11/1/23, 10:28 PM Why I use Notion to organize my PhD research

nature career column article

CAREER COLUMN 24 October 2023

Why I use Notion to organize my PhD research

Maya Gosztyla

Maya Gosztyla uses Notion to help to organize her work as a PhD student in biomedical sciences at the University of California, San
Diego. Credit: Nicholas Behnke

We researchers juggle a lot of information: ongoing experiments, long-term projects, grant and teaching deadlines and more.
It can be a real challenge to keep things from slipping through the cracks.

Multiple free and commerical tools are available to keep us on track, and I’ve tried several during my PhD. Some, such as
Evernote and OneNote, resemble digital notebooks, which can be organized with nested folders. Roam uses an interesting
bidirectional data model, but was prohibitively expensive for my student budget. I’ve had the best results with tools built on
relational databases, which store information in interconnected tables and make it easy to see how different ideas relate to
each other.

Since 2021, I’ve been using a database tool called Notion, and it’s made a big difference in my work and home life. It acts as a
‘second brain’ that helps me to keep track of crucial information without cluttering my working memory. Notion (the basic
version which is free, with more features for people with with a .edu e-mail address) can be used for applications such as
project tracking, note taking, task management and information storage. Furthermore, the tool can be used for journalling,

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11/1/23, 10:28 PM Why I use Notion to organize my PhD research

habit tracking and event planning. Users can input and interact with their data in a variety of formats, including tables, lists,
paragraphs, Kanban boards and Gantt charts. Being open-ended, it can feel overwhelming for beginners, and it has quite a
steep learning curve. But I would argue that it’s well worth taking the time to learn.

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To be clear, I am neither affiliated with nor paid by Notion, I’m just a fan of the software. All the
strategies below could be applied to other organizational tools as well as to Notion. Here is how I
use it.

Organizing my notes
Streamline your writing — and Between seminars, laboratory meetings, conferences and papers, I take a lot of notes. I used to
collaborations — with these
store these in Google Docs files that I organized in folders. But whenever I wanted to go back and
reference managers
review my notes, it was challenging to track down the right documents or to quickly skim their
contents.

Now, I take and organize my notes using Notion. Each entry is tagged with relevant information such as seminar date, topic
area and a one-sentence synopsis. Viewing the database as a table allows me to see a summary of all my notes and filter by
specific topics. When I want to focus on a single entry, I can open a page to see my detailed notes, links and images. I can also
link to other notes, making it easier for me to connect the dots between related ideas. After typing up my notes, I always take a
moment to summarize any relevant action items; once I’ve completed those, I tag the note so that I can tell immediately
whether follow-up is needed.

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A second database keeps track of all the papers I read. I use a plug-in called Notero to keep my
Notion database in sync with Zotero (a free and open-source reference manager); whenever I add
a paper to Zotero, it automatically appears as an entry in my database, along with metadata such
as the journal name and publication date. From there, I can add notes and screenshots to capture
my thoughts on the paper. I can filter entries by project, keywords and so on, making it easy to
find what I’m looking for when I’m writing a paper or grant.
How to find, read and
organize papers
Planning and managing projects
One of the most challenging aspects of graduate school for me has been having complete control over my own time — if I’m
not careful, it’s easy to waste days on unimportant or unfocused work. I’ve learnt how to visualize my long-term goals and work
backwards to work out how I should spend my time this academic term, which in turn informs how I plan my week.

I keep my long-term plan as a Gantt chart that sits front and centre on my Notion dashboard. It shows my progress on all
projects at a glance, ensuring that I never lose sight of the big picture. In it, I’ve nested a database in which I create an entry at
the start of each academic term that summarizes my plans and priorities. Each of those entries, in turn, contains its own nested
database for weekly planning.

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This ‘Russian doll’ approach fits perfectly in Notion’s relational-database structure, and the
’custom views’ feature enhances its utility. If I want to see all my plans at once, I’ll view the
database as a table; if I want to see where my plans fall in a given timescale, I can view it as a
timeline; and if I want to rearrange my plans, I’ll opt for a Kanban board, which lets me drag and
drop entries between categories.

How to manage your time as a

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11/1/23, 10:28 PM Why I use Notion to organize my PhD research

members can benefit from the information. The entries are organized using tags for their topic area, contact person and other
key metadata.

Shared databases allow collaborators to easily update each other and to document progress without messy e-mail chains.
When it is time to write a paper or grant application together, all the relevant information — from the most recent version of
each figure to the list of relevant papers to cite — is stored in one place.

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Researchers could also use Notion to organize supply orders, maintain personnel and alumni
lists and keep track of important resources such as cell lines and patient samples. Lab heads
could create a shared database of all the ongoing projects, allowing others to regularly update
their progress. You can even use the software to create a website for your lab.

NatureTech
Bonus: organizing my personal life
I also use Notion outside the lab. The software helps me to track my exercise schedule, organize my finances and even plan my
meals. I can filter my recipe database by cuisines that I’m in the mood for, ingredients I need to use up or meals that I haven’t
made in a while, all using Notion’s premade templates.

Notion’s strength is its flexibility: power users can apply advanced tools such as relational formulas, widgets and even
generative artificial intelligence, but for most applications, an hour or two spent on tutorials and applying templates is more
than enough to get started. If you’re in need of a second brain, I’ve found Notion to be a great option.

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-03323-9

This is an article from the Nature Careers Community, a place for Nature readers to share their professional experiences and
advice. Guest posts are encouraged.

COMPETING INTERESTS

The author declares no competing interests.

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