Getting Started with Notion - Beginners Tutorial

hi there jamie here today at teachers tech hope  you're having a great day today i want to   show you how to use notion now i started using  notion a couple of months ago and i've been really   impressed with it you can use it as little as  possible just to keep some daily tasks going and   or keeping yourself organized but it has the power  to be so much more for teams and organizations   so i'm going to show you the free version  today that's what i'm using i'm going to be   starting from scratch with notion then walking  through how you can set up notion for you to   get the most out of it let's get started with  how to use notion here today on teachers tech i'll put the link to notion down below in  the description you can click on it will take   you right to this page and also time stamp  everything in this video that you can jump   around to different parts if you're looking for  something specific one of the things i love about   notion is just how flexible it is you can quickly  drag and drop pages add things to pages quickly   create databases in it and i want to go all  over those things but let's first with starting

a account a free account in notion so i'm going  to go up to the top here just where it says try   notion for free and you're going to see i have  some options to sign in i can either sign in with   google apple or create one i'm going to go ahead  and connect it to just a demo gmail account that   i have for this tutorial here today and then i'm  going to just select this and log in so you'll see   it's going to be this easy to create your account  you can create it with your team or for yourself   i'm just going to do it for myself in this example  here but remember you can grow with notion keep it   start it off simple then grow with it if you need  to be sharing different uh pages or invite team   members into it but i'm going to just go take me  to notion and you'll see at this point it's going   to set up a spot that's going to look very similar  for everybody and i like it how they put the pages   uh in it so you can get some examples with these  pages i could go through and edit them and start   from there or i can delete them or i'll start from  scratch that's what i'm going to start with right   now just a little walk around what you're going  to see and then we'll start creating some pages

i'm going to keep the templates that they show  us over here notice i could hit clear templates   but i'm just going to hit okay now what i want  to point out with when you're using notion you   have these different pages here and any of these  can be open up if i click on the down arrow you   can see that there are sub pages underneath these  here at any point if you're using these templates   you can quickly alter them change the names for an  example if you didn't want this journal look if i   hit these three little dots here i can have delete  if you see something that you really like and you   want quick access to it we could add to favorites  so if i click on it creates this topic right up   here favorites so those three little dots can do  a lot i can remove from favorites to put them back   down so as i open up different ones if i go to a  reading list you can see how they have it set up   inside of any of these pages are going  to be blocks so this is a block in here   at any point if you wanted to you can move these  blocks around i can click and drag and move them   on the page so it makes it very easy to manipulate  i can click to add a block here and when i go   ahead and add a block i can choose what i want  from here so maybe is there a certain quote that   you found or you could add dividers or a table  or you want a quick bulleted list you can start   with here and just put information in so if i put  another one and then i have that list the other   thing that i like with any of these if i drag it  over to the side over here i can move it around   and i'll just move it on the outside of this  notice i created columns so any of these templates   can be manipulated you can delete whole pages if  i don't want this journal i can go ahead and hit   delete use the ones that you want to get yourself  started so maybe you want your personal home one   set up like this i want to point out when you're  creating these it creates this wiki inside here so   it gives these links so if i go to movie list  it gives me connects to a movie list inside   of here that you can keep track of everything  so that's just a little bit about how you can   manipulate the templates but what i want to do  next is just start from scratch with the page

right before we start this blank page i just want  to point out you can download an app for this too   and it runs a little bit faster notice that there  was a notification right here so i'm on windows   but if you're on mac you can download the app too  if i go up top here you'll be able to see where   it says get windows app i'll talk about settings  and everything later on in this video again just   check the timestamps down below so down below here  i'm just going to go new page and when i click on

new page we have some options and in this case i'm  just going to start with a blank page and i'll do   another page where it's going to be a database but  in this case it's just going to be a blank page   and i'm just going to call this we'll keep this  simple this is just going to be a demo page here   now we have some choices do i want an empty  icon empty templates and i'm going to make   another page just showing how the options with  templates and the templates are great because they   save you a lot of time and then you can go  through modify the way you want or you can   import but i'm just going to do i'm going to  do an empty one here and then add the icon   i do want to point out right up here we can change  this at any time there's different styles uh for

the font here you can see as i click on it we  have small width full width so if there's some   customization uh customization you'd want there  take a look at these and right away i can add two   favorites here so i'm just going to go ahead and  click off this and you'll see as soon as i do that   if i look over here i have demo page when i click  on it i have all these options now that i can   add to this demo page now i'm going to customize  this a bit here and i said before even after you

can click on this and do your customization here's  another shortcut just to pin this as your favorite   now i'm going to hover over up here and i can  add an icon so the icon will show up just how   these books are so if i go add an icon this pops  up but i can click on this and add some more so   you can do some searches if you want or take a  look at the different options that you have here   so you can even upload on it so i'm just  going to go ahead and we'll just pick this   one here and you can see how it gets updated  if i want to change it just click on it again   and it's very easy i can add a cover the  cover when i click on it just picks this one   i can change the cover i can upload a cover too so  if there's something you want to upload that you   have to personalize it more you can do that you  can link this too and you can see you can go to   unsplash here i'm just going to go ahead and just  pick one of these here so i'm going to pick this   and you can see how it's updated very quickly  that's what i like is how quickly this updates   we can reposition so if i reposition you can  see i can make something kind of stand out more   if i want all right so we got our page all set up  the way we want it to look uh we can change this   too if i drag this so all these are draggable  if i wanted a different part notice how i   put it right into here so you can just drag them  around very quickly at this point i can add

start adding my blocks i can click on the page and  i'm ready to go notice if i click the plus right   here i have the blocks or else i can just hit  the forward slash and it's going to come up too   so i guess you would have to choose what you  wanted to start with so if you're going to   just add some text to it i can type some info and  then you have this in take a look at the different   options so as soon as i highlight this notice i  get some more options so i can go and bold this

italicize and just as a normal web document  editor it looks very similar and works very   similar so i can even link this so if i wanted to  link this to a website i can go and paste the link   right in here notice i have more options here if  i want to delete duplicate and so on uh i want to   point out also that if i go ahead and highlight  this i can drop down and i can change it so maybe   this is going to become a heading as i select  this is a heading now if i hit enter it   gives the spaces in it but i can and then i can  quickly drag it to there i can't drag it if i   haven't hit any enters or given it any more space  i can't uh do it but as soon as i hit a few enters   then it comes in and remember with the columns  too so if i go ahead and click in here and then

just add another one and i'm just going to do  a to-do list and this will be just an example   and like i showed you before if i drag this to the  end it starts creating the columns here right so   i can do more too so if i go ahead and just  hit one more text and i'll type test again and   drag it way over i've added another column so you  can quickly add these columns of these different   blocks by adding anywhere so just remember  how quickly it is to drag and drop them   the more customization you have with any  of these blocks again if you click on it

and open it up you do notice that there's color so  we can change color background so if i select it   now it has a different color background if you  wanted it to stand out again drag around very   quickly so just click on it take a look at color  we do have other options where we can move this   also so if i hit move i can move it to a different  page that would be over here just by selecting it   i'm going to go ahead and just do some deleting  now so i'm just going to hit delete here   and we'll just clean this up because i also want  to show you that you can add things to the page   like this or you can create sub pages to this so  with this demo page right here i'm going to go

ahead and see where it says quickly add a page  inside so if i click on it this time and i i'm   going to just put down uh to do just like this so  i'm going to go ahead and i'll just say empty with   an icon and it jumps over that step here and if  i click off of it now notice it says to do on the   demo page and it creates this link so if i drop  click on it brings me over i'll just close this   notice here so i have this drop down at this point  again these can be deleted they can be renamed   and they can be moved very quickly i can go  to it if i want to i'm going to go to another one   i'll hit the add page to it and this time i just  want to point out templates because templates

allow you take a look at all the different  things that you can create that they've made for   you can tweak a little bit but you take a  look at these ones maybe you have a goals one here   and we'll say use this template and it adds  it to so with any of these you can uh add a   new one to do so if i was going to make a video  on notion like so and if that's under my to-do   i can then bring it through the series of where  i want it to notice that this one has a tag   in it too you can take a look at these as you add  more if i click on this i can have more options   so if i click in it i can pick this is based on  the template that they picked on it so i could go   through and pick one so if this is work i could do  that but if i was going to add i can go ahead and   add more to this very quickly just like that  by typing in other tags that will show up after it   because you can do filters so this is a database  that i did add through that template and i'm   going to add another template also but you can add  filters through here to be looking for something   specific to this so if i click add a filter  you can be looking through all these different   options i'm going to create a different video  about diving into the databases on notion but   this one is more of just a getting started with  notion video but now if we take a look over here   we have our two pages if i click on the first one  we have goals and untitled and it's creating those   links at any point i can still put information  into this page so if i was going to go ahead   and just add anything to this i can hit  my ad and i can add some text to this and   put the info right up here and notice that this is  still all movable and everything to it i i'm going   to go to this page quickly you can update all this  information still add your icons and everything   gets updated so if i go to this one more time  and i just go ahead and i'm going to go and add

and i'll go this way and i'm going to go and  put a database and this time it will be just a   table database it puts it right in  this first page but it also created   a page right here notice untitled if i click on  it it's its own separate page too so i'll just   write data and you can see if i go up here to the  first page this is connected so in this time i've   inserted it from this first page and it's  there but it still created this separate page   if you uh if i didn't want it on that first page  i could have just clicked what i showed you before   and it would have just added to as a sub list so  if you go ahead and try to add any sub pages to   inside here notice and i'll just type example  and click off of it if i drop down you don't see   example but notice it's what it's part  of what the database is it added it as a   status right here the other thing i want to  point out as you get lots of different pages

take a look at your quick find i there's example  right here if i click on it opens up the page   that it's connected to right here but this or this  note inside of this is going to be showing up in   goals as this play around with some of the other  templates that they gave you in this too so for   example if i go up to uh personal home and look  at movie lists how they have these uh we could   add movies to these are just a simple copy  paste if i paste this in here and maybe as you   watch them you can go through and move them here  so everything that can be organized there's lots   of different templates in these make sure you take  a look at all the databases that you can add to it

uh if you wanted a calendar you can go through we  have calendar right here then you could be adding   your pages to an event so anytime i go ahead and  click one of these it opens up a page so if i   do it was going to be i'll just write work i  click off of it and it's on so it takes a page   and puts it into my calendar and that's how it's  being connected through the database as a calendar   one the other ones i showed you with the list or  it could be tables but it's just connecting those   pages and you can add those tags and then  connect with filters to it the other thing   i just want to point out to when you're adding  things to your page i'll go to the demo page here   and i've showed you how to add text and how to  add your databases but if you add these blocks

keep scrolling down so maybe you want to add  some images you can upload or embed a link a web   bookmark maybe you want to put a video where you  can just paste them in notice that these videos   will show up right in here so as i go through  and just hit i'll hit the forward slash this time   take a look at all the different things that you  can add uh you can add embed pdfs embed a google   doc google maps and just keep going down you  can put any things on these pages and it's so   easy to customize as you're setting up your notion  workspace take a look at these templates again

find the ones you like so if you go ahead and  create another page with all these sub pages   maybe you like the movie list you can drag  that down into your new one so remember   just how flexible this is to add there's also  another place if i go down you can add your   templates you can start right from here and take  a look this can save you so much time take a look   at all these templates that they have are already  created for you so i just wanted to end kind of   today looking at some of the settings that i  mentioned some of the extra things you can do   you can share your notion pages with other people  too if you take a look up top notice where it says   share here if i go ahead and click on this i  can publish and share a link with anybody but   i need to turn this on take a look at some of the  options they would need their notion count account   but take a look at some of the options and then we  can go ahead and copy that link and then send it   to them the other thing i wanted to point out was  under settings and members here this is where if   you wanted to upgrade you can do that and it will  show you different ones i'm just using the free   one i've really liked just using the free one but  you can check to see if any of these options would   work better for you with account with your account  uh upload photo rather than in this case the demo   one i could upload my photo here i if i didn't  want this be calling demo i can just write my   name and go through you can see your password log  out of all devices i'm just going to hit update   do take a look also if you want to work in  the full view this arrow close the sidebar   allows you to see the full page on this so you can  go back hover over and open it up again so you get   more to see there again take a look around  at all these different settings i find   notion uh very intuitive to use as you see the  different things also try out the desktop app if   you're looking for that or try your mobile app all  these things can be connected throughout devices   so i hope this beginner's tutorial and notion has  kind of given an idea how you might set up your   personal life through notion or maybe  your workspace let me know what else   you're looking to learn about notion as  i said i'll do a different video diving   a little bit more into the database and maybe  how you could create your own to help organize   something that you have at home and then you  can keep everything in the same place thanks   for watching this week on teachers tech i'll see  you next time with more tech tips and tutorials