0. An Infinitely Reliable Way to Organize in Notion and Instantly Find Anything You Have

Summary

In this video, Bradley J introduces his organized Notion system, which is simple yet comprehensive. He explains his approach using the 'core 4' organization concept, dividing items into hubs, displays, and trackers. Bradley assigns specific colors to different types of information and uses consistent icons to streamline navigation. His system includes a 'last edited' view for easy access to recent work and categorizes pages into priority, processing, time-based, and category-based sections. This method ensures clarity and productivity, making Notion's vast capabilities manageable and user-friendly.

Takeaways

• 📚 Bradley J shares his organized Notion system, which is complex yet easy to understand, based on a specific set of rules.
• 🌊 He describes Notion as an 'immense sea of opportunities' which can be overwhelming, leading to disorganization if not managed properly.
• 📈 Bradley uses a 'core 4' organization concept, which classifies everything into four categories: Hub, Display, Tracker, and Item.
• 🎨 He assigns specific colors to different types of content: Yellow for notes, Green for actionable tasks, Red for projects, Orange for goals, Brown for organizers, Gray for functional items, and Blue for general views.
• 🔍 Consistent use of icons helps in navigation and understanding the purpose of different pages and elements within Notion.
• ⏭️ Each page includes a 'last edited view' to track recent activity, which is essential for not getting lost in the system.
• 🔑 Hub sub-pages are organized into four sections: Priority/Favorites, Processing/Status, Time-based, and Category-based.
• 🔗 Icons in a Hub reflect the relation to another database, ensuring visual consistency and ease of understanding.
• 🔄 The database icon always matches the Hub icon, and sub-pages carry the Hub's color and main icon for quick identification.
• 🛠️ Bradley emphasizes the importance of adjusting the display and tracker if productivity is not as desired, suggesting the 'core 4' concept can be universally applied for better organization.

Q & A

What is Bradley J's primary goal in creating his organization system in Notion?

Bradley J's primary goal is to build a system that is highly organized and easy to understand, using a specific set of rules to prevent getting lost in the vast possibilities of Notion.

How does Bradley J describe Notion when he first started using it?

Bradley J describes Notion as an immense sea of opportunities where one can create anything they want, but this freedom can also lead to disorganization and unproductivity.

What is the core 4 organization concept that Bradley J mentions?

The core 4 organization concept classifies everything into four categories: a hub for storage, a display to show items, a tracker to organize items, and a method to track items in a specific way.

Can you explain the role of a 'hub' in Bradley J's organization system?

In Bradley J's system, a 'hub' is a central location where items or information are stored, serving as the main repository for a specific type of content.

What does Bradley J use the color yellow to represent in his Notion templates?

In Bradley J's system, the color yellow is used to represent a note or stored information, acting as a visual cue for users to quickly identify notes.

How does Bradley J utilize the color green in his Notion organization?

Green in Bradley J's organization system signifies something actionable, such as a task or a to-do item.

What does the color red represent in Bradley J's Notion templates?

Red is used to denote a project or an extended effort, something that requires more thought and planning.

How does Bradley J use the color orange in his organization system?

Orange is used to represent goals or forward-looking items, indicating something that is focused on the future.

What is the purpose of the color brown in Bradley J's Notion setup?

Brown is used to represent an organizer, similar to a box that helps in organizing and containing information.

How does Bradley J ensure consistency in his Notion templates?

Bradley J ensures consistency by using specific colors for specific purposes, a set of icons with defined meanings, and a layout that includes a last edited view and categorized sections in each hub.

What is the significance of having a 'last edited view' in every page of Bradley J's Notion setup?

The 'last edited view' helps Bradley J and users to quickly return to the most recently worked on items, providing a sense of continuity and ease of navigation.

How does Bradley J categorize his Notion pages into sections?

Bradley J categorizes his pages into four sections: priority or favorite items at the top, processing or status-based items, time-based pages, and category-based pages.

What is the purpose of using specific icons in Bradley J's Notion system?

Specific icons are used to create a logical system that helps users quickly understand the purpose of a page or section without having to read or think too much.

How does Bradley J handle relations between different databases in Notion?

When there is a relation to another database, Bradley J uses the icon of the related database to indicate the connection, ensuring a visual consistency and easy understanding of the relationship.

What is the benefit of having a database icon match its Hub icon in Bradley J's system?

Matching the database icon with its Hub icon helps in quickly identifying the type of content within the database and provides a visual cue for the user to navigate through the system.

How does Bradley J take advantage of Notion's lazy loading feature?

Bradley J structures his system so that everything is behind a toggle, which means Notion's lazy loading feature only loads content when it is opened, making the system appear less overwhelming and more efficient.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Introduction to Bradley J's Notion Organization System

Bradley J introduces his Notion organization system, which he describes as complicated yet easy to understand. He emphasizes the use of a specific set of rules to maintain order, inspired by the 'core 4' organization concept applicable to both physical and digital spaces. This concept categorizes everything into hubs for storage, displays for showing items, trackers for organization, and a broad general view. He applies this to his digital Notion environment, using color coding for different types of information and icons for consistency. The goal is to avoid getting lost in the vast possibilities of Notion and to maintain productivity.

05:01

🎨 Color Coding and Icon System in Notion

Bradley J explains his color coding system in Notion, assigning specific meanings to colors such as yellow for notes, green for actionable tasks, red for projects, orange for goals, brown for organizers, gray for functional items, and blue for a broad general view. He also details a specific set of icons that he uses consistently throughout his Notion setup to avoid confusion and to streamline the process of finding and organizing information. The icons represent different functionalities like navigation, quick notes, status trackers, and processing views, which help in maintaining a logical and efficient system.

10:03

🗂️ Organizational Structure and Consistency in Notion

The video script delves into the detailed structure of Bradley J's Notion system, where every page has a 'last edited view' to help users quickly return to their recent work. He organizes his hubs into four sections: priority favorites, processing or status-based, time-based, and category-based pages. This structure helps in maintaining an overview of tasks and projects. Bradley also discusses the use of relational icons that match the database they are associated with, and how database icons always match their respective hub icons. This consistency in iconography and color coding helps users to instantly recognize where they are within the Notion environment and what actions they need to take.

🔍 Final Thoughts on Notion Organization and Layout

Bradley J concludes by showing how his entire Notion layout is organized behind toggles to take advantage of Notion's lazy loading feature, which only loads content when it's opened. This makes the system appear less overwhelming and more manageable. He reiterates the importance of the 'core 4' organization concept and encourages viewers to explore it further if they are struggling with organization and productivity. He invites questions and looks forward to discussing more in future videos.

Keywords

💡Organization System

An organization system is a structured approach to arranging and managing information, tasks, or items to enhance productivity and efficiency. In the video, Bradley J describes his personal organization system built within the Notion platform, which is designed to be comprehensive yet easy to understand. The system is based on a set of specific rules that help him navigate and manage his digital workspace without getting lost.

💡Notion

Notion is a popular all-in-one productivity app that allows users to take notes, manage tasks, and organize information in a flexible and customizable way. In the script, Bradley J uses Notion as the platform to implement his organization system, highlighting its capabilities to create a tailored and efficient digital environment.

💡Core 4 Organization Concept

The Core 4 Organization Concept is a fundamental principle that categorizes items into four types: hubs, displays, trackers, and something else. In the video, Bradley J explains how this concept is applied to both physical and digital organization, using it as the foundation for his Notion templates and providing a clear framework for sorting and managing information.

💡Hub

In the context of the Core 4 Organization Concept, a hub is a central location where items are stored. Bradley J uses the analogy of a bookshelf as a hub, where books are the items stored within the hub. In his Notion system, hubs are used to categorize and store different types of information, making it easier to locate and access when needed.

💡Display

A display in the organization system refers to how items are shown or presented in the hub. It is the visual representation of the stored items. For example, the way books are arranged on a bookshelf is considered a display, and in Bradley J's Notion setup, the display could be how tasks or notes are presented within a page.

💡Tracker

A tracker is a method of organizing items within a hub based on certain criteria. It helps in sorting and categorizing items for easy retrieval. In the video, Bradley J mentions organizing books by height, genre, or color as examples of trackers. In his Notion system, trackers could be used to sort tasks by due date or projects by status.

💡Color Coding

Color coding is a method used to visually organize and categorize information. In Bradley J's Notion system, specific colors are assigned to represent different types of information or actions, such as yellow for notes, green for actionable tasks, and red for projects. This color coding helps in quickly identifying and navigating through the content.

💡Icons

Icons are visual symbols used to represent different elements or actions within the Notion platform. Bradley J establishes a consistent set of icons for his organization system to streamline the process of navigating and managing his digital workspace. For instance, a navigation icon is used for in-page navigation, while a status tracker icon represents a board showing the process status of an item.

💡Last Edited View

The Last Edited View is a feature in Bradley J's Notion system that displays the most recently edited items at the top of a database or page. This helps in quickly resuming work from where it was last left off, providing a historical record of recent activities and enhancing productivity.

💡Database

In the context of Notion, a database is a tool for organizing and managing collections of related information. Bradley J uses databases extensively in his organization system to categorize tasks, projects, and notes. Each database is associated with a specific icon and color, and they can be sorted and filtered in various ways to manage information effectively.

💡Consistency

Consistency is a key aspect of Bradley J's organization system, where he uses the same set of rules, colors, icons, and structures across his Notion templates. This creates a uniform experience, making it easier to understand and navigate the system. Consistency helps in reducing the cognitive load and streamlines the process of finding and managing information.

Highlights

Bradley J introduces his organized Notion system based on a set of specific rules.

The system is designed to avoid the feeling of being lost in the vast opportunities Notion offers.

Core 4 organization concept is applied to both physical and digital environments.

Everything can be classified into four categories: Hub, Display, Tracker, and Item.

The bookshelf analogy is used to explain the concept of Hub, Display, and Tracker.

Colors are used to signify different types of information: Yellow for notes, Green for tasks, Red for projects, etc.

Icons are standardized to maintain consistency as the system grows.

Every page includes a 'Last Edited' view to track the most recent work.

Hub sub-pages are organized into four sections: Priority, Processing/Status, Time-based, and Category-based.

The importance of using consistent icons for navigation and understanding the system's structure.

Database icons always match their Hub icons for easy identification.

Sub-pages carry the color and main Hub icon to show their relationship within the system.

The system leverages Notion's lazy loading feature to only load content when needed.

The Core 4 organization concept is recommended for further exploration to improve productivity.

The video concludes with an invitation for viewers to ask questions if they have any.

Transcripts

howdy howdy my name is Bradley J and

today we're going to be covering my

quite complicated but surprisingly easy

to understand organization system I've

built every single notion template

pretty much the same but with their own

little flare and it's because I'm able

to use a highly reliable specific set of

rules to organize my entire system so

just going through it um little

backstory when I started notion I got

really lost and I don't know if you can

get that feel but notion is an immense

sea of opportunities you can create

whatever you want whenever you want and

that can kind of be to your detriment

where you're creating too much and

you're trying to expand and design and

you're not actually being productive so

what I did is I wanted to stick to a

specific set of rules similar to a

website so that my I don't get lost

anytime I'm in a specific place I know

exactly where I am based on these set of

rules so if you haven't learned about

the uh core for organization concept it

is a basic concept that applies to

literally everything both physical and

digital and as a brief uh overview of

what the core 4 is is um every single

thing can be classified as four

categories you either have a hub which

is where items are stored

or you have um a display which shows

those items and a Tracker that organizes

those in a certain way uh if we're

looking at this bookshelf behind me the

way that would work out is they a book

is an item of course um within the book

shelf which is the Hub of books so you

have the hubs items and then the book uh

bookshelf itself is the display the way

that those books are shown and whether

you decide to track it by height uh

genre or however you decide to track it

even by color that is your tracker and

you can build literally anything out

that way the kitchen is made of many

hubs you have your hubs of silverware

you have your hubs of cups or whatever

you want to get to but realistically it

applies to everything and I've used that

same concept uh within my digital notion

uh environment uh carrying that on

though as we see I want to rely on a

specific set of rules everywhere I've

tried to expand it to other areas and it

works pretty well anywhere you see

yellow you can rely on that to be a note

or stored information just instantly

know that hey it's a it's a sticky note

you know like the old old school sticky

notes just take one off put it where

it's going to be and never use yellow

for anything else keep it keep it pretty

simple uh next up is uh green something

actionable a task or a to-do item uh red

is a project or extended effort

something that you have to think about

um like a video kind of like YouTube is

already thought of uh orange is goals or

something forward looking uh something

in the future um Brown is an organizer

kind of like a box you see that makes a

whole lot of sense doesn't it uh gray is

something functional as you look around

a lot of stuff functional is TE

technically gray look at my dark

background and blue is just a broad

General view I'm working in purple as

something else but those are kind of

hard to classify and I figured why not

have a little fun with it and use it for

what whatever you want you want

something pink make it Pink all right

carrying it on um outside of color I've

also decided on a specific set of icons

and this is really handy because as your

system grows you waste a lot of time

trying to think of the best icon for the

best page and it just kind of doesn't

accomplish anything so you get lost um

or you can stay into a logical system

and anywhere you see the navigation well

it's onpage navigation anywhere you see

that writing it's going to be quicknotes

database favors priority category and

you can work down there because they

have a specific meaning so that icon is

only ever used once you understand that

the status tracker is going to show you

a board that determines where that item

is in the process same thing with

processing most things have a way to get

it into a different place or assign a

date property to it that's what the

processing view is for so anytime you

see that shuffle it's telling you to get

it into where wherever you want it to go

and just carrying on down it just it

makes a whole lot of sense using

consistent icons

hope that makes sense so far we're going

to get pretty deep pretty quick so

moving it on um every single page within

this um my stuff has a last edited view

um again I got lost a lot so I figured

in a database the one consistent view

would be the view of what I was just

working on I want to get back to it

don't I most likely unless it's an

archive but it still be know still be

good to know and have a history of where

I just was so anywhere you are any view

is going to have the main hubs or the

main database's last edited view um

sorted from whatever it is on top to

last uh whatever you just viewed on top

down to what was viewed last on bottom

of

course moving on forward I have to show

you this one because it is a little bit

in depth so additionally each Hub sub

page are grouped into the same four

sections the top is a priority favorite

uh priority favorite or important

meaning that if you have something

specific you want it on the top of your

view in tasks that's task due today or

tomorrow it's going to show you task due

today of course because we want to know

what what's on our plate for right now

so we can get to that uh next up is

processing or status based it's going to

be group by those let me show

you um let's go to the notes hub

so you have the favorite on top the only

one main favorite for this Hub down

bottom you have processing and Status

where you'll be able to see the board um

for the different categories um next up

if you continue down is time based um

such as the whether you have properties

in this one it's just recent because

it's a note um you have recent web Clips

as well but if we were to come over to

the all projects area you would be able

to see that there's more time based

pages in here uh projects by the month

by the quarter by the year so on uh next

up is category based all activities uh

group based on where you process them so

for example um whether it has um tasks

Associated to it it's going to be in

progress or not whether it's in the

status of doing it goes to the in

progress status U moving on down

whatever area that project is associated

with if it's related to work you're

going to see it under the work area as

you see here we have two starting areas

life admin has the life quick tasks

projects work admin or work area has the

work quick tasks project and just for

the sake of things why don't we move

that to recurring because that's most

likely going to never go away something

to rely on as again uh moving on down

you see the goals and projects and it

carries on these are the category

um that these these pages are in so kind

of makes sense uh keeping it moving we

are getting to the end of the rules and

you'll kind of see how it all comes

together here soon so the the last few

consistencies that I have is if you are

in a notes Hub or if you are in a hub

and there is a relation to another

database the icon used will be the icon

of the other database so for example if

you're in the notes Hub and a page is

related to the projects Hub the icon

will be a project icon let me open it up

and show

you oh no here all right so we are in

the notes Hub and the relation for the

projects by notes you'd be able to see

it right here it takes on the crane

which is the project of course down here

uh the the project takes on the icon of

the area very easy to rely

on um moving it on down the database

icon will always match their Hub icon

this one is best to show you in the task

database or the tasks Hub because

everything is a check kind of makes the

most sense so if we add a new task you

will see it pop up as a check because

that's the database that it's part

of and all sub pages will carry the

color from The Hub and use the main Hub

icon as a header if we come down here

you will see that the notes processing

it carries on the icon that I showed you

guys earlier but it also shows the the

main hubs icon which is the the note and

it also shows the color to instantly

show you that you're there if we come

over to the full processing and go to

the projects processing you'll see the

exact same thing to be like okay I'm in

the projects area I know exactly what I

need to do where do I want to be and

then you're able to go directly to it

it's very handy and just to show you one

more time it does carry on over

everywhere you go so that is pretty much

everything in my system uh to show you

it everything is behind a toggle to take

advantage of Notions inherent uh lazy

loading it's not going to load

everything we have here it does look

pretty massive but realistically it

doesn't load until you open it as you

saw there there and then it brings in

all of the functionality we're able to

really stack on a whole lot of just

power into this single page because of

that feature and I'm really impressed

with how it it's all coming together and

really it just makes a lot of sense so

this is my entire layout if you haven't

heard of the core 4 organization concept

I encourage you to go look into that a

little bit more it does make sense and

it does apply to everything if you have

an item that doesn't belong in the hub

move it out of that Hub and you can get

organized if you can't if you're still

not as productive as you want maybe

you're not able to see it and you need

to adjust the display and say you're

still not as productive as you are well

it might be time to get a new tracker

and organize it a little bit better get

all those done and you're still not able

to do it well we got different questions

for you so that's the Hub track method

this is the entire life Hub and

essentially notion template formula that

I use to organize everything I have hope

this makes sense if you guys have any

questions feel free please leave them

talk to you guys soon see you in the

next

video