Video summary

Hướng Dẫn Sử Dụng Notion Để Quản Lý Cuộc Sống

Main summary

Key takeaways

Technology

Summary of the video (Notion / “Nostalgia”)

The speaker introduces Notion (auto-subtitled as “Nostalgia”) as an all-in-one productivity workspace to manage personal life, work, projects, and knowledge. They explain why they returned to it after trying other tools, then provide a basic guide and a personal setup system for organizing daily planning and reviews.

1) What Notion is and why the speaker uses it

Notion is described as a customizable “space” for storing and organizing:

  • notes, ideas, and information
  • personal data
  • projects and work planning
  • knowledge management (including building a “website-like” structure)

The speaker values Notion because it’s simple and convenient, and works well across Mac + PC.

They also mention they stopped using it previously due to lacking a clear system and not wanting to spend too much time maintaining daily notes.

2) Basic tutorial: getting started and building content

Getting started

  • Creating an account requires only an email.
  • The initial interface is described as a minimal white page with:
    • page title + icon
    • adjustable elements
    • optional comments (the speaker doesn’t use them much)

Slash commands (/) for faster editing

Typing / opens formatting and tools such as:

  • checkboxes, lists, table titles, toggles
  • toggles that expand/collapse content

Workflow tip: instead of using the mouse, type / plus the tool name to work faster.

Nesting pages inside pages

  • A key highlighted feature is indefinite nesting (pages within pages).
  • This is useful for systematizing knowledge and storing data in an easy-to-access structure.

Gallery view

  • A grid-like view of pages.
  • Can include background images.
  • Enabled via the “gallery view” command.

Templates

  • Notion provides templates for different use cases.
  • The speaker previously relied on community templates for high-quality layouts.

3) Personal system: PARA-style categories (4 folders)

The speaker uses a simplified 4-category method referencing PARA:

  • Project (most frequently accessed)
    • weekly goals
    • “things to avoid” reminders (“antigos” in subtitles)
    • seasonal/quarterly goals
    • notes to reread regularly
  • Areas
    • “Energy Management” structure, including:
      • future learning / “do” goals
      • current priorities (if there’s time)
      • what they’re focusing on
      • what to postpone (temporary dislikes for a better time)
    • Advice on limiting scope: keep tasks manageable and avoid managing too many major commitments at once.
  • Resources
    • reading lists and other knowledge/data for future reference
  • Archives
    • old content they don’t want to delete
    • shared templates

Access principle: the categories are ordered by how often they’re used (most-used at the top).

4) Diary + review workflow (daily/weekly)

A key highlight is how reviews are made easier using guided prompts.

  • They write reviews daily and weekly in a diary section.
  • They initially feared reviews would be time-consuming, but the “book review”-style question section makes it easier to start.
  • Workflow:
    1. open the review section → it creates a new entry line
    2. the entry shows self-reflection questions
    3. if there are no additional thoughts, they answer only the questions; otherwise they write extra ideas below

Diary storage by timeframe

They also organize diary content into time-based segments, such as:

  • annual goals
  • quarterly goals
  • reviews
  • a longer-term section (example: 3-year goals together with their spouse)

5) Advantages and limitations (personal review)

Pros (advantages)

  • Free option; paid plan described as affordable
  • Hierarchical management + easy organization of resources
  • Icons and beginner-friendly templates
  • Large user base → easier to find help/support and many system styles
  • Stability advantage: feels more reliable long-term, reducing risk of losing work if the platform crashes
  • Web access recommended for performance

Cons (disadvantages)

  • Spreadsheets are inconvenient for calculations
    • the speaker prefers Excel for math-heavy resource management
  • Performance notes:
    • the Notion app is “laggy” for them, so they prefer the web version
  • Advanced automation/coding:
    • possible to build more complex tools (e.g., spaced repetition counters), but they haven’t explored it deeply

Main speakers / sources

  • Main speaker: the sole presenter of the video (no specific name provided in the subtitles)
  • Named referenced method: PARA (“Para” in subtitles) organization style
  • Named referenced tools for comparison: Obsidian, Microsoft Word, Excel (not used for the main workflow)

Original video