been completed in this calendar view.
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And I can move the tasks to other dates like so, as needed.
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Now back in our command center, we can create a new section, command D to make a copy of this section header, name this quick links, enter,
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- to add a divider and use the @ button to refer to the task view we just created like so,
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so that we can quickly click in, and view our tasks in calendar format without again,
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cluttering up our main command center page.
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All right, hopefully it's clear to you now how most Notion setups are powered by databases.
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You take some time to build out a few core databases once, then you create dashboards and views tailored to your own individual needs.
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The possibilities are literally endless.
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I know I talk a bit fast, so if you have questions, leave them down below.
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Subscribe to see how I set up my Notion workspace.
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See you on the next video.
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In the meantime, Have a great one.

About This Lesson

Ready to level up your English speaking practice while learning a practical skill? In this lesson, you’ll follow along with a video tutorial on setting up a Notion dashboard, using the shadowing technique to mimic the speaker’s tone, pace, and pronunciation. By the end, you’ll not only know how to build a simple "Life OS" in Notion but also boost your listening and speaking skills—all in under 15 minutes. It’s a win - win for productivity and language growth!

Key Vocabulary & Phrases

  • Dashboard: A central screen that shows important information. Example: "I set up a dashboard to track my tasks."
  • Database: A structured set of data. Example: "The task database helps me organize my to - dos."
  • Property: A characteristic or feature of an item in a database. Example: "I added a 'due date' property to my tasks."
  • Checkbox: A small box you can mark to show something is done. Example: "I check the checkbox when I finish a task."
  • Sort: To arrange items in a specific order. Example: "I sort my tasks by due date to see what’s next."
  • Placeholder: A temporary item used to show how something works. Example: "I added placeholder tasks to test the database."

Practice Tips

The video’s tone is friendly and conversational, with a moderate pace—perfect for shadowing! Here’s how to make the most of it:

  • Use a shadowing app or site to pause and repeat short segments. Start with 5 - second clips, focusing on copying the speaker’s rhythm (e.g., "First, we give this blank page a name, Life OS, and we choose an icon").
  • Pay attention to intonation when the speaker shares tips, like "pro tip with checkbox properties"—the slight emphasis on "pro tip" adds clarity. Mimic that stress to sound more natural.
  • Practice saying technical terms like "database" and "dashboard" slowly at first, then speed up to match the video. This helps with fluency in real - life conversations.
  • After shadowing, try explaining the Notion setup in your own words. This turns passive listening into active English speaking practice, reinforcing what you’ve learned.

Remember, every repeat brings you closer to sounding more confident. So grab your device, fire up the video, and start shadowing—you’ve got this!

Wat is de Shadowing-techniek?

Shadowing is een wetenschappelijk onderbouwde taalleermethode die oorspronkelijk is ontwikkeld voor professionele tolkentraining en gepopulariseerd door polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. De methode is eenvoudig maar krachtig: je luistert naar native Engelse audio en herhaalt het onmiddellijk hardop — als een schaduw die de spreker volgt met slechts 1–2 seconden vertraging. In tegenstelling tot passief luisteren of grammaticadrills, dwingt shadowing je hersenen en mondspieren om echte spraakpatronen tegelijkertijd te verwerken en te reproduceren. Onderzoek toont aan dat het de uitspraaknauwkeurigheid, intonatie, ritme, verbonden spraak, luisterbegrip en spreekvaardigheid aanzienlijk verbetert — waardoor het een van de meest effectieve methoden is voor IELTS Speaking-voorbereiding en echte Engelse communicatie.

Shadowing-techniek: lees de volledige stap-voor-stap-gids →