The world will never be the same as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, this is becoming a truth that the world has come to accept. The pandemic has redefined work policies, health, education, and government to name a few.
With companies now shifting to remote working culture a lot of experts have expressed concern with maintaining productivity levels at these corporate entities, how do leaders and management get across to staff who used to be next door? How do they sort through all the digital clutter now that those paper submissions have become emails?
An organization known as Notion is of the notion that they have the solution to these challenges (and more) with their software solution. Notion is a one-stop productivity solution that helps you manage an entire organization from the convenience of any of your mobile devices or personal computer.
Notion helps you monitor and set up tasks that span different departments ranging from HR, sales, product, marketing, engineering, etc. If you’re a project manager, a supervisor, a team leader, or a person put in charge of responsibility or just an individual trying to improve personal productivity, Notion is for you.
If you’re wondering how you can get started on this, well you’re in luck as I will be walking you through how to use Notion on your PC.
Step 1: Visit Notion (by clicking on the underlined text, you’ll be redirected to their website).
Step 2: Click on the “Sign up” text at the top right-hand corner of your screen.
Step 3: You can input your email manually or sign-up using Google or Apple (depending on which you use).
Hint 1: If you clicked the “Continue with Google” button you’ll be asked to select the Google account you’ll like to use.
Hint 2: If you click the “Continue with Apple” button you’ll be asked to input your Apple ID.
Hint 3: If you enter your email address and click “Continue with email” you’ll be sent an email.
Hint 4: You will get an email that looks like the one shown below (if you entered your email)
Step 3a: Copy the temporary signup code shown in the email you received (yes, that funny-looking string of text), then click the “Click here to sign up with this magic link). You will be redirected to the sign-up page.
Step 3b: Enter your email address and paste the code in the necessary place and you’ll be shown where to paste the signup code you copied earlier.
Step 4: You should see the image below, select the option that suits your requirement (We’ll assume you don’t want to pay for a service without testing out the free package as such I will review the individual plan).
Step 5: You should see a rich dashboard like the image shown below (fun fact, I'm wrote this article using Notion 😉). The magic character that can make anything happen on Notion is "/" You will see an elegant dropdown of what you can add (or do) when you press that key.
Hint 5: The top right navigation allows you to share, view updates that you've made while on Notion and make a particular article or page your favorite while on Notion (the "Favorite" feature creates a category at the very just above the "private" section to your left".
Hint 6: The "Add a page" and "New page" that I underlined does the same thing, it creates a new page (which is like a book) where you can add content within it and have it grouped under that page.
Step 6: The "Quick find" underlined in the image below brings up a small page that helps you sort through your content. I also underlined a new page I just created using the "Add a page feature. The very article within that page is this very article I am writing 🙃. Can I just remind you again how awesome it is that you don't need to move your mouse a lot on Notion? Just press the "/" and you'll be provided with the necessary feature you're looking for. Also notice that I made the "HOW TO USE NOTION.IO" a favorite page and a new category was created for it instantly.
Step 7: Clicking on the "Settings & Members" feature I underlined brings up the popup that helps you modify things relating to your account from appearance to other things. The workspace is more section is more suited to premium plans and working with a team of people. Notice that you can add people to your team and work with as many people as possible (it's a premium feature you will have to pay for eventually).
HINT 7: You can easily replace files and images after attaching them. a lot of the images you're seeing have been replaced severally. Just right-click on the image and click "replace".
Finally, I will be covering what you can do with the "/" character you can;
- Add texts
- Pages
- Todo lists
- Heading (of different sizes)
- Unordered bullet list (the bullet points with those dots)
- Ordered lists (the bullet points that are numbered)
- A toggle list (that can hide or show what is in it when you click on it)
- A quote
- A divider (which draws a line between sections of your work)
- Link to a page
- Call out (which makes a couple lines of text stand out)
- Mention a person (within Notion and have them notified of your mention)
- Mention a page
- Add an emoji 😀
- Insert equations
- Create a table (within a page or as a full page)
- Create a board (within a page or as a full page)
- Create a gallery (within a page or as a full page)
- Create a list (within a page or as a full page)
- Create a board (within a page or as a full page)
- Create a calendar (within a page or as a full page)
- Create a timeline (within a page or as a full page)
- Create a customized view of a database like a spreadsheet
- Upload an image
- Add a visual link (that shows a tiny picture of the content of the link)
- Add video
- Add audio files
- Add code (and have it show just like it will in your code editor) which is a feature software engineers will love
- Add a file
- Embed links to pdf, Google Drive, Github Gist, Twitter, Google Map, Figma, Typeform, Codepen, Abstract, Invision, Loom, Whimsical, Miro, Framer, and more to come
- You can also add a table of content if you're writing really long documents
- Standalone equations
- Show page information like the page number
- Duplicate blocks of text easily without having to highlight and drag your mouse all over the place
Hint 8: You can get a snapshot of what all the above does by pressing "/" and leaving your mouse cursor over it for a second.
There's so much that Notion can do for you as an individual and as a professional, I hope this article has been very insightful, if you need more, Notion has you covered, they have so many videos on YouTube that can work you through other areas of their product. It has been wonderful writing this article on Notion, I can't wait to write more on it.