Notion AI Productivity: I was NOT Using Notion Right!

Summary

In this video, Simon reveals the untapped potential of Notion's AI features, which can drastically optimize workflows and save hours. He shares his discoveries and best practices for using AI in Notion, including AI database properties for content management, generating summaries and keywords, and leveraging 'Save to Notion' for web clippings. Simon also highlights Notion's collaboration tools and introduces the Q&A feature, which acts as a personal researcher within your workspace. Finally, he recommends using Notion in tandem with Shortform's AI for enhanced learning and knowledge retention.

Takeaways

• 😀 Simon discovered that he had been using Notion inefficiently and highlights the potential of Notion AI and other shortcuts to optimize workflows.
• 🔍 Notion AI can be used to generate summaries, manage projects, and create content, such as YouTube video descriptions, by customizing AI database properties.
• 🎥 Simon uses Notion AI to manage his YouTube video creation process, from scripting to collaborating with others, showcasing the tool's versatility.
• 📝 The script demonstrates how to use AI to autofill properties in Notion, like summarizing video content and generating SEO-friendly descriptions.
• 🔑 Notion AI's capabilities include extracting video descriptions from external URLs, although this feature seems to have been temporarily unavailable.
• 📚 Notion AI can also be used for journaling, summarizing entries in a gallery view, and creating AI categories with multi-select properties.
• 🛠️ Simon shares quick Notion tricks like opening pages in new tabs, copying page links, and creating AI tables and databases for faster setup.
• 🤖 Notion's Q&A feature allows users to interact with their workspaces, searching for information and generating outlines based on existing content.
• 👥 Collaboration in Notion is emphasized, with the ability to invite guests to share pages and work together without the need for them to be members.
• 📈 Notion AI can assist in creating visual data representations, such as pie charts, using prompts and the Mermaid chart creation system.
• 📚 The script also mentions the use of Notion alongside Short Form, an app for summarizing and discovering key ideas in non-fiction books, which also has AI features.

Q & A

What was the main issue Simon had with using Notion previously?

Simon had been using Notion incorrectly for months, stuck in the past and failing to see how easily Notion AI and other quick shortcut features could save hours and optimize workflows.

What does Simon suggest to make Notion workspace and life OS template easier to use and more powerful?

Simon suggests harnessing the hidden powers of Notion, such as AI database properties and custom autofill, to make the workspace and life OS template more efficient and user-friendly.

How does Notion AI help with content management for Simon's YouTube video creation?

Notion AI helps by generating content summaries, autofilling custom sections, and even pulling in video descriptions from external URLs, which saves time and improves the quality of video management.

What is the AI content summary tool that Simon mentions in the script?

The AI content summary tool is a feature generated by Notion AI that summarizes the title of a video, provides a URL, and gives an introduction to what the video covers, along with reasons why people should watch it.

How can Notion AI be used to create a YouTube description?

Notion AI can generate a YouTube description by creating a custom auto property that lists the video title, URL, and a summary of the content. It can also suggest sections and provide keywords for the description.

What is the 'Save to Notion' Chrome extension and how does it integrate with Notion AI?

The 'Save to Notion' Chrome extension allows users to save web page content directly into Notion. It can be used alongside Notion AI to summarize the key information and lessons from the page material, and even reference other relevant pages in the workspace.

How can Notion AI be used to improve collaboration within a workspace?

Notion AI can be used to generate comments, summaries, and insights that can be shared with collaborators. It can also help in creating shared databases and templates that can be accessed and edited by multiple users.

What is the Q&A feature in Notion AI and how does it differ from other AI systems?

The Q&A feature in Notion AI is a system that can answer questions based on the information within the user's workspace. Unlike other AI systems, it does not search the wider web but focuses on the user's own content and data.

How can Notion AI assist in creating visual data or charts?

Notion AI can assist in creating visual data by generating prompts for chart creation systems like Mermaid. Users can input a prompt, and Notion AI will create the chart based on the provided data.

What are some of the Notion shortcuts mentioned in the script that can speed up usage?

Some of the Notion shortcuts mentioned include opening pages in a new tab using Command + Click, copying page links with Command + L, and quickly creating AI tables and databases by pressing space and typing the desired table content.

How does Simon suggest using Notion AI to improve the quality of work?

Simon suggests using Notion AI to improve the quality of work by leveraging its capabilities to generate summaries, create outlines for proposals, and draw on existing content to create informed outlines for projects or courses.

Outlines

00:00

😲 Discovering Notion AI's Untapped Potential

Simon reveals his previous underutilization of Notion's AI capabilities and highlights the transformative impact of AI features like AI database properties, custom autofill, and AI summary on workflow efficiency. He demonstrates how AI can streamline video content management, generate summaries for YouTube videos, and create SEO-friendly descriptions, showcasing the practical applications of Notion AI in enhancing productivity and content quality.

05:02

🔍 Unleashing Notion's Advanced Features and Shortcuts

This section delves into Notion's advanced features and shortcuts that can expedite daily tasks. Simon introduces the use of AI to generate keywords and summaries, the 'Save to Notion' Chrome extension for summarizing web page clippings, and the ability to create AI tables and databases for quick organization. He also touches on the importance of embracing collaboration tools within Notion and the potential of AI to enhance visual data representation.

10:03

📚 Enhancing Knowledge Retention with Short Form and Notion AI

Simon discusses the integration of Short Form, a tool for summarizing and gaining insights from non-fiction books, with Notion AI. He emphasizes the benefits of Short Form's AI extension for research and content creation, and how it complements Notion's features. The video also covers the use of comments for collaboration and the creation of visual data through AI, illustrating the synergy between different AI tools and Notion.

15:05

🤖 Harnessing the Power of Notion's Q&A for Personalized Assistance

In the final paragraph, Simon explores Notion's Q&A feature, which acts as a personal researcher within the workspace, providing answers based on the content within the user's Notion pages. He illustrates how Q&A can be used for knowledge retrieval, project planning, and generating outlines for new content, emphasizing the feature's ability to draw from existing material to create informed proposals and the importance of providing feedback for continuous improvement.

Keywords

💡Notion AI

Notion AI refers to the artificial intelligence features integrated within the Notion application, designed to enhance productivity and workflow optimization. In the video, it is highlighted as a tool that can automate tasks, generate summaries, and even interact with the user's workspace to provide customized responses based on the content within Notion.

💡Workflow Optimization

Workflow optimization is the process of making a sequence of tasks more efficient or effective. The video emphasizes how Notion AI and its features can massively save hours and improve the quality of work by streamlining workflows, particularly through the use of AI-generated content summaries and database properties.

💡AI Database Properties

AI database properties are custom attributes within Notion's databases that leverage artificial intelligence to perform tasks such as summarizing content or generating keywords. The script describes how these properties can be customized to provide meaningful insights, such as summarizing video content or generating SEO-friendly descriptions.

💡Content Manager

A content manager, in the context of the video, refers to a system for organizing and managing digital content, such as videos or articles. The speaker discusses using Notion AI to manage YouTube video creation, from scripting to project management with collaborators, showcasing how AI can be instrumental in content management.

💡Custom AutoFill

Custom AutoFill is a feature within Notion AI that allows users to create custom templates for database entries. The video demonstrates how this feature can be used to generate summaries of video content, including titles, URLs, and reasons why viewers should watch, streamlining the content creation process.

💡AI Keywords

AI Keywords is a feature that utilizes artificial intelligence to generate a list of relevant keywords for a given piece of content. In the script, it is used to enhance SEO and content discoverability within a database, as well as to add keywords to journal entries for easier retrieval and organization.

💡Save to Notion

Save to Notion is a feature that allows users to save information from the web directly into their Notion workspace. The video script mentions using the 'Save to Notion' Chrome extension to summarize web page content using AI, which can then be referenced and organized within Notion databases.

💡Collaboration Tools

Collaboration tools in Notion refer to the features that enable multiple users to work together on the same pages or databases. The video discusses the importance of embracing these tools, even in personal workspaces, to share pages and collaborate on projects effectively.

💡Q&A System

The Q&A system in Notion AI is an interactive feature that allows users to ask questions and receive answers based on the information within their Notion workspace. The script illustrates how this system can be used to search knowledge bases, create project outlines, and generate proposals, all tailored to the user's specific content.

💡Data Visualization

Data visualization in the video pertains to the use of AI to create visual representations of data, such as pie charts, using systems like Mermaid. The speaker provides an example of using Notion AI to generate a pie chart, demonstrating how AI can facilitate quick and simple data visualization within the workspace.

💡Life OS Template

A Life OS Template, as mentioned in the script, is a system designed to organize and manage one's personal and professional life within Notion. The video discusses using Notion AI to enhance the functionality of such templates, making them easier to use and more powerful for individual productivity setups.

Highlights

Simon discovered he had been using Notion inefficiently and shares how to harness Notion AI and other features to optimize workflow.

Notion AI can be customized to create summaries and manage YouTube video creation, making it easier to use and more powerful.

AI database properties in Notion can be tailored to provide meaningful summaries and enhance content management.

Simon's use of AI to manage his YouTube channel by creating help videos and linking to specific templates.

AI content summary tool in Notion auto-generates video summaries, including titles, URLs, and reasons to watch.

Custom AI properties can be used to generate SEO-friendly YouTube descriptions, saving hours of manual work.

AI keywords feature in Notion can automatically generate keywords for content, useful for larger systems like journals.

Simon found that Notion AI could pull video descriptions from external URLs, although this feature is unconfirmed and has stopped working.

Key info option in Notion AI can be used to list key topics and summarize journal entries in a gallery view.

Notion AI's AI categories feature allows for quick addition of AI keyword summaries into the system.

Using Notion AI alongside 'Save to Notion' to summarize web page clippings can streamline information gathering.

Notion AI's Q&A feature can act as a personal researcher within your workspace, finding information based on your content.

Simon's favorite Notion shortcut is opening pages in a new tab using Command + Click, improving navigation speed.

Command + L in Notion copies the page link to the clipboard, facilitating quick sharing and referencing.

AI tables and databases in Notion can be quickly created by using the 'create a table' command followed by turning it into a database.

Simon recommends using Notion's collaboration tools, including comments, for better teamwork and project management.

AI can generate visual data in Notion, such as pie charts using Mermaid, for quick data visualization.

The Q&A system in Notion AI can create informed outlines for projects or proposals based on existing content.

Notion AI's Q&A system is limited in its beta version, with occasional inaccuracies and indexing delays.

Simon offers a free life OS template system and encourages viewers to explore his other videos for further Notion customization tips.

Transcripts

hi it's Simon and it turns out I've been

using notion wrong for months why well

I've been stuck in the past failing to

see how easily notion Ai and some other

quick shortcut features can massively

Save Us hours and optimize our workflow

now like me you might have been dubious

as to how usable AI actually was in

notion after hours of experimenting

these are the best ways to use it that

actually work saving you time and

improving the quality of your work in

notion

so let's start to harness those hidden

powers of notion to make your notion

workspace life OS template wink or

notion second brain both easier to use

and more powerful I mean these days it

can even talk to you stick around for

that and thank you to short form my

other secret productivity tool for

sponsoring this video this first one is

a very exciting Discovery for me the new

AI database properties are great and can

help you a huge amount but often feel a

bit generic and meaningless when used as

a simple summary unless you Embrace how

to customize them let me show you then

some amazing examples that have been big

news for me with how I've been using

notion AI to manage my YouTube video

creation from scripting through to

managing projects with collaborators so

if we click to my content manager you'll

see all of my current videos including

the one we're working on and this is

where I run my channel now at the moment

I'm working on creating a help Bop for

my life OS template users to assist them

something that can direct people to the

relevant notion videos in my library

which is here that link to specific

templates I mentioned for example right

down here I have all of my published

videos with the links notion AI has

helped this massively in the content

manager so if we click on my simplified

notion life OS tour you'll see that I

have here a AI content summary tool this

was generated by AI it is summarizing

the title of the video it's putting the

URL an intro to what happens talking

about what I cover and saying why people

should watch if I click in here and we

edit the property we have an AI autofill

and within this I can list a custom

autofill so please do the following

write the video title and URL then

summarize the content of the following

sections and then finally a subheading

of why to watch and share some

information on why people might enjoy

watching it so what that's actually

doing is down here we have in scripting

we have the hook and setup here that I

wrote as a script and we have a list of

everything that I cover in the video

planned out when I did my tour of this

simplified life OS that I made and it

summarized all of those details I've

also created a property which is a

custom auto and I've listed in here what

to generate you're an expert in SEO

create a YouTube description for the

video and it can actually generate

things as well let's give it a go you'll

see it is writing out the video title

it's suggested some sections and it's

given me some keywords that is a huge

amount of work for me normally which I

can now work from in that video and I'm

ready to rock so if you wanted to do

this you would simply create whatever

database that you want you would select

a new property and you have these

options up here for AI keywords

translation custom autofill and AI

summary I think this one is really

powerful so if in my content manager I

wanted to add a new one let's say I

wanted keywords for each I could select

the AI keywords option can see more

details about it what to

generate let's try

it and you can see in here we now have

if I wrap the column a list of keywords

so this could be great in a larger

system maybe you'd want to use it in a

journal and you could add in keywords

into the system and do it all

automatically but even more remarkable

for a while I found that notion AI could

actually go further than this so if I

open up this iPad accessories video

there's my content summary as we've set

but below it I've got this a final video

description and it seemed strangely that

it would reach outside the system it has

since weirdly stopped working so this is

an unconfirmed bit of info and in fact

occasionally notion AI has raised an

error saying it couldn't look at

external URLs but take a look at this

example what I've done with this if we

look at the property final video

description it says using the URL

property link please find the video

description for that link on YouTube and

share the text from that video descript

description in this property and it's

genuinely done that this is the

description for my video listing

everything into it including all of my

links to the products if I now jump to

the YouTube page there it all is there

is all the information that we listed in

it so leave me a comment below if you

found any other unexpected use cases and

do give this a go and let me know if it

works for you I've also used the key

info option to list key topics on my

clippings and notes pages and love the

summary feature for journaling templates

to Summarize each entry in a gallery

view so I've been using this in my

notion Essentials template so I've got

all these different templates you can

put the template in fill it out and then

you will see the summary of what you've

written in here but for example maybe

you wanted to create a AI categories

thing we could add a property here new

property and we'll do AI keywords multi

select and let's call this AI category

something like that save the changes try

on this page and if we now show it in

here there you go it's coming up and you

can add really quickly AI keyword

summaries into the system you can check

out my notion Essentials templates via

the link below if you want to try any of

these out now use case number two for

you life OS and second brain users is

that these summary properties get even

cooler if we use AI from notion

alongside save to notion to summarize

clipping so if we jump to a web page you

can download the Chrome extension for

save to notion and you can create these

forms right which are rather good and

it'll link things in and include stuff

in so what I want to do is I'm going to

add a new property to that database add

a new property and we'll make that a

simple AI

summary how about this summarize in

bullet points the key information and

lessons from the page material and

reference any other possible page pages

in my workspace that could be relevant

to it so I'm going to save that there

and what we'll do is we'll jump to here

back to our page and our save to notion

option I'm going to add a new field in

here and I'm going to find the AI

summary option there it is and we want

to put all of the

content web page content is going to go

in and I'm going to save it so it's web

page content it's all ready to go and

maybe I will give this a status of on

reading list so I can up up date it all

in there then you save it to your

workspace and now if we jump back there

it is so there's all the information if

we then get that to do its thing it

summarizes everything within that page

this is a brilliant use of AI to clean

up the way you look at your information

so notion AI is $10 for the add-on but

if you see the value that is an amazing

deal okay so that's cool but we can go

further and actually talk to your

workspaces to explore all the knowledge

within them more on that later in the

video but first let's look at a few of

the latest quick and simple tricks that

I've found that can also speed up how

you use notion not just AI so my

favorite new feature has got to be this

if I go into my sidebar and I want to

open something in a new tab press

command and then click it and it opens

it in a new tab that is super brilliant

and on that note if I want to reference

a page ever or get the link for it

command L will copy it to your clipboard

so that means if I go back into here

command V mention the page you can very

quickly create yourself a little menu

using at mentions or this is just a

great way to share pages with people

that you're working with and finally on

this list is number three AI tables and

databases this one up here was created

by creating a simple table and then

turning it into a database so to

shortcut that first part of the building

process when you want to get a new

bespoke nation database created this is

a fantastic trick the quickest way to

get into AI is just to press space and I

can write what I want so I might say

create a table of the top classic

motorcycles from the UK and

Europe let's see what that does there it

goes year release best features

reference URL it's creating the table

and filling it out of course you would

want to probably do a little bit more

work on this yourself but look how fast

it's creating this let's say it's done

I'm then going to click on the side

panel here click turn into database and

just copy these into the

columns and this one we will edit the

property and turn it into a URL and we

will delete this so it's a bit flawed

but you get the idea another great tip

with AI here is create yourself a

database template edit the template and

create yourself in here a custom AI

block and then that will generate what

you need into the page let us know what

your favorite notion shortcuts are in

the comments so we can all learn from

each other and while you're there give

me a thumbs up so that's got you saving

some time in notion but it doesn't mean

much unless the work you get done is

actually meaningful so next we'll look

at some notion AI features that can

improve the quality of your work before

that though I want to show you another

app I've used for years alongside notion

to improve my learning and knowledge

short form and it's got its own AI

features that have supercharged it even

further now if you don't know by now

short form is my favorite solution for

recapping and discovering the key ideas

in non-fiction books in advance of

reading them of course and they cover a

range of subjects like productivity

creativity and Entrepreneurship it's

more than a summary tool though and

that's what's particularly cool it

offers additional insights interactive

exercises offering further perspectives

on what you read I've recently finished

reading the procrastination Cure by

Daman zaharis a super useful book on

understanding why we procrastinate and

waste time another way to make sure you

can get more done with less alongside

these tricks but short form has an AI

Chrome browser extension of its own and

it's particularly accurate compared to

others that I've tried now I'm finding

it genuinely useful as a research tool

to improve the quality of the content

that I create it has fundamental

features many AI extensions like they

should generating high quality summaries

for anything on the internet from emails

to videos listing the key ideas and

simplifying long and complicated topics

but what I really like about the short

form AI is the fact that it also offers

additional sources that are linked to

give an opportunity to learn further and

gain well-rounded understandings on the

subjects access to the AI extension is

free but with limited accessibility and

full capabilities are available with the

premium subscription to short form new

and existing paid premium users gain

full access to the extension and short

forms high quality nonf book guides so

give it a try you can actually get a 20%

discount to a short form premium

subscription which includes that

unlimited access to the AI via my link

short form.com

creating so thank you very much to

shortform for sponsoring this part of

the video right back to notion and these

next sections are about improving the

quality of your work better

collaboration this is another way that

I've been using notion wrong not

embracing the collaboration tools even

in a personal workspace first remember

that you can invite guests by clicking

share up here and you can do it for free

so when you jump up here you can find

someone's email so let's say I wanted to

invite Tom here if I click add and

invite Tom it will also ask you if you

want to add him to your workspace don't

do that because you will end up paying

for them as a member always skip that

but you can still give them full access

to the page which is rather good the joy

that is that you can share pages and

then anything within those pages those

people can see as well so for example if

you were using say my life OS and you

shared the life OS with a person they

would be able to access all of the

databases within that template and you

could start using it as a shared

workspace for free in notion as long as

you don't add them as a member recently

I've been doing a complete audit of my

company my work my channel and so on and

so forth with an in company called the

generalist Co we're doing a huge amount

of work but what's really cool is that

we're actually doing some commentary on

things I really think you should start

embracing the use of comments with

people the best way to do this is to for

example highlight a subject and then

just click comment by using a at mention

I can find my colleague Debs and I can

say just showing the audience how to use

comments in notion and send it and then

people can reply underneath and once

it's completed you can resolve it and it

will disappear I've always avoided it

but it's actually an excellent way to

work with a guest collaborator did you

know that you can use AI to generate

visual data here's a little example I've

created this prompt create a pie chart

using mermaid which is a chart creation

system you have to name the type of

chart you want so I'm going to copy that

paste it into Ai and press enter and

watch this it will create the pie chart

using Mermaid so if you can find a way

to insert data and update that yourself

this is a great quick way into learning

to use mermaid and have data

visualization in your workspace give it

a go and finally chatting with your

notion workspace now a lot of people

down here might see this little button

or you might see a sign up to the

waiting list I recommend doing it

because you can try this on a free

account so this is the AI system so look

it says hi Simon ask me about anything

in better creating I'll find the answer

and be able to help you do things I've

only just realized the power of this

it's like having a personal researcher

within your workspace that can help you

find things and do a lot of stuff what

makes this special and different to

something like chat GPT is that Q&A

bases all its answers on the information

in your workspace rather than the wider

web this is a super powerful use case

for it because it will only look for

things you've got and not go wider so

number one you could search your

knowledge base or project back catalog

so what should we say about what do I

know about the par method first of all

what it's doing is finding the

references and then it will actually

give me some direct answers now if you

don't know about par it's a system to

manage your projects areas resources and

archives within something like a second

brain now you can see that it's found a

number of different sources here and you

can see it is showing me also the link

to the file so I can jump to it and go

back to that same file where all the

information was this is super powerful

this combination of citation and

answering but what we could also say is

what videos have I created on the

subject check the content database now

it's not as accurate as finding

something within a database yet and it

also can't recognize if you say current

page whilst in beta but it has done a

little bit of work here look my notion

life OS second brain uh and a beginner's

guide and it will show me some of those

things not bad now what's really nice

about this window is that it will stay

with you as you navigate so if I go to

other pages I can continue to look at

this meaning that it kind of has a

memory and I can work with it as I move

through my system which I think is

really powerful but the great thing

about this is it also works within a

page using ask AI so if we look at my

script and find save to notion in here

we were talking about earlier I can ask

AI what do I know about this and I can

say look you can see where I've

mentioned it in a document in fact it's

in this one and I can also see that I've

talked about it in various different

places if I jump to my knowledge and

clippings I can see my books here if we

jump into say the 4-Hour Work week we

can find some very ious quotes that I've

taken from readwise and my Kindle to

drop it in there now let's say that I

wanted to take a look at an idea within

this something like money I can ask AI

what materials do I have on this subject

for a lot of the time this is really

super powerful you've got to be precise

about how you use it and to be honest

whilst this is a great answer it's got

stuck on the current page so I'm

actually going to give it a thumbs

down there you go and I fed back to

notion the next example for using Q&A in

this is about creating proposals for

projects or outlines based on your wider

knowledge based so I can ask the Q&A

system to draw on my existing content to

create an informed outline for

example I'm going to try this you're an

expert in online education and social

media create proposal based on my recent

video scripts and YouTube projects to

propose an outline for a video course

called part-time productivity 101 let's

try

it so what's really interesting about

this is this has referenced a number of

things now I think this is a brilliant

example of how far you can take this

it's given me a introduction brain dump

time management habits and getting

things done minimalist productivity blah

blah blah and it's referencing a number

of things that I've created so I've got

my skillshare course that I'm planning

it's also looked at a video where I

talked about this it's also found future

projects that I was planning how to stop

proc procastinating an old video and

it's got a complete notion productivity

in 60 seconds so it's referencing all of

those kind of Key Systems that I've used

and bits of writing and turned it into

that I'm going to be using that to

create myself a skillshare course and

work into it so if you already have paid

for the notion AI add-on you should have

access to Q&A already if not just

refresh your workspace but also do check

if you have the option as a free user

you probably do and you can use it for a

limited number of entries finally be

aware of the limitations of the current

Q&A system in the beta version it can

occasionally not find information so

just give it a thumbs down and feedback

if it's not right and that will help

them improve it it's not great also at

finding complete collections of pages if

you ask to find everything on a subject

it doesn't always do the full list and

at the moment it can't search just

within the current page it doesn't know

what that means finally new data that

you've added to your system might take

around 30 minutes to be indexed before

the system can reference it so so far we

found a bunch of use cases that make

notion AI worthwhile to save you time

and improve what you do but there are a

ton of ways that you can turn notion

into the perfect personalized

productivity setup say that in a hurry

to do that definitely get over to better

creating. comom /downloads for my free

and complete life OS template systems

and you should watch this video next for

a tour of the most accessible second

brain life OS template I've created or

this one for some customization tips to

make notion your own click on my face to

subscribe I'd better get back to

creating see you