#099 | I went from lots of Notion pages to just 2, and now I am more productive than ever! 🚀
A collection of the best hidden gems, mental models, and frameworks from the world’s top thinkers; to help you become 1% better and live a happier life ❤️
Hello curious minds,
I went through what I like to call a Notion full circle.
It’s when you go from a straightforward Notion setup to a more complex one, only to circle back to a simpler approach.
Here's what happened.
Back in 2018, I began using Notion with a basic one-pager setup. It was like using the iPhone Notes app, quick and easy for jotting down ideas. But, you know, it got a bit messy.
And so I decided to learn how to use Notion properly.
After lots of learning, I created a really cool and complicated Notion setup that did a ton of things. Check it out:
All those things you see above were connected. It worked well for some years, but it became hard to keep up because everything was so tangled up. It was more organised than my quick notes, but it was tricky to add new stuff.
Eventually, I stopped using the full setup.
And this is when I found out that I only needed Notion for three things to be super organised and productive:
Write down ideas quickly
Keep all my knowledge in order
Think about my big plans and make smart moves
Fast forward to today, my current notion setup is only TWO PAGES, and I am more organised and productive than ever before.
🚀 If you are new here…
Hi, I’m Ryan 👋🏼 I am passionate about lifestyle gamification 🎮 and I am obsesssssssss with learning things that can help me live a happy and fulfilling life.And so, with The Limitless Playbook newsletter, I will share with you 1 actionable idea from the world's top thinkers every Sunday 🎯
So visit us weekly for highly actionable insights :)
🧠 My Minimalist Notion Setup
So, here’s my two-page Notion setup:
A page for my thoughts, plans, and capturing things — keeping it simple and focused — Vision to Actions page
A page (a database) for my knowledge playbooks — it's where I gather, organise, and make sense of what I learn — Knowledge Library page
Now, let's talk about the first page, the Vision to Actions.
📝 The Vision to Actions page
This page is like a magic map from a special book called The 12 Week Year. It helps me connect my big dreams to everyday things, so I can become the person I want to be! 💥 I've been using this system since 2018, and it's super fun.
Here's how it works, in 3 steps:
Think about who you want to be (the identity or identities) using thought-exercises like the Odyssey plan 🧠
Plan for the year
Think about important areas based on who you want to be
Set at least 1 outcome goal for each area
Break down the outcome goals into output goals that you need to aim for to achieve the outcome
Now for each output goal, figure out what you need to do (the effort goals) to complete it
Plan for the next 12 weeks (3 months):
Pick the goals (from step 2) you want to work on
List all the things (effort goals) you need to do for those goals
Break down the effort goals into what you'll do each week, month, and 3 months.
And that's it!
You go from who you want to be → plan for the year and 3 months → things you do each week, month, and 3 months.
But wait, what about every day?
Here's a cool trick: I don't use a to-do list anymore. Instead, I use my calendar like a magic schedule. It's awesome because I know when I'm doing things and if I have time for them.
So, start filling your calendar with your weekly, monthly, and 3-month tasks. I usually plan my week every Sunday! 🗓️
🧬 The Knowledge Library page
Alright, let's talk about the knowledge library page.
On this page, I'm all about three things: capture, organise, and synthesise.
To capture, I use Readwise. After trying lots of apps, this is the only one I pay for. It takes all my highlights and pops them into Notion, ready for me to take notes and connect the dots.
To organise, I make sure to sort information in my inbox and Readwise into special knowledge playbooks, like this:
Want to see inside? Here's a sneak peek at my Climbing playbook:
And another one about Philosophy:
Once everything's in the right playbook, I can easily synthesise and connect the dots, but that's a story for another day.
💥 Oh, and guess what? I've got a free Notion template that does all this cool stuff we talked about today :)
🔗 The Minimalist Notion Template
📚 This week, I finished reading…
Have interesting gems you want to share with me and others? Share it by replying to this email and I will include it in the next gift box :)
With love,
Ryan O. 🎮
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