How to be *really really* productive without getting OVERWHELMED ✨

Study To Success
24 Mar 202422:04

TLDRThe video script outlines a personal journey of transforming disorganization into a streamlined life management system using Notion. The creator shares their struggle with traditional planning methods and introduces their 'second brain' in Notion, a comprehensive planning tool that organizes daily tasks, goals, projects, and finances. The video provides a detailed tour of the setup, including habit tracking, academic planning, workout routines, skincare, and financial management, emphasizing the importance of present-focused planning and reflection for personal growth and productivity.

Takeaways

  • 📝 The speaker's life was once disorganized, with multiple planning tools leading to frequent failures in sticking to life plans.
  • 🌟 The creation of a single planning system in Notion has helped the speaker break down goals and avoid procrastination.
  • 🔍 Notion is a versatile platform that allows for planning, tracking, and organizing all work in one place, with customizable templates.
  • 🗂️ The speaker's 'second brain' in Notion is a central hub for daily, weekly, and quarterly planning, as well as goal tracking and habit monitoring.
  • 📅 A 'deadline dump' is used to list all important deadlines, allowing for automatic updates and clear visibility of upcoming tasks.
  • 🛠️ The speaker's daily planning is structured around four main categories: Work, Fitness, Studies, and Meals, with a focus on prioritizing tasks.
  • 🔜 The 'Year at a Glance' and 'Month at a Glance' pages help in setting long-term goals and tracking progress without being overwhelmed.
  • 🔄 The 12-Week Year system is adopted for more focused and intensive goal achievement, reducing the pressure of yearly goals.
  • 💡 Reflection is a key component of the speaker's planning system, with quarterly reflections helping to evaluate strategies and progress.
  • 📊 The use of a 'habit tracker' in Notion allows the speaker to monitor daily habits and maintain consistency in self-care routines.
  • 🎯 Specific project pages in Notion help in managing tasks, deadlines, and deliverables for various projects, such as YouTube content creation.

Q & A

  • How did the creator describe their life before they developed their current planning system?

    -The creator described their life as a complete and utter mess, feeling overwhelmed and disorganized due to constant procrastination and failure to stick to life plans.

  • What is the main purpose of the 'second brain' in Notion that the creator uses?

    -The 'second brain' in Notion is used to organize the creator's entire life, keeping them sane while juggling multiple tasks, and helping to break down goals into manageable chunks to prevent feeling overwhelmed.

  • How does the creator organize their daily tasks in Notion?

    -The creator organizes daily tasks by splitting them into four main categories: Work, Fitness, Studies, and Meals. They aim to have a maximum of three tasks in each category, prioritized or chronologically ordered based on when they want to complete them.

  • What is the significance of the 'Notification Center' in the creator's Notion setup?

    -The 'Notification Center' provides an updated overview of the creator's ongoing projects, tasks due today, and overdue tasks. It serves as a daily reminder of what's happening in their life, helping them stay on track and focused.

  • How does the creator use the 'Deadline Dump' feature in Notion?

    -The 'Deadline Dump' lists all deadlines for school assignments, immovable events like doctor's appointments, and other important dates. It allows the creator to see how many days are left for each deadline and whether it's overdue or due soon.

  • What is the '12-Week Year System' that the creator mentions?

    -The '12-Week Year System' is a method that focuses on accomplishing more in shorter, intense periods (12 weeks) rather than spreading goals over an entire year. It helps the creator to concentrate on the present and make more progress without feeling overwhelmed by long-term goals.

  • How does the creator structure their habit tracker in Notion?

    -The creator's habit tracker in Notion counts daily achievements such as reaching 10K steps, stretching for 15 minutes, reading for 20 minutes, journaling, and getting to bed by 10 PM, as well as tracking the total sleep hours. It provides an average sleep duration and a visual representation of how many days the habits were accomplished.

  • What type of content is included in the creator's 'Academic' page in Notion?

    -The 'Academic' page includes course descriptions, instructor information, typed or PDF notes, assignments, tasks, and a weekly deliverables filter. It also features a degree audit, past class list with details, and a monthly view of the deadline dump filtered for classes.

  • How does the creator manage their finances in Notion?

    -The creator manages their finances by recording monthly income and expenses, categorizing them, and tracking total amounts spent or earned. They also maintain a record of accounts, balances, and savings goals within the Notion setup.

  • What is the creator's approach to planning and tracking their fitness routine?

    -The creator writes in their workout routine, including a warmup and elliptical exercise, and uses a fitness tracker generated weekly. This helps them stay consistent with their exercise regimen and track their progress.

  • What does the creator include in their 'Glow Station' page in Notion?

    -The 'Glow Station' page includes skincare routine videos, current prescriptions, vitamins, hair care information, energy supplements, sleep information, makeup routines, and a self-care shopping list with links for convenience.

Outlines

00:00

📝 Introduction to Personal Planning System

The speaker introduces their journey from being disorganized to creating a personal planning system that works for them. They used to have multiple planning tools like journals, to-do lists, and notes apps, but always failed to stick to their plans. They then discovered a single planning system that helps them break down goals into manageable tasks and avoid procrastination. The speaker will discuss their 'second brain' in Notion, a tool that organizes their entire life and helps them stay sane while juggling multiple tasks.

05:01

🧠 Notion Setup and Planning Tips

The speaker dives into their Notion setup, explaining the main features and how they structured it to prevent procrastination. They discuss the use of Notion as a platform for planning and tracking various aspects of life in one place. The speaker's Notion workspace includes daily tasks, self-care, goals, habit tracking, and project management. They also mention a navigation bar for easy access to frequently used pages and a notification center that updates them on deadlines and tasks due.

10:03

📅 Detailed Daily and Weekly Planning

The speaker explains their daily and weekly planning process in Notion, which is divided into categories such as work, fitness, studies, and meals. They prioritize tasks and use the Eisenhower Matrix to categorize them as urgent and important. The speaker also discusses the use of buttons in Notion to quickly access daily routines and a time-blocker for scheduling the day. They mention a weekly board view for an overview of the week's tasks and goals.

15:04

📊 Quarterly and Annual Goals Tracking

The speaker highlights their use of the 12-week year system in Notion to focus on shorter-term goals, which they find less overwhelming. They discuss the quarterly goals, visual representation of progress, and the importance of focusing on the present. The speaker also includes a quarterly reflection to evaluate strategies and progress, and a year-at-a-glance page for setting annual focus areas and tracking important dates.

20:05

💡 Additional Notion Pages and Features

The speaker showcases additional Notion pages such as a habit tracker, project management, academia, workouts, glow station for skincare, recipes, library for books, and finances. Each page is tailored to specific needs, with features like timers, trackers, and detailed information on tasks, courses, and personal development. The speaker emphasizes the convenience and organization that Notion brings to their life.

🎁 Conclusion and Notion Template Giveaway

The speaker concludes the Notion tour by offering a giveaway, including a keyboard and free Notion templates. They express excitement about launching their first product, a Notion template, and encourage viewers to provide feedback. The speaker also mentions that any proceeds from the template sales will go towards a larger giveaway planned for the future. They thank Notion for sponsoring the video and highly recommend it for its ability to organize and streamline planning.

Mindmap

Keywords

💡Disorganization

Disorganization refers to a state of being chaotic and lacking structure or order. In the video, the creator describes their previous struggle with disorganization, which led to the use of multiple planning tools and methods that ultimately failed to bring order to their life. This keyword is central to understanding the creator's initial challenges and the need for a more effective planning system.

💡Second Brain

The term 'second brain' is used to describe a comprehensive planning system that acts as an extension of one's memory and organizational capabilities. In the context of the video, the creator's 'second brain' is a digital tool in Notion that helps them organize their entire life, keep track of goals, and manage various tasks efficiently. It is a key concept as it represents the solution to the creator's initial disorganization.

💡Notion

Notion is a versatile productivity platform that allows users to create, manage, and organize various aspects of their work and personal life in one place. It is the tool that the creator uses to implement their 'second brain' system. Notion's flexibility and features, such as templates and the ability to track progress, make it an ideal choice for the creator's needs.

💡Goal Setting

Goal setting is the process of identifying and prioritizing specific objectives one wants to achieve. In the video, the creator emphasizes the importance of breaking down goals into manageable chunks to prevent feeling overwhelmed. This concept is crucial as it underpins the creator's approach to planning and organization within their 'second brain' system.

💡Procrastination

Procrastination is the act of delaying or postponing tasks or actions, often leading to reduced productivity and increased stress. In the video, the creator associates procrastination with the feeling of being overwhelmed by planning and the ineffectiveness of their previous planning attempts. Addressing procrastination is essential to understanding the creator's motivation for developing a more effective planning system.

💡Time Blocking

Time blocking is a scheduling technique where time is divided into blocks, each dedicated to a specific task or activity. This method helps in managing time efficiently and focusing on one task at a time. In the video, the creator uses time blocking to structure their day and ensure that they allocate appropriate time to each task, contributing to their overall productivity and organization.

💡Habit Tracker

A habit tracker is a tool used to monitor the consistency and progress of habits one is trying to establish or maintain. In the video, the creator uses a habit tracker in Notion to keep track of daily habits such as steps taken, stretching, reading, journaling, and sleep patterns. This tool is integral to the creator's system as it helps them maintain healthy routines and self-care practices.

💡Eisenhower Matrix

The Eisenhower Matrix is a time management strategy that categorizes tasks into four quadrants based on their urgency and importance. It helps prioritize tasks by focusing on what needs immediate attention and what can be scheduled or delegated. In the video, the creator mentions using the Eisenhower Matrix as a basis for structuring their to-do list, emphasizing the importance of prioritizing urgent and important tasks.

💡12-Week Year

The 12-Week Year is a concept and system that breaks down the traditional year into a series of 12-week periods, each treated as a mini-year with its own goals and objectives. This approach aims to increase focus and productivity by creating a sense of urgency and preventing procrastination. In the video, the creator uses the 12-Week Year system to manage their quarterly goals, making their planning more manageable and less overwhelming.

💡Financial Management

Financial management involves the process of organizing, tracking, and planning for financial matters, including income, expenses, and savings. In the video, the creator discusses their approach to financial management within their 'second brain' system, using Notion to track income and expenses, calculate savings, and set financial goals.

💡Productivity

Productivity refers to the efficiency and effectiveness with which tasks are completed. The video emphasizes the creator's journey from feeling overwhelmed and disorganized to achieving greater productivity through the implementation of a structured planning system in Notion. The 'second brain' system helps the creator manage their time and tasks more effectively, leading to increased productivity.

Highlights

The speaker describes their life as a complete mess due to disorganization and constant failure in sticking to life plans.

They used multiple tools like journals, to-do list pads, notebooks, and phone apps to manage life plans but ended up feeling overwhelmed.

The creation of a single planning system in Notion has helped the speaker break down goals into manageable chunks and reduce procrastination.

Notion is a platform that allows planning, tracking, and organization of various aspects of life in one place.

The speaker's 'second brain' in Notion includes daily, weekly, quarterly, and yearly planning, inspired by bullet journaling.

The speaker uses a deadline dump to manage and visualize all upcoming deadlines and tasks.

Notion's template gallery allows users to duplicate pre-made templates into their workspace for easy setup.

The speaker's Notion setup includes a notification center that updates with project status, due tasks, and overdue tasks.

The speaker emphasizes the importance of focusing on the present and breaking down big goals into smaller, more manageable tasks.

The 12-week year system is used to focus on accomplishing more in a shorter timeframe, preventing procrastination.

The speaker uses a time-blocker in Notion to schedule daily activities and maintain a clear overview of the day.

Notion's habit tracker helps the speaker monitor daily habits such as steps, stretching, reading, journaling, and sleep.

The speaker's Notion setup includes a project management system that links to a video creation template with outlines and tasks.

Academia page in Notion contains course information, notes, assignments, and a monthly view of academic deadlines.

The speaker uses Notion to track finances, including income, expenses, and savings goals.

Notion's aesthetic and functional templates can be customized to fit individual needs and preferences.

The speaker offers free templates and a giveaway in the video description box, sponsored by Notion.