This Simple Notes Management System Changed My Life!
About this video
Jeff Su explains his notes management system in Notion, built around one Master Notes database with hundreds of pages. Instead of opening that messy database directly, he surfaces notes through filtered views organized by Tiago Forte’s PARA categories — Projects, Areas, and Resources — noting the same method works with other categories such as Projects, Trips, and Learning. Each note carries three relation properties: Related to Projects, Related to Areas, and Related to Resources. On a project page, a linked view filtered to that project shows only its notes; his example is a Secret Workshop project where only the kickoff meeting notes appear. Creating a new note from inside that view automatically adds the relation to the current project. He stresses that every note must be related to at least one other database, or it risks being lost, and he creates a Missing Relations view in the master database filtered to notes where all three relation properties are empty as a reminder to fix them. He describes three ways he starts notes: a New Note button on his home screen that adds a page to his Simple Notes database with a template and today’s date auto-filled and opens it in side peek; adding a note from within a project, area, or resource page, which he says should be the most common method; and the free Save to Notion browser extension for web articles and videos, set up so web clips default to a Curiosity area page for later re-relating. As an advanced tip, he uses a self-referential filter in his Projects database template — the notes view’s Related to Projects filter contains the template page itself — so every new project page automatically gets a notes view already filtered to that project, with no manual setup per project.
Key takeaways
- Keep all notes in one Master Notes database and only interact with them through filtered views on project, area, and resource pages.
- Give every note three relation properties — Related to Projects, Areas, and Resources — and relate each note to at least one other database.
- Create a Missing Relations view filtered to notes where all three relations are empty so unlinked notes surface for fixing.
- Add notes from inside the relevant project or area page so Notion auto-relates them; use Save to Notion for web clips with a default area.
- Use a self-referential filter in the project template so new project pages automatically get a notes view filtered to that project.
Episode details: published November 28, 2023 · 7:07 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Jeff Su’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.
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