u/lhzsksksksks

I have been using Notion daily for 3 years. My setup has gone through more iterations than I can count. Here is what I have landed on.

A homepage that shows my priorities for the week. A project database with status, deadline, and next action. A journal database for daily entries. That is basically it.

The key insight was simplicity. Every time I added a new database or relation, I asked myself if it would save me more time than it would cost to maintain. Most features failed that test.

The databases I kept are the ones I check every single day. If I do not check it daily, it does not belong in my setup.

What is the one view or database in your Notion that you could not live without?

I used to think studying meant marathon sessions. Coffee fueled nights where I reread the same paragraph 5 times. It turns out that approach is almost completely ineffective.

What actually works is active recall. Close the book and try to explain the concept from memory. If you cannot, read it again and try again. This sounds simple but most people never do it.

I combined active recall with spaced repetition. Review material at increasing intervals. Day 1, day 3, day 7, day 14. By exam time, the information was locked in.

I studied less overall and performed better than my peers who were grinding 3x as long. The quality of study time matters way more than the quantity.

What study method made the biggest difference for you?

For the first year of my SaaS, I was obsessed with getting new users. I spent all my energy on marketing, content, and ads. New signups came in but churn was eating them alive.

I flipped the strategy. I spent 3 months focusing only on retention. Better onboarding. Faster support. Features that existing users actually asked for instead of features I thought were cool.

The result was unexpected. My MRR doubled without acquiring a single new user. Because the users who stayed started upgrading their plans and referring their friends.

Retention compounds. Acquisition decays. Every dollar you spend keeping a customer pays back forever.

What retention tactic moved the needle most for you?

Everyone obsesses over the graph view. Beautiful clusters of interconnected ideas. But in practice, the daily note is the most underrated feature.

I use a single daily note template. What I did today. What I am thinking about. Links to relevant projects. That is it.

The magic happens over time. After 6 months of daily notes, you have a searchable journal of your own thinking. You can see how your opinions evolved. You can find that idea you had 4 months ago that connects to what you are working on now.

The graph view shows you connections. The daily note shows you growth. Both are valuable but I get way more value from the daily note.

What feature did you discover way later than you should have?

I have tried every note taking methodology you can name. Zettelkasten, PARA, GTD, Building a Second Brain. Each one worked for exactly as long as I was reading the book about it.

Here is what I eventually learned. The best system is the one you actually use. Not the one that looks best in a screenshot.

I stripped everything down to three principles. Capture fast without worrying about structure. Process weekly. Search instead of filing.

The biggest unlock was realizing that metadata is not the same as thinking. You can spend all day tagging and linking and never actually process an idea. The work is in the processing.

What is the one principle that made your system actually work?