PhD Productivity Hacks: My Notion Template

a bit of history

Back in 2018, when I embarked on my PhD journey, I found myself diving into a new subject and brushing up on molecular biology techniques. My initial approach? Good old pen and paper. At first, it seemed like an effective way to take notes, but as I looked ahead to the years of my PhD, I realized it might not cut it.

As my workload grew, I needed a more sophisticated way to organize information. That’s when I began to be a heavy user of Evernote. Evernote was my go-to note-taking app, and it served me well. However, the demands of the new PhD environment were different. I needed a solution that could handle different kinds of data, like tables of reagents and equipment, which could be images, photos or pdfs. At the same time I also needed an app was seamlessly accessible across various devices, especially my smartphone.

Enter Notion. Initially, Notion seemed a bit daunting. It took me a while to wrap my head around how it worked and what I needed to do. But once I got the hang of it, I was sold. That’s when I decided to roll up my sleeves and make the transition from Evernote to Notion. And no, I didn’t spend hours copying and pasting everything. I simply created a break in my note-taking process in Evernote, knowing that it would pick up seamlessly in Notion.

In a nutshell, what drove this shift was the need to organize information in tables and access it from any PC with an internet connection, especially on my smartphone. Notion not only met these needs but also offered much more versatility and functionality. But, as you’ll soon find out, my journey didn’t end there; I later discovered Obsidian.

why notion?

So, why did I choose Notion? Well, there were a few compelling reasons:

First off, Notion is fantastic for creating databases, and that’s a must in a lab setting. You’ve got reagents, equipment, and all sorts of materials to keep track of. Now, I wasn’t the lab manager; I was the wide-eyed first-year PhD student, thinking about my future self in year four. I didn’t want to be that guy desperately trying to remember the reference of a reagent for my thesis. I was all about planning ahead, setting things up so that when the time came to write the thesis, it would be a focused, streamlined process. Anything else I needed could be found with a quick search through my notes and Notion tables. And you know what? It worked like a charm. It paid off that 1 minute or so to add a new entry to Notion after cleaning up the bench at the end of the day.

But that’s not all! Notion’s got this nifty feature where you can summon templates with a simple click. I fell in love with this. Need to take meeting notes? Click, you’ve got a template. Attending a seminar? Click, another template ready to roll. Reading papers? Click, you guessed it, a template to make the process smoother than a well-oiled machine. This helped me keep a clear mind and be ready to take notes more effectively in various situations.

And last but not least, Notion’s educational plan deserves a shoutout. So, cheers to Notion for that!

the template

Alright, let’s dive into the template I prepared to keep my grad student life on track.

Picture this: I took a step back from my trusty pen-and-paper and Evernote days and imagined a giant, well-organized board. What would that board contain? Well, in the whirlwind of my PhD, I identified five major areas that demanded my attention, and here’s how I broke them down:

Fig1. Notion template front page.

1. Laboratory:
   • Studies
   • Experiments
   • Protocols
   • Cell culture
   • Materials and equipment
   • Reagents
   • Antibodies
2. Manuscripts:
   • Document notes and drafts
   • Literature reviews
3. References:
   • References (papers, books)
   • WebClips (links)
4. Meetings:
   • Meetings
     • Supervisor meetings
     • Lab meetings
     • Collaboration meetings
     • Side project meetings
     • Brainstorms
   • Seminars and sci-events
     • Seminars
     • Web seminars (yup, thanks to SARS-CoV-2)
     • Talks in sci-events
5. Training:
   • Training—advanced courses

But wait, there’s more! On top of this structure I also created a nifty database/table to keep tabs on my tasks. So, whenever a task popped up, it went straight into this database. Then, at some point during the day, I’d take a breather to organize the rest of my day and the next few days.

Here’s the cool part about Notion: you can link items between databases. So, when I created a task, I could connect it to a specific experiment or protocol. At that time, I mostly focused on the laboratory and papers, so I did not consider databases for meetings and seminars.

Now, brace yourself for another nifty feature: different views. I used due dates for tasks to see them in a calendar view. It was like having a bird’s-eye view of all the things I needed to tackle. Pretty sweet, right?

Take a look at a few template screenshots below:

check the demo and get it

Fast forward a year since I submitted my thesis, and I thought, “Why not share this Notion template that help my grad student life?” So, here it is, ready for you to explore in this demo.

And guess what? If you find it as valuable as I did, you can get it in my ko-fi shop. Your support will help me keep improving this tool for other students like you.

future plans

In the future, I’m committed to releasing a new version at least once a year, taking into account your valuable feedback and any updates from Notion. Your input will help shape the template and make it even more useful for students/researchers like you.

closing thoughts

Thanks a ton for taking the time to read this, and I truly hope it proves helpful in any way possible. 🧪