Hi everyone, Kevin here. Today we 
are going to learn how to use Notion. With Notion, you can capture thoughts, you 
can manage projects, you can publish websites, you could even run an entire business. We're going 
to start with the absolute basics of how you even just add a page, how you can work with blocks, 
and then we'll advance to working with databases, collaborating with others. Although those may 
sound complex, Notion makes them really easy. By the end of this video, you'll have a 
solid understanding of how to use Notion. All right, let's check this out. To get Notion, 
you can click on the link up above or down below in the description. This drops us on the Notion 
homepage and first let's click on the text that says pricing. This opens up a page with an 
overview of all of the different plans, and

check that out, one of them is completely free, 
and that's the plan that I’ll be using in this video today. The free plan offers all of the core 
functionality, but there are two big limitations. First off, you can only upload files up to 5 
megabytes in size. So, let's say you want to add maybe an image to your workspace. You just have 
to make sure that it's 5 megabytes or smaller. Also, you can only collaborate with up to five 
other people. So, if you're a small business and you have more people you're working with, 
you'll probably need one of the other plans. But once again, the free plan has most of what 
we need, so let's click on get started. This now drops us on the sign-up screen, and you can 
sign up with an e-mail address, a Google account, or an Apple account. I'll sign up with 
just an e-mail address. On the next screen,

you can add a photo, and especially if you want to collaborate with others, I would recommend doing this. You can also add your name down below and you could set a password. I'll go through and do this. I've now entered all of my information. I'll click on continue. On the next screen, you can tell Notion a little bit about yourself, so they understand you better, but for now I'll click on skip. Here we have a choice to make. Do you want to use it with a team or for myself? Now for myself is the free plan and that's the one I’ll be using today. Just because we choose this one, don't feel like you're locked in. Later on, you can always upgrade to one of these other plans, but for now, let's go with this one and then click on take me to Notion. This now drops us into the

main Notion interface, and although it may look simple, you'll be surprised by how powerful it is. I want to start by just giving you an overview of the interface that we see here. Over on the left-hand side, this area is referred to as the sidebar, and this is what you'll use to navigate throughout your workspace. At the very top of the sidebar, here you'll see your workspace name, and when I click on that, here we see the workspace name again. I'll click out of that. You can also customize whether you see the sidebar. Here I can click on this icon. When I hover over, you also see the shortcut key. I can click on that, and that minimizes the sidebar. So now I just focus on the content. Here I could click on this menu again, and that brings the sidebar back. I could also hover over the edge, and here I could give it more space, or I could give it less space.

So, I can customize what that looks like. Here in the sidebar, you're going to use this to navigate throughout your workspace, and right here you see all of the pages and all of the databases that make up your workspace. Here, for instance, I'm currently in the getting started page, that's the one highlighted, and over here in the editor window. Here I could see the contents of that page all right here. Down in the bottom left-hand corner, you'll see this upsell notification for the desktop app. So here I could download the app, or alternatively, I could also go right back up to the workspace name, click on that, and here too I could also download the app. There's an app available for both Windows and for Mac. So why would you want to install the app? Well, first off, you get OS-level notifications, so you're less likely to miss important updates.

Also, it's not in a web browser so you don't have other tabs that are trying to distract you. Aside from those two, though, it's pretty much an identical experience. So, if you don't care too much about those, you might as well continue using it on the web. We've talked about the interface a little bit now, but I also need to get work done. I want to add a new page to track locations for the Kevin Cookie Company. To add a new page, over in the sidebar, there's an option called templates, and when I click on this, I can look through all of these different templates that I can add, and it's worth a look to see if maybe one of these templates already does what you need. I'll exit out of that. Down in the bottom left-hand corner, here I could just add a blank new page, and I could start from scratch. Alternatively, I could also click on

add a page and that does the exact same thing, 
and one thing you'll find using Notion is there are many ways to do the same thing. I'll click on 
add a page. This has now inserted a new page and right here in the sidebar, you see the new page 
and it's currently called untitled. To give this page a name, I can click on the three dots and 
here I could rename it, or I could simply click into the page and here I could type in a name. 
I'll call this Kevin Cookie Company Locations. I can also customize what this page looks like. 
When I hover over the title, here you'll see these different options appear. Here I can add an icon. 
I’ll click on that, and here it just throws in a default icon, but this doesn't really relate to 
a cookie company. I'll click on this and here I could customize it. I could insert an emoji. I 
could select from different icons. I could also

upload my own image, but I think emojis should work. Let's see if they have a cookie emoji and they do. That one looks good, and I’ll select that. One of the benefits of adding an icon, over on the left-hand side where I see all of my pages, here I see an icon, and this helps me more quickly identify this page. Right up here I can also add a cover. I'll click on that and here too it also throws in just a random image, but once again this does not match a cookie company. I'll click on change cover and here I can choose from colors, gradients, images, I could also upload my own. Here I could also link to an image, and they also have something called Unsplash. These are basically stock images. Here too, I'll type in cookie and let's see what they have. This one looks pretty good. I'll select that and click out of that. So, here I have my cover image.

I could also click on reposition, and here I could drag it up or down to get it in the perfect place, but I think this looks good. I'll click on save, and I've now customized what my page looks like. Down below, I see all these different links that I can use to help me get started with this page. So, here you could insert a template, or you could start with a database table, and later on, we'll get into what these are, but for now, I just want to start with a very simple page, so I'll simply click here, and I'll start typing in we're going to use this page to track our retail locations for the Kevin Cookie Company. Now that I've entered some text, just like in any other word processing application, here I could highlight some of that text, and when I highlight it, I get this contextual menu. So here I can make it bold, or here I can click on this drop

down and maybe I apply some blue to this text, 
so I can format what this text looks like. Also, over on the right-hand side, I have this 
three-dot menu that exposes even more options, but for now I think this looks good. When I hover 
over this line of text that I added, over on the left-hand side, you'll see there's a plus icon and 
there are also six dots. This line of text that I inserted, this is referred to as a block, and this 
page will be made up of many different blocks. Over on the left-hand side, I’ll click on the plus 
icon, and this shows all of the different types of blocks that you can insert onto your page. This 
first initial line of text that I inserted is just a simple text block and here we see some of 
the basic blocks. So, I could insert a To-Do list, a heading, a table, a bulleted list, and 
the list goes on and on. As I go down,

you can see all of the different rich types of blocks that you can insert onto a page. You could even insert media, video, audio, you can even embed different types of content, so you have lots of different options when it comes to blocks. Now I want to just keep it simple, so I’ll select heading 1 and here that inserts a heading and I'll type in current locations. Here I want to insert an image of all the current locations. So, just like I did to insert this block, I'll go over to the left-hand side, click on this plus icon, and I can scroll down and find image. But alternatively, and this is a little bit quicker, I can simply type in image and that filters this list of all of the different block options. Here I’ll select image and here I could upload an image, I could enter in a link, or I could select that stock imagery again, but this time, I'll click

on upload. Here's my image. I’ll select this and 
then click on open. This has now uploaded all of our current locations to this page. As I hover 
over all of these different items on the page, you'll see that I have this same plus icon with 
the six dots. So, every item here is a block. Once again, you compose a page with many different 
blocks. Now up to this point, to add a block, we've been clicking on this plus icon, but 
an even easier way, here I'll go down and I can also type in the forward slash character. Here 
I'll type in a forward slash and that also exposes the menu. It's a little bit quicker to do that. 
And here I can simply type in heading 1 and then hit enter and that inserts the heading 1. So, 
you can make it really quick to add new blocks. For this heading, I'll type in proposed locations 
and that looks good. Under proposed locations,

I want to add a bulleted list of all of the locations that we're planning on opening. Here I could type in a forward slash, and this shows me all of the different blocks. When I scroll down a little bit, here's the option for a bulleted list. I could click on that, but that was quite a few clicks just for a bulleted list. Here, I'll delete that. Instead, I can type in a hyphen and then a space, and that also inserts a bulleted list. That was a lot quicker. Learning shortcuts can really help you save time. Here when I move around the page, in the bottom right-hand corner, you'll see the question mark icon. When you click on this, you can click into keyboard shortcuts. This page shows you all of the different keyboard shortcuts available within Notion. Here at the top, you'll see some of the most popular ones that'll save

you a lot time, and as you scroll down, you'll see that there are many different shortcuts, so it's well worth some time learning some of these keyboard shortcuts. I've now inserted a list of all of the different cities where we're planning on opening locations, but on second thought, I think a task list might work better than a bulleted list, but I definitely don't want to have to retype everything in. So here, I can highlight all of these different blocks and then I can click on this six-dot icon, and when I click on that, there's the option to turn into. When I hover over that, I can change this block type into any one of these other block types, and I want it to be a To-Do list. I'll select this option, and that swaps it out for that other block type. To add all of these different blocks, we've been clicking on the plus icon, we've been using the forward slash,

but you can also just drag and drop media from 
your computer directly onto the page. Now, with   this page down at the bottom, we have all of these 
different proposed retail locations, and this is   highly sensitive information. We certainly 
wouldn't want our competitors to get their   hands on this, so I should probably include some 
information to our employees not to share this.   Here, I'll take an image from my computer, and I'll 
drag it right down here. Just letting everyone   know that this is top secret and that they won't 
get any cookies if they share this information.   I think this image will be very effective, but it 
might make more sense to show at the very top of   the page, and it's good that it's pretty easy to 
move blocks around. Here, I can select this block   and here I see the six-dot icon. I can press and 
hold, and I can drag this to a new position. Now

when I drag it, you see this blue line appear, and that indicates where it'll place this block. Now, one thing that's nice is you can also move it over to the right-hand side if you want to make another column and place it alongside other blocks. Here, I could also move it to the left-hand side. Now, I think probably the most effective position is right here near the top. I'll release and place it right there. That way, people see the warning, and then here you see all the sensitive information. To move this block, we used the six dots, and then we dragged it around, but you can also select a block, and then you can use shortcut keys. I love those shortcut keys because once again they help you save so much time. You can press control + shift + down arrow to move it down a block, or control + shift + up arrow to move it up a block. It just makes it

quicker to move things around your page. This 
page is coming along nicely, but I think it's   almost too much information on just one page. 
I have proposed locations, current locations,   so I'd rather split up some of this content. Over 
on the left-hand side, I can add a sub-page. Here,   I'll hover over this page with the Kevin Cookie 
Company Locations. I can click on this plus icon,   and this allows me to add another page. Here, I'll 
type in current locations, and then I'll click over   to the side, and here I see my main page, and I now 
see a sub-page here. I could click into that, and   here I see my sub-page. I'll go back to the page 
that we've been working on, and here I'll delete   current locations, and I'll take this map. I'll 
press control + X to cut it, and then I'll go   back to current locations, hit enter, and here, 
I can paste the map of all of our locations.

When I go back to the main page and I scroll 
down, at the very bottom, I see there's a link to current locations. When I click on this, this 
brings me to the current locations sub-page. To navigate around, here I could click here, I 
could click here to jump between these different pages, or up on top, I also have breadcrumbs 
that allow me to navigate back, so here I'm in that sub-page current locations, but here I could 
click to the top level again and that brings me back to that main page. I think it also makes 
sense to move all of the proposed locations to their own page. I could go through the same flow. 
I could click on the plus icon, and I could add another page, but instead I could also click on 
this block. I'll click on the six-dot icon, and here's the option to turn into page in, so I could 
turn it into a page. Right here I can turn it into

a page within the Kevin Cookie Company locations. 
I'll click on that and here that's automatically added a new page over on the left-hand side in 
the sidebar with proposed locations. There I see all of them. I'll click back into the main page. 
Now I also want to move over all of the different locations. Here I'll highlight all those different 
blocks and here too I’ll click on the six dots, and here I have the option to move to. I’ll select 
that and I want to move it to proposed locations. I'll type in proposed locations, and here I see 
the page that I just created. I’ll select that and that moves over all of those blocks into proposed 
locations, and here I see them again. In Notion, there are many different ways to accomplish the 
same task. Now that I have multiple pages, over on the left-hand side, I can reorder these. So, 
I really want to see current locations ahead of

proposed locations. Here I can press and hold, and 
I could drag this on top of proposed locations. Here, I could also select the entire page 
group. Here I'll select this, and I can move this all the way to the top on top of getting 
started, and here I see the locations at the very top of the list. Now, especially as you 
start getting really large numbers of pages, it might become hard to get back to the ones that 
you care about the most. With this page selected, in the top right-hand corner, I can click on this 
star icon, and this adds this page as a favorite. Over in the sidebar, you'll see that it 
added a new category called favorites, and here I see all of my Kevin Cookie Company 
location information. Also, up on the top bar to the right of the favorite icon, I can click on 
this three-dot menu, and when I click on that,

I can adjust the style of my pages. So, here, I could adjust the font look and feel. I could also adjust the size of the text. I can make it smaller, larger. I could also have it take the full width or not the full width. You have other options as well. Here, I could even lock the page, so this way when people come in, they can't actually modify the contents of the page. That might be helpful. For now, I’ll click on the three dots and let me unlock the page so I can make edits to this. Over on the left-hand side, let's click into the proposed locations, and here again, I see all the cities where we want to open up a location, but this doesn't really tell me that much. For example, what is the anticipated opening date? What will the location look like? Some of those types of questions. What is the status? And I don't get that from just a To Do list.

so I want a much more detailed view, and I think a database might help me with this. I'll type in the forward slash, and here I'll type in database, and here we have all types of databases that we can insert, and I just want a simple full-page database. I’ll select this option, and later on we'll see how you can start with the database and then you can convert the view of the database into all these other types. So, let's select full-page for now and check that out. We now have a new database. That's how easy it is to make your own database. Over on the left-hand side, let's expand proposed locations, and here we see the new database is basically a sub-page of proposed locations, and right up here, I can type in a name for this database. I'll type in detailed view of proposed locations. Down below, I have my database, and although database might

sound somewhat intimidating. It's really just a simple table with lots of information in it, and I want to use this database or this table to track all of the different locations we're planning on opening at the Kevin Cookie Company. So, to start off, I need to give these different columns names. Here I’ll click into this column and instead of name, I'll call this city. Over here, instead of tags, let me change this to the anticipated opening date. For the anticipated opening date, I'll click on type and let me change this to type date. Over here, I could also add additional columns. I'll click on this plus icon, and I also want to add the status, so how far are we along at opening this location? I'll select status, and when I select that, here I can see these different states: not started, in progress, or done. That'll be really helpful

as we track these different projects. I'll close 
out this side pane. Last, I'll add one additional   column for files. This way we can share a picture 
of the location. I'll click on this plus icon,   and here there's the option for files and media, 
so you can add all these different types of   properties to your database, whether it's text, 
numbers, multi-select. I already added dates,   especially when you're collaborating, you could 
add other people, so well worth looking through   this list to see all the different types that you 
can add. Here I’ll select files and media, and   this looks good. I'll close this out. My database 
is starting to take shape, but I need to add some   of the cities where we want to open locations. 
So, I'll go through and fill out some of this   information. I've now added some details to this 
table, and one thing you might be wondering is,

well, what is the difference between just a standard table and a database? I mean, you could store all this same information just directly in a table. Well, let's take a look at what some of these differences are. When I hover over Los Angeles, here you'll see that I have the option to open additional details or a side peek. Let's click on that. This opens up a pane over on the right-hand side or the side peek with Los Angeles, and as I hover over the title, here you'll see that I can add an icon. I can add a cover, so this is just another page with details. Right on top, I can see the properties, or the columns related to this location, and down below, I can build out an entire page related to this one specific store. So, within a database, you can store all sorts of information related to each one of these records in your database. Here I'll minimize the side

peek. Along with being able to add more details 
related to each record within your database, down below, you can also add calculations. Here 
I'll click on this, and let's say I want a count of all the new locations we're planning on opening. 
Right here, I can click on count all, and this adds a count to the bottom of that column. Over here, 
under the anticipated opening date. Here too, I'll click on calculate, and here I could add the 
earliest date, so it looks like we're opening a store in two days. That's coming up really soon, 
so it's a good thing that it's already done. Under this column, I could also click on calculate, and maybe I want a percent per group, so let's see what percent is already done. Here 
I'll click on complete, and here I could see that we're 20% through this list. We're making 
some good progress. With databases, you can also

filter and sort your data. Here I’ll click on the anticipated opening date column, and when I click on that, here I have the option to sort, and I can also filter the data. I'll click on filter and let's say that I just want to see all the stores that are opening up in 2023. Here, I can click on this drop down, and I'll say is after and I’ll select December 31st, 2022, and here I see that we have one store opening up in 2023. To remove the filter, I can click on this, click on the three dots, and then delete the filter. I can also access filters right up here and I also can access my sorting options. To the right of filter and sort, I can also search against my database. When I click on this, let's say I just want to see my Toronto location. I could type that

in and that filters down this database table to 
just that store. It's that easy. I'll close that.   To the right, I also have the three dots or the 
ellipsis, and here I have some additional settings   that I can configure. The beautiful thing about 
using a database is that you can visualize your   data in different ways. All of the underlying 
data stays the same, but you just get different   views on it. Over on the left-hand side, let's 
click on this plus icon. This opens up a pop up   over on the side where I can decide what type of 
view I want to add, and you have different options   here. Now I already have a table view. That's this 
initial view here, but for this new view, I can   add another one. So, here let's select the board 
view. I think that looks interesting. Down below,   I can configure various settings related to this 
view. Here I'll click into group by and over here

let's click into this, and I want to group by the 
current status. I'll select that and then close this out. So here I can see my board view. It 
shows all the locations that we're opening up and the current status. Now we've made some progress 
on Manila and it's now all done. Here I can click on that card and here I can drag it over into 
done. If I go back to the table view up above, here I can see that Manila has now updated, 
so the underlying data is the same across all of these different views. I just have different 
views of the data. Up on top, I can click on the plus icon again and I can add yet another view 
to my data. So, here I’ll select the calendar view and then I'll click done. Here, I'll close 
this out and here I have my standard calendar, but one of the interesting things now is I can 
view when all of the different stores are opening

in a calendar view. So, once again, all of the 
underlying data is the same. The only difference is how I view all of this data, and if I make 
any changes here, that'll tie back to those other views. Here too, I can also click into one of the 
stores and that opens up all of the page details, so databases are so powerful, and you can contain 
so much data and view that data in different ways. To get back to any of the other views, here I can 
simply scroll all the way back up to the top, and here I can jump between the different views, but 
also over on the left-hand side in the sidebar, here I can expand this section and I see all these 
subpages with all of the different views. So, here I have my table, my board, my calendar, so 
it's really quick and easy to navigate back to

all of these different views. I hope you see by 
going through this that databases are so powerful, and have so much more functionality than just your 
standard table. As you're working with Notion, you may have the need to bring additional data 
into Notion. Luckily, Notion makes that really easy. Over on the left-hand side, let's click on 
import. This opens up a dialog, and here you can see all of the different types of data that 
you can import directly into Notion. So, you have Evernote, Trello, Asana, and all these other 
services. Now here at the Kevin Cookie Company, I want to add all of our delivery information 
into this Notion workspace. Here I'll click on Word, and here I have my delivery options. I’ll 
select this, and here it's uploading it. Once it finishes importing, over on the left-hand side, 
I now have a new page called delivery options.

and here I see my Word document has been imported entirely into Notion, so now I can do all of my work just in this one place. The one thing to note, if I make any updates to this document here within Notion, this won't go back and affect the original source document. Now that I have all the delivery options entered into Notion, I just realized that with the upcoming locations, I should probably add in the address information. I can navigate back to the database over here on the left-hand side using the sidebar, but up on top in the control panel, I also have the option to search. When I hover over search, you'll see that the shortcut key is control + P. I'll click on search and here I want to add details to the Los Angeles location. I'll type that in and right here, I see the best match for Los Angeles. Here I can click on that, and that brings me to that

direct page within the database. That was a really quick way to get back. Down below, I'll click into the page and here I'll enter the forward slash and I want to add the address location and maybe it be nice to include a map. Here I'll type in map and here you can see that you can also embed content directly into your page. Here I have the option to embed a Google map. I'll select this and here it asks me to type in a URL. I'll enter the URL of the location and then click on embed map, and here we now see a map of the location where we're opening the store. This is exactly what I wanted. Adding the map was pretty easy, but I don't want to have to do it for every single city. Maybe I could pull in one of my coworkers and have them help me. So, I want to share one of my pages

and all of the subpages. Here I'll select this 
top-level page and in the top right-hand corner, I can click on share. When I share this out, it'll 
share this page along with all of the subpages. Here I'll click on share and right here I can 
type in e-mail addresses for people who I want to share with. I'll click on this and here I'll 
type in Patty. She's my manager and she's always looking for some work so I’ll enter in her e-mail 
address. Over on the right-hand side, I can set the permissions. Here I can give her edit access 
and I want her to add maps for these different cities, so I need her to be able to edit, but 
you can also set it to comment or just view, and if you upgrade the plan, you can also offer 
full access, but edit for now is good enough.

Down below, I could also type in a message. Over here, I'll click on invite, and look at that, what an overachiever. Patty is already within this workspace. Here I can see her photo right up above, and this indicates that she's currently on this page. If Patty navigates to a different page, her photo will grey out, and once she returns to this page, here you see that it lights up again. Over in the top left-hand corner, I can click on settings and members, and within settings, I can click into members, and right up here there's the option for guests. Here I can review all of the different guests who have access to pages within my workspace. Here I see that Patty has access. I can click over here and here I see that she has access to this specific page. If I no longer want her to be able to access this page, here I can click on remove.

With the free plan, you can only share with up to five guests. Back here on the main page, I want to make sure that Patty knows what to do. Over on the sidebar, I'll click into proposed locations. Then I'll highlight Manila and here I have the option to insert a comment. I'll select this. Over here, I'll select the @ symbol, but I could also just type in the @ symbol as well. Right here, I'll select Patty Fernandez and then I'll type in my question. I want her to add maps to all of these different cities, and of course, I’ll give her a cookie. It's amazing how you can incentivize people with a free cookie. Here, I'll click on send. Over on the right-hand side, I now see this comment icon and here I can click on that, and I can see my original question. It looks

like Patty's already responded. Of course, all 
done, where's my cookie? I better work on that. Right here, I can resolve this comment. I'll 
click on this icon, and now that disappears from the page. To view all of the comments 
on this page, in the top right-hand corner, I can click on the comment icon, and here I 
see there are no open comments, but over here, I can filter to all of the resolved comments, 
and here I see my conversation with Patty. Over on the left-hand side, here I can also click on 
updates, and this shows me all of the different updates happening throughout this workspace, and 
here I see my comments with Patty. One of the neat things is I could also reply directly from here. 
Using updates is a good way to stay up to date on everything that's happening throughout this 
workspace. Sharing with Patty's been great. I'm

now getting all this work done, but I also want to share out the current locations with all of our customers so they know where they could shop for our cookies. Here I'll select this page and in the top right-hand corner I'll click on share again. But instead of typing in a specific person, right here I have the option to share to web. This allows me to publish this page as a website. I'll check this and right here I see the website URL. I’ll click on copy web link. Down below, I can also set various permissions for this page. Now I don't want customers to come in and edit this. I also don't want them to comment, so I'll make sure I leave those as is. I've now navigated to this page, and look at that, customers can now see all of our different locations on a map. We might have to work on providing a little more details, because this isn't really that specific.

but at least they know that there are 
locations in their country. All right, well that was a quick look at how you can get 
started using Notion, and I think you'll agree with me that it is an incredibly powerful tool 
that also happens to be very simple to use. To watch more videos like this one, please consider 
subscribing, and I'll see you in the next video.

How to use Notion - Beginner Tutorial

Learn how to do anything, with high-quality how-to videos. I teach millions of students around the world every month across YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and other social media platforms to help them master technology, achieve more at work, and succeed at school. I've been featured on CNBC, Fast Company, GeekWire, and Windows Central. I'm an ex-Microsoft Product Manager and now a full-time education content creator.

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How to use Notion - Beginner Tutorial

How to use Notion - Beginner Tutorial

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