I knew AI + Notion would be good, but this... wow. — Transcript

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1. 0:00All right, I want you to create a note
2. 0:02in Notion summarizing all my meeting
3. 0:04transcripts from the Microsoft event in
4. 0:07Seattle. [music] And let's send this off
5. 0:10and see what happens. Okay, so the AI
6. 0:12did a great job, but this isn't exactly
7. 0:14impressive since most AI tools can
8. 0:17connect to Notion and even the dumbest
9. 0:19AI models are great at summarizing notes
10. 0:22these days. But there's a huge
11. 0:24difference between an AI that can just
12. 0:26summarize your notes in Notion and one
13. 0:28that can manage your entire Notion
14. 0:31workspace according to your preferences
15. 0:34without making mistakes. For example,
16. 0:36when I do this for real, my AI creates a
17. 0:38notes page with the exact same layout
18. 0:40every single time. A pinned callout with
19. 0:43the most important information, my
20. 0:45outstanding tasks [music] and relevant
21. 0:47links side by side, and a new dated
22. 0:50toggle
23. 0:51with the same three sections, 1 2 3,
24. 0:55every [clears throat] single time. And
25. 0:57it's this consistency in output that
26. 0:59[music] gives me peace of mind. Taking
27. 1:01this a step further, I have over 20
28. 1:03databases in Notion for notes,
29. 1:05>> [music]
30. 1:05>> tasks, projects, etc. And for every
31. 1:08Notion-related task, my AI knows which
32. 1:11database and template to use, which
33. 1:13property options to select, and how to
34. 1:15structure the page exactly the way I
35. 1:18like it. So, in this video, I'll walk
36. 1:20through how to teach your AI to manage
37. 1:22your Notion workspace the way you would
38. 1:25so that you don't have to do any of the
39. 1:27tedious work yourself. Let's get
40. 1:29started. Before diving to the tactics,
41. 1:31let's first go over a foundational
42. 1:33principle when it comes to managing
43. 1:35tools with AI. Imagine a world where AI
44. 1:37doesn't exist, the good old days, and
45. 1:39you're using tools like Google Calendar
46. 1:41and Notion manually. And as you use
47. 1:43these tools, you develop your own way of
48. 1:45doing things. Maybe you put weekly at
49. 1:48the beginning of recurring meetings in
50. 1:49Google Calendar, and in Notion, you
51. 1:51always start your task names with a verb
52. 1:54with three bullet points underneath so
53. 1:55you understand the context of that
54. 1:57[music] task. Now, imagine you hire a
55. 1:59human assistant to manage your Google
56. 2:01Calendar and Notion workspace. The first
57. 2:03thing you do is teach them your
58. 2:05preferences, because otherwise, they'd
59. 2:07organize your calendar and your tasks
60. 2:10according to their habits, [music] which
61. 2:12are obviously inferior to viewers of
62. 2:16this channel. Now, coming back to the
63. 2:17present, let's say you replace the human
64. 2:19assistant with AI. The only difference
65. 2:22is that now you teach Claude, ChatGPT,
66. 2:24or Gemini your superior preferences, so
67. 2:27that the AI can use those tools just
68. 2:30like you would. Put simply, any AI with
69. 2:32a connector to Notion already knows how
70. 2:35to use Notion, but that's not enough. It
71. 2:38also needs a written rulebook with your
72. 2:40preferences, so it knows exactly what
73. 2:43you would do in your Notion workspace.
74. 2:46To prove to you I'm not bullshitting,
75. 2:47here in Claude I have Notion connected,
76. 2:50and what I'm going to do is I'm going to
77. 2:52paste the same prompt in two fresh chats
78. 2:56with no files or folders attached,
79. 2:59instructing Claude to create the same
80. 3:02[music] task in Notion. And we're just
81. 3:04going to fast-forward this part. As you
82. 3:06can see, Claude created both tasks just
83. 3:08fine, but the formatting and structure
84. 3:11are inconsistent. The first page, for
85. 3:14example, does not include an icon and
86. 3:16does not have section headers, whereas
87. 3:19the second page has an icon and a
88. 3:22section [music] header, but included an
89. 3:24unnecessary Friday in the task title.
90. 3:27Now, I'm going to run the same kind of
91. 3:29request in two new chats, but this time
92. 3:31I've mounted a folder with my Notion
93. 3:35rulebook inside. So, I'm just going to
94. 3:37paste the prompt and run it.
95. 3:40And then I'm going to start a new chat.
96. 3:41Make sure the same folder is mounted.
97. 3:43Then paste the next prompt and run that
98. 3:46as well. And again, let's fast-forward.
99. 3:49As you can see, although the content
100. 3:51itself may differ slightly, for example,
101. 3:53the sentences and in this task are
102. 3:56slightly longer than this one, right?
103. 3:59The two pages follow the exact same
104. 4:01structure. The task name starts with a
105. 4:03verb,
106. 4:04includes a callout with a clear and
107. 4:06concise description, followed by the
108. 4:09topics I need [music] to cover. And as
109. 4:11you see later in this video, the same
110. 4:12principle applies no matter what AI you
111. 4:15use, Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, whatever.
112. 4:17As long as your assistant has a rulebook
113. 4:20with your preferences, you [music] get
114. 4:22consistent results every time. So,
115. 4:25what's going on behind the scenes here?
116. 4:26Let's break it down. This Notion
117. 4:28conventions file is where we write down
118. 4:30how we want our AI to work in Notion.
119. 4:32For example, it instructs the AI to
120. 4:35confirm the page or database before
121. 4:37starting any work. And, let's say, if a
122. 4:41database already contains templates, it
123. 4:44should use the closest matching template
124. 4:47instead of creating an empty page. By
125. 4:50the way, I've linked this Google Doc
126. 4:51down below, so if you want to follow
127. 4:53along, just download it as a markdown.md
128. 4:57file, and we'll come back to this later
129. 4:59on. Opening up Notion, let's say this
130. 5:01task represents my ideal task structure,
131. 5:04a checkmark icon, a name that starts
132. 5:07with a verb, a pinned callout, and
133. 5:10relevant context in the form of bullet
134. 5:12points. Basically, we need to teach
135. 5:14these choices to our AI assistant. On
136. 5:17that note, let's create an empty folder
137. 5:19on our desktop and name it Notion Ops.
138. 5:22And I'm just going to move the starter
139. 5:24Notion conventions file we downloaded
140. 5:26downloaded earlier into that folder.
141. 5:28Then I'm just going to open up ChatGPT
142. 5:30as proof that this process works across
143. 5:32any AI tool, confirm that Notion is
144. 5:35connected, and I'm just going to create
145. 5:37a new project,
146. 5:40name it [music] Notion Ops, and I'm just
147. 5:43going to mount the folder we just
148. 5:47created. If ChatGPT will just work with
149. 5:49me here, there we go.
150. 5:51>> [music]
151. 5:51>> And open create project, trust folder,
152. 5:54and now it's mounted. Next, I'm just
153. 5:57going to paste this prompt that I'll
154. 5:59link down below as well.
155. 6:00Go back into Notion to copy the link of
156. 6:05this ideal task we just saw and paste
157. 6:08that link right here so that ChatGPT has
158. 6:12an example of what good looks [music]
159. 6:14like. I'm not going to read this entire
160. 6:16prompt word for word, but basically it
161. 6:19instructs ChatGPT to study the ideal
162. 6:22task structure and save my preferences
163. 6:25for creating tasks in Notion within the
164. 6:28Notion conventions [music] file. And
165. 6:31we're just going to skip ahead. Now, if
166. 6:32we open up our Notion conventions file,
167. 6:35we see that those [music] preferences
168. 6:37have now been saved under the tasks
169. 6:39section. So, let's put this to the test
170. 6:41right away. We'll start a fresh chat,
171. 6:43make sure the same folder is still
172. 6:45mounted, and say something like, "I want
173. 6:47to personally inspect the three
174. 6:49Terminators we're sending, so create a
175. 6:51reminder for me in Notion a week before
176. 6:53the Terminators are scheduled to travel
177. 6:55back in time." And let's see what
178. 6:57happens. And here's the task it created.
179. 7:00It's due exactly 1 week before the
180. 7:02Terminators leave. The task name starts
181. 7:04with a verb, has a check mark icon, has
182. 7:07the pin callout up top, and relevant
183. 7:10context underneath. Perfect. Now, let's
184. 7:12go over a slightly more complicated, yet
185. 7:14realistic example. [music]
186. 7:16Here, I have a very simple notes
187. 7:17database, and at the database level, we
188. 7:20have the note name,
189. 7:22date, and a note [music] type property
190. 7:24with three options: notes, thoughts, and
191. 7:27research. And if I open the new note
192. 7:31template full screen, [music]
193. 7:33you will see the structure I want every
194. 7:36note to follow. Key takeaways, action
195. 7:38items, [music] and the notes section.
196. 7:41Back in ChatGPT with the same folder
197. 7:43mounted, I'm going to repeat the
198. 7:44process, but this time with a few slight
199. 7:46differences. First, I'm going to copy
200. 7:48the link to the notes database and paste
201. 7:51that into the prompt this time, instead
202. 7:53of just one specific page, because
203. 7:56second,
204. 7:57>> [music]
205. 7:57>> this prompt instructs the AI to study
206. 7:59the entire database along with all the
207. 8:02templates inside that database.
208. 8:05Third, I have to explicitly explain
209. 8:09within the prompt what each note type
210. 8:11means. For example, research tag applies
211. 8:14when there's a source, like a website or
212. 8:16PDF, so that ChatGPT knows when to
213. 8:19choose each tag. And after we send this
214. 8:22off, we're just going to skip ahead. All
215. 8:24right, now when we open our Notion
216. 8:25Conventions file, we see that our notes
217. 8:27database preferences have been saved
218. 8:29under our task preferences. So, now if I
219. 8:32start a new chat with the same folder
220. 8:34mounted and say something like, uh
221. 8:36create two notes pages in Notion, first
222. 8:39one summarizing my latest newsletter,
223. 8:41and the second one, uh prepping me for a
224. 8:44meeting with Jensen Huang, let's fast
225. 8:47forward and see what happens. All right,
226. 8:49it's done. Here, if we click in, the
227. 8:52first newsletter summary page is tagged
228. 8:55as research, which is correct. And the
229. 8:58meeting prep page is tagged as notes,
230. 9:01which is also correct. And opening these
231. 9:03up and scrolling down a bit, we can see
232. 9:05that both uh use our key takeaways,
233. 9:08action items, and the notes layout.
234. 9:12And the meeting prep note includes the
235. 9:14five questions I asked for as well.
236. 9:18>> [music]
237. 9:18>> Nice. In a nutshell, as long as your AI
238. 9:20has access to this Notion Conventions
239. 9:23file, you can instruct the AI to create
240. 9:25tasks and notes the way you want without
241. 9:28explaining your preferences every single
242. 9:31time. By the way, if you want to build
243. 9:33your own command center in Notion, my
244. 9:34Notion course walks you through my
245. 9:37entire setup and includes my exact
246. 9:39databases so you don't have to start
247. 9:41from scratch. Link down below. Now that
248. 9:44we've covered two simple examples, you
249. 9:46might be wondering how this scales to
250. 9:47the rest of your Notion workspace since
251. 9:50you're probably using dozens of
252. 9:52databases regularly. Long story short,
253. 9:54the process is essentially the same. You
254. 9:57give your AI the link to a database,
255. 10:00have it review the properties,
256. 10:01templates, and recent entries, then ask
257. 10:04it to explain how it thinks you use
258. 10:06them. You clarify anything the AI is
259. 10:09unsure about and once you've confirmed
260. 10:11its understanding, it saves those rules
261. 10:13to your Notion conventions file. And
262. 10:15because I'm an angel, I've also included
263. 10:17this prompt template down below for you
264. 10:19to use. Just paste the prompt into a
265. 10:22fresh chat with your Notion conventions
266. 10:24file mounted, paste in the database
267. 10:27link, and just send it off. And the AI
268. 10:31is going to figure out as much as it can
269. 10:33about that one specific database, then
270. 10:36ask you anything that it's unsure of.
271. 10:39For example, here Claude needed me to
272. 10:40explain the differences between three
273. 10:42status options: pending review,
274. 10:44confirmed, and published. And once I
275. 10:47answer all these questions, Claude will
276. 10:49then update [music] my Notion
277. 10:51conventions file with those rules. Now,
278. 10:54some of you might be wondering, can't
279. 10:55Notion AI do everything you just talked
280. 10:58about? Technically, yes, but my setup is
281. 11:01more future-proof. Let me explain with a
282. 11:03quick visual. This is a setup that
283. 11:04Notion, the company, would ideally like
284. 11:07to see. You, the human, use Notion and
285. 11:10Notion AI as your main assistant
286. 11:13connected to tools like Gmail, Google
287. 11:15Drive, and Slack. And there's absolutely
288. 11:17no issues with this. My setup looks more
289. 11:20like this. Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini as
290. 11:22the main assistant with access to my
291. 11:24Jeff OS folder that holds all my
292. 11:26contacts for how I work, which includes
293. 11:28my Notion conventions file, and Notion
294. 11:31is just one of the many tools my main AI
295. 11:35manages. To be clear, I still use Notion
296. 11:38AI inside Notion for lots of tasks like
297. 11:40reviewing copy and bulk database
298. 11:42migration. But since my work goes way
299. 11:45beyond just my Notion workspace, it
300. 11:47makes a lot more sense to have a native
301. 11:50AI assistant manage all the other tools
302. 11:53I use. Now, this next example is a bit
303. 11:55more complicated, but I want to show you
304. 11:57what's possible when we use our Notion
305. 12:00conventions file to document entire
306. 12:03workflows that connect multiple
307. 12:05standalone databases. For example, say I
308. 12:08want to host a live Q&A workshop for my
309. 12:10Co-work Academy students. Clicking this
310. 12:12button will give me, if Notion would
311. 12:15just load here,
312. 12:17it will give me a structured project
313. 12:19[music] template, right? But I still
314. 12:22have to write the North Star and win
315. 12:24conditions, create the tasks myself, the
316. 12:27deliverables, and the notes, right? And
317. 12:30then I have to link everything back to
318. 12:32this project. So, here's what I do
319. 12:33instead. Because my entire project
320. 12:37management workflow is saved within this
321. 12:39file, right here,
322. 12:41that lives in my Jeff OS folder, I can
323. 12:45mount it, as you can see, to a fresh
324. 12:49Claude chat [music]
325. 12:50and just tell Claude to create a Notion
326. 12:53project for a live Q&A workshop for my
327. 12:56Co-work Academy students. And I'm just
328. 12:59going to send this off and see what
329. 13:01happens. While Claude's working, a lot
330. 13:03of you asked me about my Jeff OS folder,
331. 13:05and in a nutshell, it's an AI system I
332. 13:07teach in the Co-work Academy, where you
333. 13:09get a ready-to-install second brain that
334. 13:11loads relevant context automatically and
335. 13:14is 90% built the moment you download it.
336. 13:17Link down below. Back in Claude, we can
337. 13:19see that the project has been created,
338. 13:21and clicking the link brings us straight
339. 13:23to the project page in Notion, where all
340. 13:25the properties, the North Star when
341. 13:28conditions are filled out, nice.
342. 13:31It even created a notes thread, should
343. 13:33be down here, right here, nice. The five
344. 13:36deliverables needed for every single
345. 13:38workshop, and the tasks linked to the
346. 13:42project, and let's open one.
347. 13:44What do you know? It follows the exact
348. 13:46same
349. 13:47structure and formatting that I like.
350. 13:50And that's a perfect example of how we
351. 13:52should be using AI with tools like
352. 13:54Notion. We spend a little bit of time up
353. 13:56front teaching AI our preferences, and
354. 13:58it saves them in a rule book for that
355. 14:00tool. So that the next time we ask it to
356. 14:02use that tool, the AI can read the rule
357. 14:04book and do the work the way we like,
358. 14:07giving us consistent results. If you
359. 14:09enjoyed this, you might like a no BS
360. 14:11breakdown of what a personal agent is
361. 14:13and what it means for you. So check out
362. 14:15this video next, and in the meantime,
363. 14:18have a great one.