notion holds my life together

welcome to introspection ft. harsehaj! ⭐️ i’m harsehaj, an 18 y/o always up to something in social good x tech.

this publication is a place for me to reflect on a new topic daily, and send it to your inbox. if you’re new here, sign up to tune in! you reading this is keeping me accountable, so thank you for that. as a treat, i drop cool resources/opportunities at the end. 💌 

btw, feel free to reply with topic ideas you want me to write about for future posts.

onto today’s topic: notion holds my life together 📝

if there’s one skill i pride myself in, it’s my organization and time management.

i used to be that kid that would rely on memory for assignment deadlines, birthdays and events. to say the least, that was pretty unsustainable idea. grade 7 me didn’t have nearly as many to-do items and meetings to get to as i do now. over quarantine, i found my holy grail: notion.

for those of you that don’t know, notion is a productivity/note-taking app that can sync with your calendar, send reminders and keep reading logs, amongst hundreds of other things that i’m still discovering. 🔎

i first used notion to write out my schedules daily. my first day was actually the night before starting grade 10, LOL. i’m looking back at the daily pages right now, and wow, it was ugly back then. but, it got the job done!

soon, my notion expanded to mapping out my weekly, monthly and yearly goals. i started tracking my habits, documenting different projects and making bucket lists. i even took my sweet time revamping the aesthetic of my notion workspace. my notion makeover is a bi-yearly affair, and this it what my homepage looks like currently:

i appreciate the ease of streamlining my day-to-day in one space, opposed to switching back and forth between dozens of different platforms.

it also just feels good to look at a visually beautiful workspace — i feel motivated to click the buttons and check off my daily habits. we all ensure our physical workspaces are properly equipped and clean, so why not do the same for a digital workspace too? 🧐

i promise this isn’t a notion ad, i just really appreciate the platform and how important it is in keeping my life organized and neat. it’s so easy to tailor scheduling and time management to a method that works best for you. from integrating a pomodoro technique widget into my workspace, to setting up a content creation calendar with reminders, i’ve tried so many things and have built a space that let’s me take care of (nearly) everything in one space.

for my recurring timeblocking chunks and scheduled meeitngs, i defer to google calendar (which i have also aesthetified).

tl;dr: i love notion, it’s the glue that holds my life together. 🗒️

cool finds of the day 🔍️