I'm not kidding when I say I use Notion every single day. It's the first thing I open when I get to my desk, and by far my favorite and most used app for studying, running Cajun Koi Academy, and managing my life. I was so stoked when they wanted to partner up with us and sponsor this video. Fanboy, so I'm going to show you guys the smart planner I created using Notion. It tells me what I need to study every day, so I don't even need to think about it, and it's aesthetic. Aesthetic. And as a bonus, I'm giving away my workspace template for free because I love our rookies, and I want you to feel organized and confident so you can enjoy your school life. All I ask is after this video, go check out Notion by using our special link in the description. Alright, let's hop over to Notion. So this is the command center, home base. I wanted it to feel comforting and inspiring, which is why Misty delivers the welcome message and not Mike. Just kidding, you can change

the message to match your mood. Whatever tickles your pickle on this page is also my master calendar, so I know which lectures I have going on for the week along with any assignments to complete, which have this assignment tag on them. So I'm going to explain how this template works in two parts so it's simple. First, I had to input information so everything is linked together and then how to use this planner during the school year. So first things first, click on the curriculum tab to see the folder for every class. Every folder here is linked to the main calendar so you can just change the names if this doesn't reflect the actual classes you're taking. So if this was like chemistry, for example, I only made five folders in the template. Hopefully you don't have to take more classes than that for any semester. Oof, that would be critical damage. But if you do have to take more classes, no big deal. Just click on the new button at the top right to create a new class folder and it should automatically sync to all the other

calendars in this template. Alright, so let's put in some data. So let's pretend I'm taking physics class. I'll open up my physics folder here, expand it to full screen, and then I'll enter the name of my professor. You know, Professor Oak, add their email, class website, the course code, all that logistical stuff, you know, just so it's handy. Now, when I scroll down, this is the individual calendar for physics. Don't worry, it's linked to the main calendar as well, so you don't have to enter information in twice. So this is when I would pull out my class syllabus and enter in every lecture and the date of that lecture. So let's say I'm learning maths on the 27th, learning about acceleration on the 28th, Newton's laws on the 31st. On Halloween, scary times. Newton, ignore the Mastery column for now. I'll cover that in part two of this video. Then switch over to the assignments tab and enter in all of your assignments for this class along with their due date. I've already entered in

two assignments here: problem set one and two. On those due dates, let's add a third one just for demo number three. And maybe this one will be due on November 4th, on that Friday. So including here: homework, problem sets, essays, projects. And I also like to include midterms and finals because technically that's a due date, right? You need to finish studying in order to do well. So let's say my final exam is going to be on the 18th of November. I created a formula in Notion so that when I set a due date, it automatically tells me how many days left I have to procrastinate. So check this out. If I change problem set three's due date to tomorrow, then it will automatically change to tomorrow. And if it's due today, it'll tell me it's due today. And as I work through the assignments, I can adjust the progress of them from not started, pending, or done just to keep track of all my assignments so I can stay on top of it. After I've entered in all of my assignments and all

of my lectures. That's it for physics class. Now, I would just repeat this process for every single class that I'm taking. In all the other folders, if you're not taking five classes, you don't have to delete the folders. You can just leave them there, they're chilling, not hurting anybody, and they won't interfere with the main calendar because we didn't put any information in them. Now, if I go back to the command center following the breadcrumb trail at the top of the screen, I can see every lecture and assignment for the whole semester. Pretty sick, right? I can also switch views to assignments, and I can see all of the assignments for every single class on the home page. The contacts page on the left should also be filled out if we've entered in all that information from inputting the class information, and I also like to link my school website or Blackboard to this page for easy access. To do that, just highlight over the word school here, click on link, and then you can paste the URL of your school website.

and connect it next. I included a section under this toggle for daily tasks that should have been there. Nothing fancy here though, just a typical to-do list. You can click on WhatsApp and it'll add to-do's to do. To do: grocery shop, clean room, pay mic back, you know. And you can kind of just click through them as you finish them for the day and then you know, delete them all once you finish. I also like to keep a widget on my phone so I can quickly add to my to-do list even when I'm on the go. And final thing here at the very bottom is my weekly agenda. Here is where I would put my rough weekly responsibilities. I'm not super hardcore about time blocking every minute of my life. I think that takes too much work and I'm not like that OCD, just a little bit. I prefer a flexible schedule just in case my Kitsune brain gets lost watching anime or stalking women or something. So stuff I put in here are like my class schedule, you know, work schedule, you know, volunteering time for Jesus.

the whole point is not to think about it too hard. You know, things change and move around all the time. Life happens, you know, work-life balance vibes, and that's it. Congrats, we've officially put in all the data to make this system run. Now on to the cool part. One of the biggest struggles I faced as a student was not knowing when to review past lectures. My thought process back then was, Oh, maybe today I'll study lecture one because I haven't looked at it in a long time, which makes sense. We know that over time, we start to forget stuff. The problem with that approach is that it doesn't take into account how well we know the material. So, it's possible that even if I didn't look at lecture one for a month, I'd still remember the key concepts. But maybe lecture 10, which was two days ago, I had a really hard time with, so I should prioritize learning that. So, I think it's more valuable to review based on her mastery of a topic rather than on how long it's been. Most students don't

even think about this. They just cycle through lectures one through ten over and over again. If you plan a review schedule by Mastery, you're crushing it. But if you plan to review step by both Mastery and time, sheesh, and I got you. That's how we're going to take this to the next level. So anytime I start a lecture, either I went to class or I did some self-studying, I'll open up that lecture and I'll change the Mastery from none to rookie. And what that does is it automatically sends that lecture to this other view called review. And here I can see all the material that I've started to learn. And I would also put today's date just so I know the last time I reviewed it. So if I skipped class, which I would never ever do, obviously that lecture wouldn't show up on my review tab because I didn't change the Mastery from none to rookie. And let's say that by the end of my study session, I did some practice problems, active recall, or whatever, and I feel really

confident with this lecture, I'll change the Mastery again from Rookie to Ranger. And that lecture then moves down to the Rangers section. I made this review system as simple as possible. I only created three options: rookie, Ranger, and retired. If you're not confident even after reviewing it, leave it as rookie. If you've mastered it, you're Ranger. If it's not going to be on the final at all or it's not important to know, you can move it to retired. By using this system, I always see two things: my confidence with material or the Mastery, and the last time I reviewed it. So whenever I sit down to study, I'll click on this review tab and I can prioritize reviewing the lectures that are marked rookie and the ones that I haven't reviewed in a long time. You know, this way I'm not just raw dog in my studies at random without a plan. I actually have a system that tells me which topics to focus on and which ones I actually know well. But remember to also trust your instincts. If there's a lecture in the Ranger category, you

haven't touched in weeks. By all means, have another stab at it and reevaluate. Maybe you realize it's rustier than you thought. Maybe after studying a different lecture, you realize you missed a lot of important points from the previous lecture. Well, change it back from Ranger to rookie and set a new last review date. Be honest with yourself. This is your personal review schedule. No one's judging you. Use this as a tool to keep track of things. Now, as you can imagine, if you're taking five classes, then two months into the semester, this review tab is going to look insanely cluttered. So, instead of using the master calendar, you can also open up the individual folders and look at each review tab individually for each class. Cool, right? Now, I have no excuses for not knowing what to study as this clear tracks on. I've historically been terrible at maintaining a planner because I get burnt out. So, I also included a few things into this dashboard that helps me stay motivated. First is this daily streak widget, which I got from indify. Every day, I show up to

study. I add it to my streak. It's something that I always thought video games did really well to get me to come back and play more. The only thing is this one doesn't reward you and also doesn't punish you. If you miss a day, you have to manually reset it. So Scout's Honor. Like I said before, this is your personal study calendar. You know, there's no leaderboards. No one's checking to see if your streak is legit or not. Art, but mine is for sure. And lastly, I also included a mood check area. If you're part of our Discord Community, this will be familiar. But I think it's very important to start a self-reflection process. Often when we settle into routines, we stop paying attention and stuff like we just go through the motions of going to class, eating Ramen, playing video games, but we're checked out, you know, lights are on but no one's home. So muchek is a safe space for you to think when you're feeling stressed or even if you're just chilling. Add a new

log by hitting what's on your mind. Here you can say this log number two and self-reflect. How's class going? What's working? What's not working, you know? How's my stress level? Am I sleeping well? You know, use this space to celebrate wins or vent or post memes. It could be whatever you want. My hope with it is that you carve out some time for self-discovering. And yeah, that is everything in my start study planner besides some Shameless self-promo at the bottom. Please use it for peace of mind while you're grinding away during the school year. So you know exactly what you need to be doing at all times. I hope you'll discover like I did that having an organizational system for studying is game-changing. Feel free to duplicate this template to use for every upcoming school year or semester. And let me know what other templates you want me to create or how I can improve this one to make it better. Don't forget to check out Notion. They're awesome. Send them some love. And I will see you all next time.

How I use Notion to organize my school life

Helping learners become innovators.

Cajun Koi is founded by medical doctors Mike & Matty Kenny. On this channel, we curate expert-driven resources, strategies, and experiences that can help us understand ourselves, learn smarter, and create a lifestyle doing what we love. We make educational, practical, and fun videos about:

- Learning & Creativity
- Self-Development
- Productivity & Performance

Connect with us:
📲 Mike - https://twitter.com/MichaelKennyMD
📲 Matty - https://www.instagram.com/mattygrov

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