You have tasks scattered across different apps, a note in your email drafts, and a list of things you wanted to achieve six months ago that you have never seen again.
That is precisely the issue that Notion AI was created to address. Being able to use Notion AI can transform a disorganized online life into a single, connected workspace, whether you are a student, freelancer, or just tired of losing things.

This tutorial will take you step by step. By the time you finish, you will have learned how to install Notion AI, how to use it to organize your work and notes and how to automate the aspects of your day that are the most time-consuming. No previous experience with Notion.

Notion AI

Notion is an app designed to help an individual organize their notes, databases, to-do lists and project boards in a single location. An inbuilt assistant within that app is Notion AI. It reads what you have, assists you with writing, summarizes lengthy notes and creates action plans out of vague ideas.
The distinction between Notion and most other productivity tools is that all the information is stored within a single workspace. Your meeting document is connected to your project tracker. Your journal is linked with your weekly objectives. Notion AI will read all of that and allow you to work with it quicker.
Just imagine that you have a very patient assistant who does not forget anything that you typed.

Step 1: Create an Account and Turn on the AI in Notion.
Create an account at Notion. The free option provides you with unlimited pages and limited access to AI. The Notion AI add-on will cost you in case you require unlimited AI use.
Once inside:

• Click “New page” in the left sidebar.
• Begin typing anything, e.g., a list of tasks.
• Tap the spacebar on a blank line or type /AI to access the AI menu.

That menu is your entry point. It can be found on any page, any time you require it.
Note: You may not have the AI option, in which case, go to your workspace settings in Settings and Members, then Workspace, and ensure you enable the AI feature.

Step 2: Plan your tasks using Notion AI.
The majority of individuals begin with tasks since it is the nearest source of pain. The following is an easy method of constructing a task system within five minutes.
Build a task database:

• On a new page, type /database and select Table, inline.
• Add columns: Task Name, Status (Not Started / In Progress / Done), Due Date, Priority (High / Medium / Low).
• Include a couple of tasks that are in your mind.

Ask Notion AI to assist now. Click on a blank row, press the space bar and type something like “S suggest five tasks.” I should add to complete my project brief on freelance work.
The list will be created by Notion AI, depending on context. Any suggestion can be accepted or edited.

Step 3: Summarize and Organize Your Notes with Notion AI.
Where people lose hours most is in notes. You grab them on a call, never read them and later you are searching.
This is corrected by one feature of Notion AI: Summarize.
It can be used in the following way:

• Paste or type your unprocessed notes into any Notion page.
• Highlight all the text.
• Click the AI button (or press Ctrl/Cmd + J) and select Summarize.

Notion AI will extract the key points and compose a concise summary over the notes. You can request it to make what is in the summary be in bullet points or just extract the action items.
One more helpful action: Have Notion AI create a project plan out of these notes. It will propose a plan of steps, dates and tasks, which you can then paste directly into your task database.

Step 4: Build a Weekly Review System with Notion AI.
The habit is a weekly review, which helps to keep everything together. Without it, the database of your tasks will turn into a cemetery of forgotten to-dos.
Here is a simple weekly review:

• Create another page titled Weekly Review Template.
• Included are This Week’s Wins, What Could Not Be Done and Next Week’s Top 3 Priorities.
• Open the page and press the spacebar on a blank line at the end of every week.
• Type: According to what I wrote this week, what do I need to concentrate on next week?

Notion AI will scan whatever you have on the current page and propose priorities. The more you write in Notion all week, the more suggestions it provides.
You can also request it to write your weekly review responses to a blank and then correct them to what actually occurred.

Step 5: Learn to write faster without having to write with Notion AI.
Notion AI is one of the least utilized features of the writing assistant. It is not only to summaries. It can assist you to write emails, outlines, social posts, reports, and so on, right in your workspace.
Writing: Use it as follows:

• Write roughly a couple of points.
• Choose some text and tell AI to “Make writing better” or “Make this more concise, please.
• Open up a blank line, then press space and tell it to write a first draft of a project proposal to redesign a client website.

It will not create a flawless draft the first time. That is fine. The aim is to overcome the blank page problem. You can more quickly edit a bad first draft than write a good first draft.

It is particularly effective with the items you write on a regular basis, such as weekly updates to clients or monthly reports. Write one template with the aid of AI, and reuse and modify it every time.

Step 6: Plan Your Goals and Projects.
Notion AI is not only applicable to day-to-day tasks. It works effectively with high-level planning as well.
Try this exercise:

• Create a page named Goals.
• Write down your ambitions in the form of sloppy sentences, such as ‘I would like to read more books.’
• Highlight the text and tell Notion AI to “Turn these into a goal tracker with steps to achieve and measure.

It will restructure your fleeting plans in such a way that you can follow them. Goals are then subdivided into smaller actions, which you can then add to your task database.
Tasks are connected to your goal page, the weekly reviews are connected to your task and Notion AI can read through it all to keep you on schedule.

Step 7: Learn the fastest Keyboard Shortcuts.
After using Notion AI on a regular basis, the following shortcuts will become muscle memory:

• Press space on empty line: Opens the AI prompt anywhere.
• Ctrl/Cmd + J: Opens AI on the text that is selected.
• AI: Directly types in AI command.
• Ctrl/Cmd + P: Opens the quick search box to find any page quickly.
• @mention: Adds links to any page, task or person within a note.

The quicker you can invoke the AI and switch pages, the less friction you will experience and the more you are bound to actually utilize the system.

Common Beginner Mistakes to Avoid.

• Overbuilding the system. One wants to devote a weekend to the creation of an ideal working environment with fifteen connected databases. That system normally fails in less than a week. Begin with a single task database and notes page and grow slowly.
• Failure to edit the AI output. Notion AI is quick yet not flawless. It occasionally lacks context, creates priorities inaccurately or writes a little off. Never take action on what it produces without reading it.
• Using AI to make decisions. Notion AI is an information organization tool, rather than a thinking tool. It can inform you on what tasks there are. It can not say which one of these is the most important to you in person.

Notion AI vs. Other AI Tools.

You may be wondering why you need to employ Notion AI instead of AI assistants such as ChatGPT or other AIs. ~ ChatGPT begins with a blank slate in each dialogue. Notion AI can see all that you have previously written in your workspace. It is able to summarize your actual rather than hypothetical meeting notes. It can propose activities that are in line with your actual projects rather than the generic ones.

With that said, there are limitations of Notion AI. It does not work well with long research and intricate data analysis. An independent AI tool is more effective with them.

Conclusion

There are no technical skills needed to learn how to use Notion AI. All you require is a free account, a couple of pages and the desire to begin small. You just install it and turn it on in your workspace. Then create a task and allow AI to assist in filling it.

It works because you base the system on what is happening in your real life as opposed to an ideal of productivity.

Check also: How to use Claude AI