Workspace Overview #
At the top of your dashboard, you will find navigation links to each of the sub-areas of your workspace. Much of the daily management can be done from the dashboard itself, but you can also jump into a sub-area if you need a deeper dive and a larger space to work in:
- Goals
- Habits
- Bullet Log
- Journal
- Reading
Dashboard #
The dashboard includes views of each of your key areas:
Monthly Summaries #
The monthly summaries display aggregated data and insights about your habits, bio stats, and activities. Opening the month card reveals a more in-depth summary of activities and events that took place during that month. For example, if you want to see an overview of your stress levels across the entire month, you may do so by clicking into the month page.
Habit Log #
By default, you may track up to 10 daily habits. The habit log for the current date will always display on the dashboard. You may tick off the checkboxes directly from the dashboard view. To travel back to a previous date, click the “Habits” link in the top navigation panel.
Bio Log #
The bio log allows you to track key information about your physical health and well-being. The bio log for the current date will always display on the dashboard. To edit the information displayed on the card, hover over the card and click the small pencil icon. To travel back to a previous date, click the “Habits” link in the top navigation panel.
Reading Summary #
When you complete reading a book from your bookshelf, enter the completion date. A summary of your reading statistics will surface to the dashboard and will display on the Reading Summary card.
Goals #
Goal metrics that are ready for review will display on th dashboard. To view and manage all goals, click into the “Goals” link in the top navigation.
Journal #
By default, the last 10 journal entries by date will display on the dashboard. You can add new journal entries directly from the dashboard.
Bullet Log #
The bullet log for the current date will display by default on the dashboard. You may switch to additional views that show:
- Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
- This Week
- This Month
To view other custom date ranges or all bullet log entries, click the link for “Bullet Log” in the navigation panel at the top of your dashboard.
Food Log #
Entries to the Bullet Log that have a type of “Food” or “Hydration” will display in the Food Log panel on your dashboard. This allows you to see the current week at a glance and even plan your meals ahead of time. The total number of calories per day will display at the top of the day column.
Getting Started #
Habits #
Naming your habits #
The habits are generically named by default (habit 1, habit 2…) so you will need to rename them to be specific to the habits that you wish to track:
- From your dashboard, click the “Habits” link in the top navigation panel to open the Habits database
- Under “Daily Tracker”, select the database view titled “All Days”
- Left-click at the top of the first checkbox column and change the name from “Habit 1” to your new habit. Do this for each of the 10 checkboxes
You may also click the icon next to the column name and select a new icon to represent your habit. In a table view like this one where the columns are very close together, a custom icon can help to identify which habit you are viewing. Note, you will not see the icon from the card display on your dashboard.
Changing the number of habits #
If you have fewer than 10 habits, the progress bar formula will need to be updated to calculate accurately:
- Open one of the day entries
- Click the down arrow to “Show 31 more properties”. This will reveal properties that have been hidden
- Scan to find the “Total Habits” formula property
- Click into the field to edit the formula
- Delete each “+ toNumber(prop(“Habit”))” that will not be used
- Scan to find the “Progress Percentage” formula property
- Click into the field to edit the formula
- Change the number “10” to the actual number of habits that you are tracking
- Re-hide the hidden properties and close the date entry
- Return to the dashboard
- Click the ellipsis (three dots) next to the blue “New” button in the Habit Log” card view
- Select “Properties”
- Click the eye icon next to the properties that you will not track to hide them from displaying on the card
Displaying only Bio Log properties that you want to track #
By default, the Bio Log card that displays on the dashboard includes all of the trackable bio metrics. If you wish to disable any of these from displaying on the card, you may do so:
- Click the ellipsis (three dots) next to the blue “New” button in the “Bio Log” view
- Select “Properties”
- Click the dark eye icons next to the properties and displays that you do not want to track to hide them from displaying on the card
Editing directly from the card #
Properties that are enabled for display become editable directly from the card front! Hover over the card and select the pencil icon that appears to enter your metrics for the day.
Reading #
Adding a book to the library #
Adding new books to the library is very straightforward:
- Click the “Reading” link in the navigation panel of the dashboard to open the reading library page
- Click the blue “New” button next to the bookshelf database (or choose the “New Books” template from the selection if you have not defined a default template)
- Enter the book title and as many details about the book as you would like, including genre, author, series, book #… You may also enter the reading status. For example, if you started this book before but did not finish, enter a status of “DNF” (did not finish). Note – books with no status assigned are assumed as “Want to Read”
Marking books as read #
When you complete reading a book, enter a date into the “Date Completed” field. Change the status of the book to “Finished Reading”, which will move it to your finished pile and complete calculations for your reading status.
Goals #
From the dashboard, click the “Goals” link in the top navigation panel to open the goal management sub-page. Here you will see two sections, one for “Objectives” and one for “Key Results”. Objectives state the overall goal that you want to achieve. Key Results define a measurable action that will help you to achieve the stated goal. For example, if your goal is to “Lose 5 pounds”, then some key results could be “Walk 3 miles every day”, and “Reduce caloric intake by 500 calories every day”. These are actionable and importantly, measurable metrics. Put simply, Objectives are the “what” and Key Results are the “how”.
Adding objectives #
- Click the blue “New” button next to the “Objectives” database (or choose the “New Objective” template from the list if you have not defined a default template)
- Enter the name of the goal, the status, and optionally a goal statement if you wish
Adding key results #
- Click the blue “New” button next to the “Key Results” database (or choose the “New Key Result” template from the list if you have not defined a default template)
- Describe the key result in the name field
- In the “Objective” field, search for and select the objective that this key result is related to
- Set the status for the key result
- Select how often you want to review the metric in the “Review Frequency” field
- Set the target value for the metric in the “Target” field
- Ste the current value for the metric in the Current” field
- Enter today’s date in the “Last Reviewed Date” field
Reviewing metrics #
When a key result is due for review, it will appear on your dashboard in the “Goals” section:
- Open the key result
- Update the “Current” metric to reflect current state
- Enter today’s date in the “Last Review Date” field
The key result will drop off of the dashboard until it is time to review again.
Bullet Log #
Overview of bullet logging #
Bullet logging is a very effective way of documenting key objects (called Bullets)that you can reference at a glance. Symbols provide a visual way to identify the type of bullet. In Notion, we use the page icon to set the symbol for the bullet. We can add or change the symbol and update the type quickly using templates.
Try it out:
- Click the down arrow next to the blue “New” button on the Bullet Log database. A list of available templates will appear
- Click on the template for “Important” and enter your birthday
- Enter the date for your birthday
- In the “Month Summary” field, search for and select the month of your birthday
You can use bullets to capture tasks, appointments, events, activities, food intake, and much more. Use bullets not just to log what has taken place, but to plan ahead.
Linking to month summaries #
Each dated entry into the bullet log must be linked to a “Month Summary”. This ensures that the information can be rolled up to the parent month for summary and analysis when viewing the whole month.
Logging food intake #
Any entries made to the bullet log with the type of “Food” or “Hydration” will display on the Food Log board on the dashboard. This can be used to log your food intake, but also to plan your meals ahead for the current week. The total calories for each meal will be summed and displayed at the top of each day’s column.
Logging hydration #
In addition to logging your food intake you can log your daily hydration:
- Choose the “Hydration” template from the list of available templates
- Enter a water drop icon in the name field for each serving (8 oz) of water that you drink
- The total ounces will be calculated for you
Remove reading summary from dashboard #
If you do not wish to track reading statistics, you may remove them from your dashboard completely:
- Click and drag to highlight the entire Reading Summary column of blocks on the dashboard
- After confirming that there are no other columns or blocks highlighted, click the delete key on your keyboard.
This will remove the entire column and the two remaining columns will fill the space.