Updated Notion Tour - How I am using PARA to organize my workspace

It has been a while since I did a Notion update and my space has gone through some updates!
Here is an updated tour of how I organize my Notion workspace.
- Workspace sidebar items are now Pages with embedded Databases
- New Dashboards section
- Separate "private" Areas vs Team Areas
PARA method: praxis.fortelabs.co/the-p-a-r...
⚡️Go deeper with my online course, Notion Mastery:
notionmastery.com/program/
💰Join Notion Mastery's affiliate program and earn 20% commission on every sale:
notionmastery.com/affiliates/
⚡️Check out my Notion templates:
notionmastery.com/templates
☕️ Love this content and want to buy me a coffee?
www.buymeacoffee.com/7r86dYO

[@DannyHatcherTech]

A Notion space is never finished, forever tinkering.

[@gabrieltataru7366]

Thats why theres an inbox :) put down ideas and implement when time allows

[@DannyHatcherTech]

@@gabrieltataru7366 that what I do 😁

[@mariamontoyaa]

Thanks Marie! I’m curious about your new icons, I’ve noticed you use different icons for pages and dashboards, and for types of actions. I’d love to hear more about that on your next videos

[@Isastorm07]

Good that you come back♥️

[@akhileshtayade606]

I started using Notion a few weeks back, and your videos have been immensely helpful. Thank you so much!

[@Sergiopoo]

I've been using notion for a while now and I love it but wow yours looks so beautiful and organized, I need to step up on my notion skills. Thanks for sharing!

This is powerful Marie! Thank you for this video!

[@CombiningMindsPKM]

Marie, I've been watching a few of your videos as I get started on Notion to complement some other tools, and honestly your content is unbelievably good. Plus your ethos shines through! Thanks so much 🙂

[@neb2612]

Really liking your efficiency with lots of linked data bases and the icons for data bases, pages or mixed 👏🏼

[@jacsYT]

Very inspiring! I’ve recently fallen in love with the gallery view and am updating my own personal “HQ” to use it more.

[@byamberkri]

Oh I am in love with this setup!!! I would LOVE to see a deep dive of a lot of this 😍Thank you so much for sharing with us!

[@MariePoulin]

The entire setup is available as a template with full walk through as part of my course :) I'll definitely be showing off some of the different parts, but I go way deeper in my course and the entire thing with all the relations is available: mariepoulin.com/notion-mastery/

[@mariefranceartdesign]

I am so glad I came across your channel! You have amazing content and are a great inspiration for creating my own Notion space. :) Thank you!

[@seemal101]

I would really like to see a more in depth tour of the major dashboards and databases, plus the color coding and icon system. I love your videos so much!!!

[@colbysdovi220]

Your Notion space is beautiful !

[@Jason-dt3rv]

Thank you Marie, I enjoyed your video on how Notion uses PARA, it gave me a lot of inspiration!

[@javisanchezs]

Woow, your workspaces look awesome and beautiful. I really like them! And most important, the work flow you've created is very impressive!

[@DavidMalan01]

Thanks for sharing, really helpful!

[@dontworry9372]

This is the type of expert use of the tools that Notion offers that I want to achieve. I'm a beginner, and I'm feeling overwhelmed by the simplicity and freedom of the software, but I'm inspired by this video!

[@DuncanRawlinson]

Notion god strikes again! Thank you for sharing. Love it.

[@michellerevisited]

Thanks for sharing! It's always cool to look at how other people use the tools. I'm definitely interested to see more of your business workflow in the future so I'll keep an eye out for that!

[@MariePoulin]

Glad you enjoyed, and stay tuned for more business use cases! Cheers!

[@randyentwistle6836]

Beautiful 😍 I’m just starting and I have just spend the past two days learning all about Para method but seeing this has gave me so much inspiration

[@FutileGrief]

A-MA-ZING- Really inspiring, thank you for sharing! Also the - a e s t h e t i c - is so satisfyingly minimal

[@illuminach8279]

You amaze me every time

[@naveenprasadl7885]

Thanks Marie.! You’re my inspiration for using Notion. Love your setups ❤️

[@romankeller9762]

Is there a download version available ?

[@naveenprasadl7885]

Roman Keller Yeah. You can download it for windows and mac.

[@GalitBal]

Missed your videos :D And your space looks amazing. Can you do a video on your Plan, focus, learn (I saw, hehe and loved), and others... I am taking a few online courses and I love your collect and process dashboard. Btw, I love putting my areas in a gallery view as well, it's so inspiring seeing it like that.

[@angeliqueteze3848]

Great video as always, thank you very much for sharing! It would be very interesting if you could talk more in depth about your "alignment page" and also an in-depth view of how you organised your pages now. :)

[@ScottWebb27]

Amazing looking! I dream of creating something nice like this still lol

[@NicholasMcGill]

Hey Marie - excellent video. Can you go into further detail for your Content Hub? I would love to see that!

[@hapus1]

Would love to see your goal planning process.

[@andrewragaza4468]

Really love your Notion set-ups! May I know where you get your icons?

[@PaulaRincon]

Marie! Please, please, please walk us through your RESOURCES page and all its contents! I would really appreciate it

[@MariePoulin]

You got it!

[@PaulaRincon]

@@MariePoulin yay. Thank you so much. Looking forward to it

[@DandA604]

@@MariePoulin I love and admire your set up, but my current budget may not allow for the course. Do you allow for commerce purchase of and for the template here, top level to lowest levels for purchase? Thank you, and have a great day!🙏🏻🙂

[@dmitrysmirnov5216]

Everything looks and works fantastic, thanks for sharing! Could you describe how you organise the Archive? It's a kind of repository for all tasks / items that are done / irrelevant anymore, isn't? Is transferring to archive automated? Or you do it manually?

[@Notion]

💕

[@gabrieltataru7366]

Love it

[@marg_reffell]

Looks so good! I'm loving the dark mode :)

[@matthewbroberg4985]

@marie you’re so brilliant at using rollups and filters - could you walk through the Collect and Process area specifically? Thanks!

[@MariePoulin]

thanks! just checking that you had a chance to watch this video? kzbin.info/www/bejne/b2elaox4qcuKnbM

[@ChrisBarfod]

Awesome Notion Tour Marie. Always an inspiration :)

[@sfield541]

Can you demonstrate how to write an SOP in Notion?

[@sfield541]

Where can I find those neat icons and emojis Marie?

[@MrXStitch]

You'll have to do an explanation of how you hack the layouts to get lists next to linked databases and all that saucy dashboard stuff as well! (This is the fifth time I'm watching this!)

[@MariePoulin]

Mr X Stitch you have to make empty columns first, and then drag your database into the column!

[@jeannepainchaud1796]

Awesome content! Was just wondering, un your Month table, in your "This Quarter" section, how come the elements in your goals and outcomes columns line up in a vertical list instead of the regular side by side view?

[@jeannepainchaud1796]

Oh! nvm, I just found the "Wrap Cells" toggle in the table options :)

[@rodrigomflores]

Hi! Thanks for the great content! Is it possible to create custom icons? I’ve really liked the great content cue it brings.

[@MariePoulin]

Rodrigo Flores yes you can upload any image for the icons

[@louisamarie6490]

Hey, could you explain how you get the covers to show in the gallery view? Mine are just white although when I open them, the cover picture is there... thanks 😅

[@olgasinenko211]

Hi Marie! Thanks for your videos, they helped me so much to understand the possibilities of Notion! I also liked the PARA method, and the way you modified it. It is so much easier to build a structure for my own workspace now :) The only thing I'm struggling with - "done" property and "completed" status for the tasks. Which one do you tend to use? If both, how do they correspond to each other? And how do you automate the process of sending finished tasks to the archive?

[@MariePoulin]

Olga Sinenko completed is only for the purposes of having a board view - I typically only really use the done property, personally, but the option is there as my husband uses the board view for tasks sometimes!

[@jleasy]

Great video Marie! You mentioned that each area on the side, such as projects, is now a page with database embedded in the page. Interested to know where are you creating all your databases?

[@MariePoulin]

Karouzal the projects database still lives in the projects page, it’s just re-embedded in the same page several times as a linked database.

[@brianlarsen5507]

Hi Marie, very inspiring setup :) what is the sandbox page at the bottom used for?

[@MariePoulin]

For playing/exploring different ways of manipulating databases, and for testing things out, as well as building things for KZbin demos that I don't want to be visible in my workspace :)

[@RR-ep1oy]

Thank Marie @ 10:15 under your "collect+Process" page, I noticed you somehow removed the horizontal scroll bar at the bottom of the table your 3 inline tables on the right side. Can you share how you did this?

[@bradleyjay2112]

Great video and update on your workflows. Is the video using MMHMM?

[@MariePoulin]

Brad Koch haha no, only because they still have the watermark on the videos, but mmhmm looks almost identical to this setup though! (Used ecamm live

[@greenlizard812]

Wow, Nice Layout! Where did you get those fancy icons?

[@greenlizard812]

Sorry, just saw your reply below, got it!

[@carlesb3500]

Hey Marie, thanks for sharing your setup. I’m curious about the archive section. How do you use it?

[@Desqu]

Your work is inspiring, but i’m struggling too for reach a good archive method, so curious!

[@itsgeraldinelee]

@@Desqu Idea I've come across: Create a linked database filtering only the projects that have been tagged "Completed". You can do this for your tasks, etc. So the Archive page would only showed linked DB views.

[@Desqu]

@Geraldine Lee my struggle is that I still see complete task in the relation database, but I came across a solution this week :)

[@glenngregor402]

Where can you get the nice icons you are using?

[@michaelsuen4852]

Thanks for sharing, Marie! If I want to use part of PARA for myself and not my business (i.e. people I've hired who are on my Notion team plan), how do you differentiate between Workspaces and Private pages? If I share a page or database that's private, can others see that?

[@irfanadamm5819]

Hi Marie, fan of everything. Curious if you can share how you do a UX, Strategy project using Notion.

[@MariePoulin]

oooh good request! I don't do those projects anymore, but since I USED to... that would be a super fun video! could even be fun to do as a livestream...

[@irfanadamm5819]

@@MariePoulin 👐

[@CristovRussell]

I love that you're using specific icons for databases, pages and dashboards. Where did you find them?

[@MariePoulin]

Cristov Russell Notion Minimal Icons! :)

[@petrakmetova9595]

@@MariePoulin And how you have them in different colors?

[@7FigureCashflowSecrets]

Where did you get those awesome icons from???

[@7FigureCashflowSecrets]

Was it an icon pack?

[@LordMekenshi]

You mentioned in a video a while back that you were testing a master tag database, any updates on how that went/are you still using it?

[@shepwoofwoof]

Really good set up. Very inspiring. One query as I'm a noob. How (and why would you want to) set up the "Workspace" category on the left menu, as compared to favourites/shared/private? Just slightly confusing as that's not what I see, but maybe just because I'm on the free version.

[@MariePoulin]

If you're on the personal plan you won't see that option on the left hand side!

[@shepwoofwoof]

@@MariePoulin Ah, so is that the collaborative workspaces you get with the team or enterprise plan? Does it have any function or advantages other than being able to share?

[@daveojeda]

Great video! Love those new icons you are using. Where did you purchase them?

[@MariePoulin]

notionpages.com/469/minimal-icons/

[@martindiemling7973]

Dear Marie! I am very interested in your notion skills and look very often your videos. I also developed my Notion platform very well, or in other words, i get better and better in organizing, therefore a great thank you for you and your videos. :) Regardless of my knowledge now, there are some ambiguities for me about the difference between mastertask and goals. The main idea is: Area consists of Projects Projects consists of Goals and Goals consists of Tasks? Or are Goals Tasks? I am not quite sure how to separate this to terms. I also didn't find a answer in your videos, or i just cant find it :) In advance thank you and i think you are great! Greetings from austria Martin

[@mastroale]

Hi @Marie Poulin , I really like how you structured your workspace. One question I've got about the Project page, into it you have a project DB but it seems a rollup, so where do you actually keep the original table? Thanks!

[@mastroale]

And also Marie, how you get the icon close to the main areas like Fulfillment, Operations, and Growth & Marketing? They're links to those pages, isn't it? So how do you get the icon before?

[@mastroale]

Any help with this anyone?

[@InnergyBites]

Wow you do such beautiful things with Notion. I'm a beginner and wondering how do you get your Areas gallery table to be in a column on the right side like that? I tried creating a title and the dragging the my table over to the right of it but it doesn't turn into a two column layout. There must be a trick I'm missing. Thank you!

[@MariePoulin]

You have to make the empty columns first, then you can drag the databases inside :)

[@InnergyBites]

@@MariePoulin Thank so much!

[@petrakmetova9595]

Where you have got those icons?

[@MrXStitch]

Getting some serious Notion envy, but yours is an exemplar set up! One thing that I get stuck with is in a single task database. I've got one that covers three different projects and I can filter and tag to get good views on them, but the tasks themselves end up with a myriad of options, not all of which apply to all the tasks. Is there a way to create tasks within the same database that only show some of the options depending on their context - tasks for project A have five options, whereas for project B they have a different set of options, however they're all in the same overarching database. Or am I better served by individual databases per project? I can't help thinking that one database to rule them all is the best bet. Thank you Obi-Wan (Oki-Wan?)

[@CaueMS]

There isn't unfortunately, what you can do is split the databases into individual databases and create a dashboard that has all three linked databases with the filters you want, this way you can have less options in each database

[@MrXStitch]

@@CaueMS Thanks for the tip!

[@lorrainealisoncayetano5601]

Where did you get those icons? They are so minimalistic

[@MariePoulin]

Notion Minimal Icons :) notionpages.com/469/minimal-icons/

[@jorgej.torres8614]

Where did you get those icons? They are 🔥

[@MariePoulin]

Jorge J. Torres Notion minimal icons!

[@justFIDA]

How did you do that overlay? Much better look now? Did you use Greenscreen?

[@MariePoulin]

Dr. Fida Hasan yes - using a greenscreen and ecamm live :)

[@labulabuland]

7:31 Tools, whimsical

[@carolinebreeden7649]

Hi thank you for the video! I am just wondering if you could do a video on how you archive your tasks. I am struggling at the moment with how to ensure that all of the meta-data is kept in tact while also removing it from my current task lists. Other than just creating a linked database and filtering the 'done' checkboxes, or moving the tasks to the archive database (which loses the associated projects and other stuff) - is there a better way to do this?

[@MariePoulin]

CJB 5 your current views should always filter to only show tasks that aren’t done (checked done). I only archive tasks 1 or 2x/year, and when I do that I move all of the tasks associated with that project inside the project page itself, and then move the whole project into a mirror database in my archive page. Murali has a great KZbin video about archiving stuff you should look for!

[@carolinebreeden7649]

@@MariePoulin Thank you!!

[@lxhugs6550]

I would love to see where all the original databases are that you link in different pages. What's your process?

[@ezeacross]

How does she get the little color circle icon next to words, like the orange one next to AREA?

[@MariePoulin]

You can upload any image or icon. Click on the icon, and go to Upload.

[@daveojeda]

Did you ever post. the video on the Learning database you talked about at 11:09 in this video?

[@MariePoulin]

no, but closest example is kzbin.info/www/bejne/e2TUc5tnbJ6Vnrs

[@daveojeda]

@@MariePoulin Thanks for the reply and link! I have watched most of your videos at least twice if not more. Great stuff! There is one thing I still don't understand as it related to the Knowledge Hub. When you have a book or course in your KH you will have many different notes that can be derived from them. I see that you include those notes in the page of the particular course or book. Have you ever put those notes into your "notes + Ideas" DB to make them uniquely available beyond (and searchable) the Book or Course page? I feel that books/courses can have great nuggets of wisdom that can be on very different subjects.

[@daveojeda]

@@MariePoulin Just wondering if you will ever do a video talking about the relationship of Knowledge Hub to "Notes & Ideas"? Still trying to get a handle on how to use them together as in my previous reply. Thanks

[@mrmonday677]

Canadians are wonderful.

[@raghunandanhv1]

Hi, most of you are storing your entire database, notes, etc.. on notion’s server. What happens to all your data when company closes? In the current scenario nothing can be predicted about the longevity of any company.

[@nabilanaurin]

What are the icons you are using for projects, resources and dashboard page?

[@MariePoulin]

Nabila Naurin Notion minimal icons (google it you will find it pretty quickly!)

[@petrakmetova9595]

@@MariePoulin And what about those which you are using for database pages - the full circle - is not in the pack

[@petrakmetova9595]

Where you have AREAS dashboard?

[@MariePoulin]

My Oki Doki is my business areas dashboard, MarieHQ is a hybrid dashboard that contains Areas + Resources + Projects, etc.

[@petrakmetova9595]

@@MariePoulin may I ask about 2 other things? What about Activities page, where is this placed? And I got the minimal icons pack, but you are using also the full circle icons, from where you get those? Thanx a lot for the reply ... u r really great

[@inakiseo8227]

If that is updated to your gumroad page I will buy it instantly

[@MariePoulin]

Iñaki SEO this template (or at least a very close replica) is available on my gumroad page :)

[@kasperkorea]

I notice Airtable on your list of Tools. Under purpose you write "Your central brain that contains..." I thought you were using Notion as your "second brain", or are you using both?

[@MariePoulin]

Airtable has very specific/limited purpose - i use it to collect onboarding information, course feedback, and sales data because of its ability to integrate with Zapier. Airtable is a great tool, but it's not where I want to be operating out of day to day...

[@kasperkorea]

@@MariePoulin I see. Thanks for your reply. Great videos by the way. Watched quite a few.

[@DandA604]

@@MariePoulin Anticipating Notion 3.0 with API, would you then look to Notion Integrations instead?

[@labulabuland]

🔖8:28

[@alexandriathera1153]

Time stamp: Her area: 2:00 Her SOP LAY OUT 6:41 Ideas: Divided the project by size Keeping a big picture views by combining different database in a single page. 9:30

[@kaiserloiro]

mmhmm

[@RahulYadav-nk6wp]

The fundamental problem I could find in this beautiful system is simply having too much clutter and friction. Notion was designed to be mobile first as well, as a developer I find that notion true ability shines when it's on your phone. Unfortunately, this system and the ones I tried all fails in terms of too much information and too much friction, meaning jumping from one page to another is a task can't be done in less than three taps.

[@MariePoulin]

Rahul Singh Yadav except that Notion allows you to design your space in a way that works for your brain and workflow, and I don’t use Notion at all on mobile device. This is a TOUR of my space, which really works for me, so there’s no fundamental problem for me. If it doesn’t work for you, guess what - you get to design it in a way that works for you! It’s important for people to see the variety of ways different professionals use Notion. Don’t make assumptions about how people use the tool - just because you use it mobile first doesn’t mean that is how others use it! Most of my students are desktop-first users.