Simple Note Taking with Notion
Of all the activities I do with Notion, note taking is by far the most popular use case. Whether I’m in a meeting and need to jot something quickly down or I have an inspiration for an idea, the ability to quickly and properly file notes is what determines whether they get lost in the ether or information that will serve me in the future.
Headers
Headers are sometimes called H tags. They tell the search engines how your article is formatted. However, in Notion this block type simply helps me organize ideas into headers similar to google docs. If you copy the Headers into another tool the headers will come with it which could save time if you work between tools and post articles often.
The shortcut for headers is using the pound (#) sign.
- One # sign gives you Header 1
- Two # signs give you Header 2
- Three # signs give you Header 3
Give it a quick try in notion now!
Using bullets
For simple readability, I use a lot of bullets. This forces my eyes and sets up the context for grouping of information. To do this in Notion, we use the Bullet block feature or the asterisks as a keyboard shortcut.
As your ideas come to life on the page, you’ll want to nest bullets within each other to group similar topics together. You can do this simply by pressing Tab as you type within Notion.
Checkboxes for actions
Another useful shortcut is the checkbox block type. The shortcut for this is two square brackets next to each either without a space like this, []. After you press the space bar after the right bracket, Notion will automatically turn it into a checkbox.
One useful way to use checkboxes are to capture actions after your meetings. Because they have a distinctive look in the tool, they stand out already on their own when skimming notes.
Toggle to Hide Distractions
The toggle block type provides a toggle where you can nest any other block type within it. This is useful if you have rough or references notes that you want to hide away so they don’t distract during the writing process.
You can also use the > shortcut to quickly create a toggle block type.
Put It All Together
Time to get some practice in! You can sign up to Notion for free today. Try to use Bullets, Toggles, Headers and Checkboxes to give your notes some extra personality and ultimately make it easier to read. Happy notioning!
