Notion Masterclass: Build a Note Taking System from Scratch

Learn how to build a full note-taking system in Notion from scratch!
📝 ULTIMATE NOTES (Get the Free Template):
thomasjfrank.com/templates/no...
🧠 ULTIMATE BRAIN (Full Second-Brain Template - use BLACKFRIDAY23 to get 50% off!):
thomasjfrank.com/brain/
✈️ FLYLIGHTER (Our ultra-powerful web clipper - sign up for early access!):
flylighter.com/
🎙️ TAKE NOTES WITH YOUR VOICE (Easy tutorial):
• How I Use ChatGPT to T...
📚 NOTION FUNDAMENTALS (Free & Complete Notion Beginner's Course)
thomasjfrank.com/fundamentals/
🎥 CREATOR'S COMPANION (The Best Template for Content Creators - use BLACKFRIDAY23 at checkout):
thomasjfrank.com/creators-com...
🛠 MORE COURSES AND RESOURCES:
thomasjfrank.com/templates/
thomasjfrank.com/courses/
💪GET STARTED WITH NOTION:
thomasjfrank.com/usenotion/ - (this is my referral link)
🐦Connect with me:
Twitter ➔ / tomfrankly (best way to interact with me)
Instagram ➔ / tomfrankly
Music ➔ ‪@ThomasFrankMusic‬
Main Channel ➔ ‪@Thomasfrank‬
⏱️ TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 - Intro
00:38 - Build Start
03:10 - Notes Database
09:17 - Create the Inbox View
11:52 - Tags Database
15:26 - Finish the Inbox
17:51 - Teaser: Flylighter (Web Clipper)
18:34 - Favorites View
20:33 - Recents View
24:29 - Tags View
28:47 - Create the Note Board
32:05 - Tag Database Template
40:33 - New Notion Button
42:16 - Quick Links Bar
43:00 - Archive Page
47:06 - Formulas Page
01:05:24 - Turn Notion into a Full Productivity System
🔗 VIDEO LINKS:
Formula code: thomasfrank.notion.site/Ultim...
In this tutorial, I'll show you how to build a full note taking system in Notion from scratch. This notes dashboard will include an inbox for quickly capturing notes and web clips on the go, Favorites and Recents sections, and a tagging system for keeping notes organized.
If you want to turn Notion into a note-taking tool to rival Evernote, Obsidian, and other tools, this build guide is for you.
I've also released a free note-taking Notion template called Ultimate Notes, so you can simply click the link above to get it without having to build anything yourself!

[@ThomasFrankExplains]

Hey friends! I know many of you will want to build this system from scratch, but in case you want a template version, here it is: thomasjfrank.com/templates/notion-note-taking-template/ P.S. - this exact note-taking system is also in Ultimate Brain, along with some extra features (a daily journal, recipe tracker, book tracker, and more). We're currently running our first-ever Black Friday sale, and you can get the template for 50% off through the end of November: thomasjfrank.com/brain/

[@funastacia]

So grateful to and for you, Thomas, for your generosity, dedication and authenticity 💛

[@jamestheredd]

These are my favorite kind of productivity app videos because you can get ideas for how to improve your own system based off of the system that Thomas has built, even if you don't use Notion. Fun stuff!

[@angelomosquera6463]

Great video! I was building a system like this, and this video gave me some great ideas, you're an inspiration, keep rocking!

[@kimbaptiste381]

This is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you so much 🎉

[@joevannucci1392]

Hey Thomas! As an Evernote reject (see ya!), this tutorial is the exact thing I needed to get up to speed with Notion, quickly. Some say Notion isn't a note-taking app, and that I should have looked elsewhere. But all the simpler note apps couldn't handle even the minimal flow that was possible in Evernote. This is gonna be great, thank you!

[@assasinon1209]

Thank you for this! I was looking at different note taking apps for class and settled on notion because of this video

[@dadswithgamepads2497]

Great video that helped me build my notes repository from scratch. Thanks, Thomas and keep up the knowledge sharing flow going 😀 👍

[@darrylbrooks3361]

Recently moved back (yet again) from Evernote and built a similar app available from my Home Page. One think I got used to using in EN was the scratch pad widget. To emulate that, I placed a Callout at the top of the page. The default lightbulb icon makes it stand out and the layout is such that it shows up at the top of my Android page. No functionality, just quick entry. Keep up the great work on these videos.

[@RicmodUttara]

Thank you Thomas, brilliant as always. You created two master databases in this tutorial. Did you consider only creating one? What's your general approach when deciding one vs 1+n master databases?

[@peterdavid5928]

Dude honestly you're the man!

[@svenaak]

Thank you sooo much!!

[@junko7575]

Thanks!

[@rheahalona]

This is a wonderful tutorial, as always. I used your previous PARA build video. I’m trying to figure out how to incorporate tags in that framework. Right now tags seems to be similar to how I use areas. However I do see the merit in using tags to further refine the notes, and even resources, that are in each area. Hope that makes sense.

[@ThomasFrankExplains]

In this system, Tags are equivalent to Resources in PARA. And in my PARA setup, I use the same database for Areas and Resources (I just call it Areas/Resources). Within that setup, the Tag database template here would be just like the Resource template. So the only additions you need to make in order to add Areas are: - Creating a Relation between Areas/Resources and Projects - Creating an Area database template in the Areas/Resources database Hope that helps!

[@rheahalona]

@@ThomasFrankExplains yes that helps a lot! Thank you.

[@jubben331]

Love your videos. Is there a way to enable notion to send an email to all team members in a space everyday with all the notes added during that day? 😊

[@brandymoran9646]

I've got your Ultimate Brain and am also trying to figure out the Area/Resources vs the tags. I like to use a lot of tags, and can't seem to figure out how to do that with resources without having a TON of resources to dig through. Loving what I've gone through so far though!!

[@ColtonMorrisOK]

Love your videos! Why do we create a separate database for tags vs just using the built in tags option?

[@dreejz]

Let's go! 🚀

[@sciencetechnology7519]

4:30 Database - inline Database - Fullpage 12:12

[@chaohao4252]

Would you recommend use a separate database from the notes database or just continuously add more properties into the notes database if the notes are in lots of different topics? Thanks ❤

[@salman_babar]

​given quickly accessing notes is something a database does quite effectively. through filtering and grouping of items in the database via different metadata (Notion properties). however, as you can imagine, the added metadata can easily get too many. how can one find a good balance between having too many and too little metadata? does Thomas have a FRAMEWORK FOR DECIDING what metadata to keep and what to discard? maybe something to look for in your next awesome video?

[@CharmyCharmSheep]

Can you make a video showing how you use this for your task managment?

[@jerometas9889]

Hi, nice video. Really helpful for a notion newbie like me. Do you think there would be any interest to enable sub-elements for tags database ?

[@AsifHaq]

Superb video once again. Just need to know why the Notes database was turned into a page of its own at 5:15 ?

[@anshulsingh83]

Hi Thanks for the tips. Inspired by your videos I started by making my own trading journal but got stuck very soon. I hope you could guide me. My trades include both intraday and swing together. The journal columns include entry date , exit date and days in trade (calculated as exit-entry). How to handle the exit date column If I havent exited from the trade yet? what I wish I could do is Exit date remains blank in such case while the days are calculated as (present date- entry date). Is it possible? Thanks

[@user-ec6hu8bl4l]

hey thomas loved the video but you forgot to actually add fliter for archived tags when checked in archive page. btw love your notion videos and website and love from india

[@alboz1327]

Hey Frank, nice tutorial! What if I wanted to organize notes in subtopics? I followed the tutorial, but it seems to me that you can only organize them by a main topics (the tag) and no sub-topics. I make an exampla: Programming (tag) -> OOP (tag) --> C++ (tag) --> "Classes in C++" (actual note with information). Is this kind of organization allowed through this note-taking system? (this seems like a basic need for organizing notes, think of a uni course's syllabus; chapters, paragraphs, concepts etc.)

[@matthewbass3995]

How does this work if you want multiple org levels of notes? For example Health and Fitness => Fitnesss => Weight Lifting, Cardio, Yoga?

[@LouisShue]

Thanks for the very nice tutorial! I was wondering if you can explain the benefits of creating a separate Tags database vs having tag existing as just another single-select property in Notes database?

[@ThomasFrankExplains]

With a tags database, you can have tag pages. Every time you create a new tag, you can use a database template to automatically set it up to display all the notes within that tag - sorted and filtered however you like. If you just use a Select property, you have to build filtered views for your tags manually.

[@lamboland8045]

is there a way in notion to sort by new posts? i want to see my newest audio recordings at the top of notion instead of having to find my new posts every time in the table

[@flickerfilmworks]

You mentioned in one of your previous videos that you do not recommend having a central notes database. As opposed to tasks which you do like having centralized? why is that? or am i misunderstanding? what are the drawbacks to have a central notes area across multiple project with different teams?

[@BruceHartford3]

S I G H. *drops everything for this video* It's a good sigh. A grateful sigh. It's the same sigh you let out when you see how big the lego instruction book is. You are excited and very aware of what you are about to get yourself into, kinda sigh.

[@TonyStoodios]

The breakdown of your "S I G H" wins comment of the day.

[@littledottie0]

So an ADHD sigh, with a touch of hyper focus!

[@MorganLorelle]

Amazing stuffs! How do i integrate this if i already have the PARA system you previously created?

[@ThomasFrankExplains]

If you already have the PARA template, you could add any of the features and views from this tutorial directly to it. That wouldn't be super hard to do, but would involve more steps than I could reasonably write out - you'd just need to have watched both videos so you know which features to integrate. Alternatively, Ultimate Brain comes with this note taking system already fully integrated with PARA! thomasjfrank.com/brain/

[@msmith719]

How do you back up your Notion offline?

[@user-rp9jh9zd6n]

Hi - Whenever I duplicate it does not duplicate the filters. Is there an option that needs to be selected to fix that?

[@armandopenaleonett1258]

FOA thank you, I just did the second brain PARA-Dashboard following your video, now I want to have a note taking system and a notes tamplate for it but this video seems like another dashboard like this is mutually exclusive with the PARA-Dashboard, am I wrong ?

[@Farquad123]

Can you do a tutorial building a weekly planner based off Stephen Coveys in 7 habits?

[@AmeyaShikhare_RR]

How to get that full width row on ipad?

[@Lexxo777]

Can this template emulate an 'Evernote' view? Notebook name on the left, middle pane shows list of notes within the selected Notebook, and the right pane to show the contents of the selected note? I've set up 25 tags in your template, entered 20 notes, and assigned 1 tag to each note. "Tags" are equivalent to Notebooks? Happily be guided to a new way, but I'm totally new to Notion, looking to replace Evernote which is super easy to use and all i need is right there in one view with hardly any mouse clicking involved (but, it's really expensive, too many unused features for my use)

[@samlebo5393]

Thanks again for such a helpful tutorial. Currently trying to reconcile using Areas instead of Tags or maybe using both. Would love your recommendation for that. Also, I'm wondering if using Notion's Wiki feature might be something worth exploring here for this dashboard setup. Did you consider that? Would appreciate your insight!

[@ThomasFrankExplains]

I've tried to make Notion's wiki feature work several times, but it comes with some major drawbacks that I just don't like. The main one is that you can't really have pages within a wiki that can be shown in linked database views, without those same pages also just sitting on the main wiki page. In general, the benefits that the wiki feature adds (page verification and ownership) are outweighed by the drawbacks.

[@shadabsirkhot2323]

I want to learn notion, may I know the sequence of playlist, which one to watch first the second? Thanks.

[@ThomasFrankExplains]

For now, I'd recommend simply going through this one. I also have a full Notion Fundamentals course, but it's getting to the point that I need to reshoot a lot of the earlier videos since Notion has changed so much. thomasjfrank.com/fundamentals/ The current videos are still 90-95% accurate, but you'll probably notice features in Notion today that don't show up in the videos.

[@elle-fw5lp]

is there a way to use the ultimate brain template without implementing the PARA system? I tried that but takes me too much time to gauge if something's a resource, project or area and i feel like the properties overlap.

[@ThomasFrankExplains]

Yeah! I just released a brand-new Beginner's Course in our community for Ultimate Brain, and we purposely stay away from trying to use all of PARA right away. Instead, I simply suggest using Projects for groups of tasks, and Resources as if they were tags in a note-taking system. From there, you can graduate to using Areas if you find them helpful. You can also completely ignore them.

[@MuryDigital]

Hi Thomas, Could you help? Cannot find function Edited. [60,75] Cannot find function Edited. [60,75] stamp is not defined. [130,135]"

[@tekcreations745]

Great looking template, but I am struggling with something, I have some old notes from your old template, when i drag and drop them from the old section to the inbox on the left, they dont appear in the inbox, i then have to click on inbox and drag from that page to the inbox section. Is there a way to do it from just the left hand structure?

[@ThomasFrankExplains]

You need to move them to the Notes database itself, not the Inbox page (which simply holds a view of the Notes database )

[@MuryDigital]

And one more: Notion Formula Notes.map(current.Edited time).sort().reverse().first() Cannot find function Edited. [6,20] Expected token ")". [126,127]

[@Dot02]

Hi there, just a question. What's the difference between a tag and a type? If you guys could explain it like I'm a 5 years old, that would be great. Thanks

[@mortenlaustsen772]

I came here for exactly the same reason :). My brain keeps telling just to use tags, but I wonder....

[@Saltwater0425]

Thomas Frank is a Notion Wizard Level 99. However, he needs to slow down. I can't even click the mouse as fast as he can. It took 2 hours to watch a 1 hour video because I had to rewind so much. Fantastic demo!

[@IrvingBabe]

Pretty dumb question but I cant seem to get my notes tabs to show up side by side....i.e. to see notes, web, voice in my recent view there is only one tab with a down area that I have to click to see all three options. Can you suggest a fix here?

[@evilsapien]

i think it is because of the update even i am unable to see them side by side if ill get to know ill let you know

[@user-lh2dr3mj2y]

For some reason when I duplicate a database the filters are not duplicating along with the database. I didn't worry too much about it until the Tag Template section where we need to have the filter reference Tag Template. Any ideas why this might me happening?

[@dadswithgamepads2497]

Same issue. Also the Tag Template itself contains filters, but when you add the template to a new tag - filters and sorting are not copied from the Tag Template.

[@kneibert1]

Is there a link to for the ultimate notes demo to copy the code for the extra stuff towards the end of the video?

[@ThomasFrankExplains]

Whoops, forgot to include that! Here's the link: thomasfrank.notion.site/Ultimate-Notes-Formulas-7c80c6ed2ccf42a095a5c598d37f1b96?pvs=4

[@kneibert1]

Thanks! @@ThomasFrankExplains

[@leahperry7700]

I am trying to use the "hidden property" options. I've tried changing the UB Notes DB, templates, and everywhere else I can think of, but hidden properties continue to show up. I'd love to be able to clean up the tops of pages to no longer show 25 properties and just hide them. Can you help?

[@ThomasFrankExplains]

Are you hiding the properties in database views? If you don't want to see them on actual pages, open one up full screen, then click the ••• menu in the top-right corner and find Customize. From there, you can set the visibility for each property, and those settings will apply to every page in the database.

[@leahperry7700]

@@ThomasFrankExplains I am using the new UB database in the Archive section. I tried customizing the top right three dots, but that doesn't open customize page. So I opened a single note, as you directed, and customized the properties shown. Even though, for example, Assignee should always be hidden, it still shows, as do most of the other "formula"-like properties.

[@ThomasFrankExplains]

@@leahperry7700 that Customize option will determine how properties are shown/hidden when you open pages, but for actual database views, you customizae those on a view-by-view basis. See the bit on View Options here: thomasjfrank.com/notion-databases-the-ultimate-beginners-guide/#database-views

[@narcotichoyle]

The using of TAG instead of Areas & Resources makes this way more difficult to set up within my existing PARA framework set up from your Ultimate Brain. Why is it when setting up a relation on my end it only gives me two arrows with each one pointing opposite rather than the 4 arrows in a relation. when I try to set up a self referential filter it never gives me the template as an option. Why is that?

[@ThomasFrankExplains]

If you're using Ultimate Brain, you already have this note-taking system! (A better version, in fact). This tutorial is for folks who want to build a system for themselves. As for the self-referential filter issue - did you make sure to change the setting in your Relations so they show on the other database?

[@PedroCL]

Thanks for the tutorial, I like a lot this note system. However, after following all the instructions, I have been unable to download your template today. There maybe a bug in the web. :(

[@ThomasFrankExplains]

Oh wow you're right. I think it's a bug on Notion's end that has to do with the fact that Ultimate Notes is listed in the template marketplace. They're working on a fix; in the mean time, here's another link that should work: ultimatebrain.notion.site/Ultimate-Notes-temp-c33523666cc24fea80ba8cd5c196d400?pvs=4

[@insomniumtale]

Do one of these in Coda, would be interesting to see the differences 😅

[@zohso]

One critique... the cuts you do to remove space/noise/etc. is unnecessary. Honestly, it makes your videos seem unnecessarily chaotic. Like, let your thoughts breath. The second or two that you cut between thoughts aren't really saving anyone time. It just causes some of us anxiety watching you. Just make your videos, free form, natural, let us come along with your journey. Especially for these tutorial videos. But... I love the content. I just had the one critique. Just slow down, don't chop your videos. Just let them play, mistakes and all. Cheers.

[@godkingcthulhu138]

🦑

[@_isaac_santana]

Smudgy windows

[@phoenixgaming586]

you speak way to fast, for non-English speakers it's hard to understand you many times. I have to slow down video which makes this video way too long.

[@skubydubydu]

What exactly is the problem here?

[@paulimones]

He talks just fine, I’m also a non-English speaker. Just learn more English.

[@phoenixgaming586]

Well, everyone has their own experience, and I said what I feel. I don't know why you assumed I don't know English@@paulimones

[@jm52hz]

okay, and? how is he supposed to fix that exactly? if he talks slower the video will end up being "way too long" either way... so what's your point exactly? regardless, that's /your/ personal issue, not anyone else's - and definitely not his. i'm a non-native speaker and watched this video 1.25x speed lol and if someone talks too fast for me to keep up then i just play it slower, like you did, because that's the whole purpose of being able to change the speed of the video.

[@zee029]

You can change the playback speed in the settings

[@MuryDigital]

Hi Thomas, Could you help? Cannot find function Edited. [60,75] Cannot find function Edited. [60,75] stamp is not defined. [130,135]"