This article explores how others have implemented popular productivity and knowledge management systems in Notion.
12 Week Year
Zettelkasten Method
Getting Things Done (GTD)
Pillars, Pipelines & Vaults (PPV)
Building a Second Brain
12 Week Year
The 12 Week Year is a system developed by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington. It aims to help individuals achieve their annual goals within just 12 weeks.
Montelle Bee's video explains the concept of a 12 week year and provides a detailed overview of her 12-week year template in Notion.
Notably, she emphasizes the importance of maintaining ambitious goals and not downscaling them. She then covers each step of planning your 12 week year. This process starts with listing strategies for each goal, breaking those strategies into weekly actions, and culminating in a daily tracker.
Zettelkasten Method
Elizabeth Filips organizes her notes in Notion using principles from the Zettelkasten method, also known as Luhmann’s Slip Box.
The fundamental concept of Zettelkasten is to have a single idea per note and use tags to connect related ideas, ultimately organizing your knowledge on a specific topic.
In the video, Elizabeth shows her process by starting with a draft page to capture down ideas she doesn’t want to forget. She then presents another page that serves as her second brain or slip box, where she lists her topics and subtopics of interest. Each topic can be linked to captured notes from the previous page.
Getting Things Done (GTD)
The GTD method is a personal productivity system developed by David Allen. The five steps in the GTD workflow are capture, clarify, organize, reflect, and engage.
It's a handy and thorough framework for figuring out your priorities, especially if you always have a long list of to-dos.
In the video, Khe Hy walks through setting up a GTD system in Notion from scratch. He provides a helpful overview for beginners on structuring and implementing workflows in Notion, extending beyond this specific methodology.
Pillars, Pipelines & Vaults (PPV)
PPV, a framework developed by August Bradley, is designed to serve as a comprehensive life operating system.
Pillars represent your life segments, such as home and business. Pipelines are your processes, from setting goals to projects to tasks, where the GTD method would fit. Vaults, on the other hand, are where your knowledge resides and is managed.
August believes in the power of having an interconnected system, rather than juggling multiple apps. This interconnected system facilitates the interplay between various aspects of life, leading to new insights that would otherwise remain isolated.
Building a Second Brain
The concept of a Second Brain was popularized by Tiago Forte in his course and book, "Building a Second Brain."
To set up a second brain, you should first familiarize yourself with the PARA method. PARA simplifies the organization of information into just four categories: Projects, Areas, Resources, and Archive. I’ve shared how I’ve applied it beyond Notion for file and tab management.
The usefulness of PARA lies in its ability to help you organize your knowledge in a way that makes it readily accessible when needed, such as for a project you’re working on.
In the video, I showcase a Second Brain template that builds upon the PARA method with my own twist. One of the key features is its integration of elements from the GTD workflow for task management, transforming it into a comprehensive system for both productivity and knowledge management.