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I’ve been repeating this motto ever since I read Getting Things Done by David Allen.
“Your head is not meant to store information.”
As someone who spends too much time in my head, this quote felt like a temporary license for my brain to breathe.
Are you saying it’s okay to put a pause on the ideas, tasks, and (let’s be honest) thoughts running through your head?
Well, of course, that’s easier said than done.
If my head isn’t meant to store information, where are my random thoughts and ideas stored?
Enter the inbox system.
I recently shared about the power of closing open loops, and the inbox system is one of the best ways I’ve found to integrate those open loops and get them out of your head.
I used Notion to create my own inbox system modeled after the Getting Things Done (GTD) method. This has become a tool I use every day to organize my life and work.
If you’ve never used Notion, it’s a highly customizable organizational tool for task management, project tracking, to-do lists, bookmarks, and more.
Marie Poulain calls Notion her “outsourced memory.” This is exactly the idea I like.
Now, instead of writing notes and ideas in multiple notebooks, I’ve decided to use an inbox system to keep everything in one place.
If you have a forgetful brain and love collecting ideas and information, we’ll explain why you need an inbox system and how to create your own.
Inbox system overview
Inbox is a tool you can use to capture and track all the information you receive.
Whether it’s your tasks, ideas, resources, or reminders, you need a single place to track them to avoid getting overwhelmed.
Imagine a desk filing system that stores documents that are handed to you. I used to use one of these in my office job. All documents were kept there.
But we don’t want those ideas and tasks to disappear. We want to do something about them.
That’s why I created a digital system that is easily available from both your computer and your phone. This is also why the inbox method follows a specific process.
Inbox process
Capture: Add new items to your inbox. This can be tasks, ideas, articles to read, workouts to try, etc. Be clear: Take what you have captured and decide what action to take next. If it takes less than 2 minutes, do it now. Organize: If an item takes more than two minutes to complete, move it to your calendar or to-do list for later action.
We’ll explain this process in more detail later, but for now let’s take a look at the inbox settings.
Setting up your inbox in Notion
Get an inbox template
If you’d like to get a pre-built template, I’ve created one that you can clone here.
How to build your Notion inbox
If you want to recreate the template yourself (because you can understand how it works by creating one from scratch), here’s how to create an inbox in Notion.
(If you’re not already a Notion user, sign up for free here.)
1. Create a new page in Notion and name it “Inbox.”
2. Add a new table
3. Select (+New Database) as the data source.
4. Add new columns and label them as desired
The columns I use are:
NameContext – This helps you remember why you saved the note. I use action verbs like “review,” “file,” “read,” “write,” and “create.” The URL (if it’s from a website) gets the date – this makes sure things haven’t been sitting around for years. There is a checkbox that says “Are you organized?”
5. Add a filter to the table to display only the “Organized?” items. not checked
Using this filter, you will only see items that you have not yet worked with.
6. Rename the table to “To Process”.
Naming your table can help you distinguish between organized and unorganized notes (more on this next).
Optional steps
Sort the table
Sorting the table by date allows you to always start with the oldest notes.
Beautify your inbox
One of the best things about Notion is that you can beautify your pages with icons and cover art.
Hover your mouse near the page title to see options to add an icon or cover.
Much better now!
Keep track of organized notes
Rather than deleting everything after organizing your inbox, use a different view of the same table. That way you have a record of what you’ve organized without cluttering the main view.
Here’s how:
1. Duplicate the Inbox To Process view.
2. Rename the new table to “Organized”.
3. Modify the filter to include only the “Organized?” filter. Checked
At this point, preparation is complete.
How to use your inbox
Step 1: Capture
First, we need to explain how to add ideas to your inbox. There are some options below.
1. Brain dump
The first method is to simply add your ideas and thoughts using the (New) button.
If you’re building your Notion inbox while reading this, try doing a brain dump of everything that’s currently on your mind and adding them to your inbox.
Next time something comes to mind, add it to your inbox.
2.Chrome extension
If you’re browsing the internet and see something you want to save for later, use the Notion Chrome extension to add it directly to your inbox.
Once you have installed the extension, you can find the “Inbox” table by clicking the Notion icon from your browser. Voila, you’ve been added to the list!
3. From your mobile phone
I also have the Notion app on my phone, so I can always add it to my inbox. Just click the Share icon, find the Notion app button, and save it to your inbox database.
Step 2: Be clear
When you add something to your inbox, you need to add some context to help you remember why you saved it. Context helps you decide what action to take next.
If you followed the setup steps above, you should now see a column called “Context” in your inbox. Here you can define the type of inbox item.
Context type
Here are some examples of context:
Things to do: Buy, ask questions, write, research, read, create, declutter.
Whatever the context is, assign it to the item in your inbox.
Step 3: Organize
when How to organize your inbox
You want to organize and empty your inbox on a regular basis. David Allen recommends doing this every day.
If you’re recording important to-dos here, we recommend sticking to once a day.
I do this task once or twice a week so I don’t have any pressing to-do items in my inbox.
I also like to leave my inbox alone for a few days. That way you won’t sleep on things and make impulsive decisions (like buying shoes you don’t need).
how How to organize your inbox
Review the ideas you’ve captured and decide what actions you need to take next to get them out of your inbox.
If a task takes less than 2 minutes, save time organizing and do it right away.
If the item takes more than 2 minutes to complete, move the item to a location where you can perform an action. It could be a calendar, a to-do list, or a general reference folder if no action is required.
for example:
For blog post ideas, move them to the content hub for later use. If it’s something you want to buy, buy it now or add it to your wishlist elsewhere. If it’s an article you want to read, it will take a few minutes to read it from your inbox, or it will be added to a separate database dedicated to ‘read’ items
After you complete these steps, your inbox may or may not be empty. In some cases, you may have items that you don’t know where to submit or aren’t ready to process.
I think it’s okay to leave some items in your inbox, but if they’ve been there for more than a week, you may want to delete them.
Have questions about your inbox system or Notion?
We hope this article helped you understand that an inbox system is one of the best tools for organizing your thoughts and ideas.
Please let me know if you use another method or plan to try this.
If you have any questions about this method or how Notion works, please leave a comment below.
