8 Powerful Ways I Use Notion On My iPad
20 million people use Notion. And that stat is almost a year old.
Since 2020, I’ve used Notion for almost everything — Notion has been my go-to tool for any project or idea I’m working on.
Whether it’s building a website to connect volunteers and nonprofits or fusing evidence and rhetoric for debate speeches, Notion’s functionality has been a game-changer for me.
Here are 8 ways I use Notion to run my life on my iPad (alternatively, 8 Notion ideas to inspire you).
Intro To The App
If you already know about Notion, skip to the next section. If not, read this part.
Notion is a productivity app that offers extensive organization and database usage. You can also add links, pages, toggles, and a variety of other tools inside of pages.
It’s a little tough to explain everything, so you can check out this video by Ali Abdaal if you’re looking for more information (I’d recommend that you watch the video first before you read this article).
Journaling
I’m not consistent with journaling.
In a given month, I’ll probably make 10–15 entries. In these entries, I usually discuss ideas, thoughts, reflections, memories, and experiences.
When I do make entries, however, they become super helpful for me.
Journaling is useful in a couple ways: I can write everything down to help me understand whatever I’m thinking about and I can reflect on what I wrote down weeks, months, and even years later.
For instance, I usually take note of activities I do whenever I travel. By journaling, I can recall memories from places I traveled to years ago.
I’ll also write about regrets I have and mistakes I made, which helps me learn from prior experience.
Writing
I also use Notion to write my posts (including the one you’re reading right now).
Previously, I used to use apps like Drafts, Bear, and Spaces. A couple months ago, I decided to switch to Notion, which was more convenient for me since I was already tracking posts on Notion.
With Notion’s organizational features, writing in Notion has made it easier to keep track of future post ideas and post status.
A while ago, Notion had this weird thing where users couldn’t copy and paste text across multiple text blocks. This made it tough to transfer content from Notion to Medium and Substack.
Thankfully, the issue was fixed. That change made Notion the perfect writing app for me.
Marketing
I help 6 nonprofits across the US manage their Google Ads accounts.
When I only had 2 or 3 clients, it was easy to manage.
As I started working for more clients, however, it was harder to keep track of everything. I wasn’t sure which ad account I had updated the day before or which ad account desperately needed adjustments.
With Notion, I can track advertising for each organization by logging updates. This helped me keep track of any major changes or future tasks I needed to complete.
I used to regularly write blog posts to help out nonprofits, and (like I currently do for Overoptimize) I would write these posts in Notion.
Volunteer Website
As a branch of my nonprofit marketing project, I also created a website where nonprofits can post remote marketing volunteer opportunities for high school students.
The website’s URL is a subdomain of the marketing project’s main website, and the webpage is a Notion database.
The page shows each nonprofit and the potential opportunities offered by them. In addition, users can search through the database for specific opportunities.
Without Notion, it would’ve been much harder to create a website with a similar function.
Thanks to Notion and Fruition, I’ve been able to connect volunteers and nonprofits across the world.
Studying
Over the last school year, I used Notion extensively. It was particularly useful in my AP Environmental Science class.
My teacher would give us a study guide with a list of questions before each test.
Using Notion’s toggle feature, I would create a question and add the answer inside the toggle. After I finished this process, I would send the link to the page to my friends, who could then use the study guide for themselves.
At the end of the year, I shared a master page with links to all of my study guides for the final.
This was super helpful throughout the year, and I plan to use Notion next year (especially in my AP Economics and AP Government classes).
Book Notes
It’s been a while since I’ve read a book outside of school-required reading (as I’m writing this, I realize that I should probably get back into the habit).
For a while, though, I was reading on a consistent basis.
Depending on the type of book, I would take different levels of notes.
For books with general concepts, like So Good They Can’t Ignore You by Cal Newport, I would take high-level notes. I would cover the major concepts in a few sentences and reflect on what I’ve learned.
For other books with specific concepts, like How to Talk to Anyone: 92 Little Tricks for Big Success in Relationships by Leil Lowndes, I take detailed notes. In that specific case, I’m taking a couple sentences of notes on each tip.
For How To Talk to Anyone, I went through the first few tips slowly. I applied them in practice, and they actually worked (at least from what I observed). I reflected on what I had learned and noted these points as well.
For ideas on how to set up book notes, you can check out Ali Abdaal’s template. The core idea behind the way we take notes is the same, but his template is more organized.
College Applications
Sigh. It’s almost time.
I’ve already started writing my responses to UC PIQs (equivalent of essays), and I’ve (mostly) narrowed down my college list.
Thanks to Notion, I’ve been able to organize the entire process.
With Notion, I’ve been able to create a dashboard for my college applications. That’s where I keep links to my activity list, college list, advice notes, and college essays.
With Notion’s board view, I can track the progress of my essays through different stages (Not Started, In Progress, Revision, Completed).
I can also add website links to my college list to keep track of different admissions policies for different universities.
Debate
In school, I compete in Congressional Debate.
In each tournament, I receive anywhere from 3 to 30 topics (legislation) to prepare, and I’m expected to give a 3-minute speech on either affirmation or negation.
It can be an intense process, and having Notion to organize everything keeps me on track.
I organize each tournament under a toggle, where I keep a database of my speeches. I usually create cards (sections of evidence) from online articles, and I store these under a toggle for each speech.
When I’m in a round, I usually re-arrange these cards and add rhetoric to create my speech.
When I graduate, I plan to share my speeches and cards with younger students. Thankfully, I’ll be able to do so with Notion’s sharing features.
Conclusion
Those are all the different ways I use Notion on my iPad.
Since I don’t have access to the desktop version of Notion, I haven’t been able to make full use of all available features. Despite this limitation, I’ve still managed to use Notion to run my life.
Hopefully, this article gave you some inspiration on ways you can use Notion. If you have any other ideas, feel free to share them with the rest of the Overoptimize community.
Thanks!
Adi
