How to Build the Ultimate Notion Template for College Students
Scheduling and managing schoolwork during college can be overwhelming. Between assignments, exams, and maintaining a social life, staying organized is essential. That’s where a Notion template for college students can completely change how you manage your academic life.
You have to keep up with readings, handing in assignments, exams, and most importantly, maintaining a healthy social life. It’s overwhelming just thinking about it. Whether you are at the beginning of your semester, or trying to get everything done at the last minute, you need to use Notion.
In this blog, you’ll learn what Notion is and how you can use it to have control over your life.
By the end of this post, you’ll know exactly how to create a Notion template that keeps your classes, assignments, and goals organized in one simple dashboard.
What is Notion?
Notion is an online platform that allows users to create, organize, and manage their personal and professional projects. It offers a variety of tools, from note-taking to database management and tracking.
Notion launched in 2016 and quickly became popular because it is easy to use, highly customizable, and most importantly, free.
You can create your own templates out of a blank template, or look for finished templates (this may not be free, since users can sell their own templates through the Notion marketplace).
How to Use Notion as a Scheduling Tool for College
As mentioned earlier, Notion is a very easy platform to use. At first, it may seem scary because of its number of customization options. However, the perk of living in a digital world is that you can find everything on the Internet. YouTube has plenty of explanatory videos to make the most out of Notion.
Nevertheless, one thing is choosing the tools, and another one is learning to use them. You can learn to use Notion as your scheduling tool on my blog about the ultimate college planning system.
My Ultimate Notion Template for College Students
I have been using Notion for a long time now (I think it’ll be 3 years now), so I’m happy to say that with time, I have created the best planning system for my college life.
It is fair to say that I’ve had my ups and downs with Notion, but overall, I believe I have found a balance to fill all my needs through my template.
Hence, I want to show you how you can reach this balance too.
TIP: You can apply the following tips and must-have tools on your own template, or you can take my template and customize it according to your needs.
This Notion template for college students is designed to centralize classes, assignments, habits, and schedules in one place.
STEP 1: A hands-on dashboard
A dashboard is your go-to page, the first thing you see whenever you open your template.
Your dashboard should be a gate to all your everyday pages. Whenever you are in a rush, you should be able to do anything and everything through your dashboard.
Must-have dashboard items for any student Notion template:
- Calendar (a.k.a. planner)
- Courses
- Assignment tracker
- Frequently used links: Pomodoro countdown, playlist, etc.
STEP 2: Customizable course pages
If your goal is to set up a template for your college life, you need to have one page for each course you take.
I like to have everything in one place, so having a page specifically for one course allows me to store my notes all together. I keep track of my readings and note-taking here. This way, whenever I have to write an assignment, I know where to look for information.
Must-have course page items:
- Course details: Professor, Professor’s email, class
- Note links: you can take your notes directly through Notion, or add your document link to the page
- Class and note tracker
MY TOP 3 NOTION TEMPLATE ADD-INS
With these pages, you should have your Notion template up and running. However, I like my templates to have more details.
Let’s break down the core pages that make this system work:
Tip 1: Add a habit tracker.
Every year, I set at least one college-related goal on my yearly goal list. Therefore, I have to make sure I actually stick to it. By adding a habit tracker to my college Notion template, I make sure that I keep my goals in mind.
Tip 2: Make a specific playlist for studying.
I believe that music is a great way to set the mood for studying. Create a playlist just for studying, so that whenever you listen to certain songs, your mind gets into the “study mode”. You can create your own, or try my instrumental music playlist.
Tip 3: Have different calendars.
I’m a paper girl, so I don’t usually use Notion for my everyday planning (you can learn about my college planning strategies on my blog post about the ultimate college planning system). However, if you pick Notion as your everything tool, I advise having different types of calendars available: monthly, weekly, and daily calendars.
Notion actually has a calendar option (it’s very similar to Google Calendar), so you could try that out.
Final Thoughts
Notion seems scary at first, but in reality, once you start using it, everything becomes natural. By the end of your template, you will create inline databases with your eyes closed.
College is tough, so we need to help each other out in every way we can. Well, this Notion guide was my contribution to the cause.
Want to try my Notion template for yourself? You can buy it here and start organizing your college life in under 10 minutes.
What piece of advice would you give to a new college student? Is there another platform you’d like me to cover next? Let me know in the comments.