Hi, Hello! My name is Sarah - the writer behind redgregory.com.
My Notion-Based Learning Process
Thinking about making this learning showcase into an essay on the website. Check out redgregory.com for more about life learning in the coming week. Notetaking methods are going to be my main focus for a little while. Oh! ... and a HUGE dashboard template with at least 100 ideas for pages coming soon.
Upon first glance, Notion is an app with very little going on. For instance, there are no extraneous toolbars or pop-up tutorials. However, there is a lot hidden under the hood. There is a ton of ordinary features you'd find in any standard word processing application alongside unique features only found in Notion. Those unique features are really useful for retaining information. I'm a huge advocate for life learning both in school and out, so I want to show how Notion can be useful for everyone's learning journey. Here is my Notion-based learning process in a nutshell:
1. Wiki entry of particular subject matter
The properties are as follows:
→ Date of subject matter (In this case, 1493)
→ File (Documents associated with entry)
→ Events (I have another database that organizes a timeline of events I want to learn. Great for history buffs. I relate it into my documents database which is where this page lies.)
→ Encyclopedia (Another database I relate to my documents. This is essentially every term, person or word I would like to be more familiar with.)
Briefly about the encyclopedia
A quick way to add to a relational property without moving around pages is to highlight everything you want to move into the encyclopedia (control-shift-H), then upon second inspection of the document, copy and paste the terms into the encyclopedia property like this: (use: @ to call inline link to new encyclopedia entry)
.gif%3Ftable%3Dblock%26id%3Dcfe09413-7545-4895-bfbe-83e698a8f4e1%26spaceId%3D3d51c61d-92e0-4365-824e-4c7cd9f90627%26expirationTimestamp%3D1732384800000%26signature%3DRgkxCiX5OLsD3IqltJWHV4nvlTOnvko2grCV6yccDpY?table=block&id=cfe09413-7545-4895-bfbe-83e698a8f4e1&cache=v2)
2. I then insert my header points
- Pin Emoji → General summary of the page
- Magnify Glass Emoji → Extra tidbits
- Yield Emoji → Complications associated
The table of contents (trigger: /TOC) is placed next to header points and a toggle (trigger: /TOG) hides the subject in my own words (a paragraph or two).
3. The body of my notes are written
IIn this case, I am analyzing a document. All highlights pique my interest. All linked terms are from the encyclopedia. All headers give a brief explanation of what a passage is communicating.
4. Footnotes are placed at the bottom
This is simply a link to my encyclopedia (trigger: /linktodata) with a filter that shows all entries associated with this particular page in alphabetical order.
This is simply the notetaking aspect of my learning process. Stay tuned for retention ...
Books I've Read In Quarantine So Far
My Mood This Week
I'm planning to track my mood through the entire year in order to better understand what is making my poor days poor and what I need to do to fix them - hence, the "cause" property.
- Negative (5/7)
- Positive (2/7)