Students and educators can access Notion’s Education plan for free, tapping into features from the Plus plan including up to 100 guests, 50 responses to Ask AI requests and 30-day page history.

Looking for ways to stay organised and elevate your academic journey? Notion offers a range of productivity features and customisable templates that can help you manage your workload, set and track goals and develop better study habits.

Here, Jason Chin, better known as Easlo, a productivity expert renowned for his innovative Notion templates, shares his pro tips.

If you’re new to Notion, Easlo advises beginning with exploration. “I recommend first learning about the possibilities of what you can use Notion for from the myriad of video walkthroughs and video tours on YouTube,” he says. Understanding the functionalities and potential uses of Notion can inspire you to tailor the tool to your specific needs.

Next, Easlo underscores the utility of Notion databases for tracking assignments and deadlines. “Having some sort of tracker can help students offload the task of keeping tabs on their assignments and exams,” he notes.

By externalising these details of academic responsibilities, students can reduce their cognitive load and focus more effectively on their studies. The fewer tasks that fall through the cracks, the more students can stay on top of their commitments.

By customising the Status property in Notion, you can better group and prioritise your work, making large to-do lists more manageable. While default statuses such as “Not Started”, “In Progress” and “Completed” are useful, Easlo emphasises the importance of creating a personalised system.

“I like to have ‘Inbox’ as my default status. At the end of each week, I will review my inbox, add more details necessary to complete each task, and batch schedule them for the coming weeks,” he shares. “Having a dedicated space and time to review these tasks helps us be more efficient in doing what matters.”

Customisation is at the heart of Notion’s appeal, but Easlo cautions against overcomplicating the set-up. Instead of worrying about having a perfect system from day one, he recommends allowing day-to-day experiences to guide gradual improvements.

“As the saying goes, less is more,” says Easlo. By reflecting on their system’s effectiveness and eliminating unnecessary elements, students can tailor Notion to their evolving needs without being bogged down by excessive features.

If you’re not quite sure how to start building a workflow from scratch, Easlo suggests adapting two of his favourite templates that offer structured yet flexible frameworks. “The Student Dashboard is a template designed to be simple and intuitive for students to centralise everything they need,” he says. It helps students organise their classes, assignments, exams and notes in one place.

Another favourite from Easlo is his Second Brain template. “It allows you to review your past thoughts through notes and past actions through projects and tasks, helping you learn from your mistakes and successes,” Easlo explains.