How I Organize My Notes & Automate Tags In Notion

TL;DR

Use an X-Y tagging scheme: X is the focus topic (often formatted with a period), and Y is the drawer umbrella.

Briefing Cornell Notes

Briefing

A simple two-part tagging system—pairing “focus” and “broad” tags with Notion relations—lets notes automatically sort into drawers and order themselves by how strongly they connect to other notes. The method starts with an “X-Y-Z” logic: each note gets an X focus tag (like Time Management), a Y broad drawer (like Productivity), and a set of Z relationships that determine where it lands within that drawer. The payoff is practical: new notes can be filed and prioritized without manual reordering, because the drawer position is driven by relation counts.

In this setup, X tags represent the specific topic inside a larger category. Y tags represent the drawer umbrella. When a note includes an X tag, the corresponding Y drawer is assumed automatically; when a note only fits a broad category (no X tag), it receives only the Y tag. That keeps the system from breaking when notes don’t neatly match a focus label. Once notes are assigned to a drawer, the Z element—implemented via Notion relations—controls ordering. Notes with more relations appear earlier in the drawer; fewer relations sink toward the back. The system even handles ties implicitly by using the relation count as the primary sort key.

The automation is built with Notion database properties and formulas. Relations are modeled using a parent/child relationship: a “children” relation property is created, set to sync both ways, and renamed to “parent” on the other side. For each note, a multi-select “tags” property stores values like “time management . productivity” (with consistent formatting such as capitalization and punctuation). A formula then extracts the drawer label by parsing the tag string: it detects whether the tag contains a period (signaling an X tag) and whether the note has child relations.

To position notes correctly, the formula outputs a sortable prefix that encodes both drawer type and relation count. For X tags, the output uses an “a” prefix plus the number of related children (e.g., a0, a1, a2…), where the number is computed by counting commas in the relation field and adding one. For broad Y-only tags (no focus tag), the output uses a “b” prefix plus the relation count, but with a key twist: broad tags are forced to sort after focus-tagged notes by using a different prefix scheme (b0, b3, b4, etc.). This ensures that “productivity” broad notes don’t crowd out more specific focus notes.

Finally, the system uses a filtered view per drawer (e.g., Productivity, Diet) and sorts by the computed drawer key in descending order. The result is a repeatable workflow: add tags and relations, and Notion handles both filing into the right drawer and ordering within it based on connection strength—without requiring manual drag-and-drop sorting each time a note is added or linked.

Cornell Notes

The system organizes Notion notes using two layers: tags to assign each note to a drawer (X focus → Y broad) and relations to order notes inside that drawer. X tags are detected by whether the tag contains a period (e.g., “time management . productivity”), while broad Y-only notes get a different sortable prefix. A formula counts how many child relations a note has by counting commas in the relation property and adding one. Filtered database views (like Productivity or Diet) then sort by the computed key so notes with more relations appear earlier, with focus-tagged notes kept ahead of broad-tag notes. This reduces manual sorting and makes the system scale as more notes get linked.

How does the X-Y drawer logic work when a note has a focus tag versus only a broad tag?

The method uses an X-Y structure. If a note’s tag includes a focus label (like “time management . productivity”), the part before the period is treated as X and the part after the period is treated as Y (the drawer umbrella, “productivity”). If a note has only the broad category (no period in the tag), it receives only the Y tag. That prevents notes from being unfiled when they don’t match a focus tag.

What role do Notion relations play in ordering notes inside a drawer?

Relations provide the Z element. Each note links to other notes via a parent/child relation. The system orders notes within a drawer by the number of child relations: more relations means the note appears earlier in the drawer; fewer relations pushes it later. This turns “connectedness” into a sorting signal rather than relying on manual ranking.

How does the formula detect whether a tag is an X focus tag or a broad Y-only tag?

It checks whether the tag string contains a period. A period indicates an X tag format (e.g., “time management . productivity”). If the tag does not contain a period, it’s treated as a broad Y-only tag. The formula also handles cases where the tags property is empty, ensuring the drawer key doesn’t break when tags are missing.

How is the number of relations counted inside the formula?

The formula isolates the relation field (children/parent relation output) and counts commas, because the relation values appear comma-separated. It replaces everything that isn’t a comma with an empty space, then takes the length of what remains (the comma count) and adds one. That yields the number of relations (e.g., two commas → three relations).

Why use different sortable prefixes like “a” and “b” for focus-tagged versus broad-tagged notes?

The prefixes enforce ordering rules beyond relation count. Focus-tagged notes (X tags) and broad-tag notes (Y-only) get different prefix letters so they sort into the intended sections of the drawer. The system uses “a” for focus-tag notes and “b” for broad-tag notes, so broad notes don’t appear ahead of more specific focus notes even if both have relations.

How are drawer views created and kept consistent across categories like Productivity and Diet?

For each drawer, a filtered view is created (or duplicated). The filter ensures the computed drawer key contains the drawer name (e.g., productivity or diet). The view then sorts by the computed drawer key in descending order, so the top of the list always reflects the intended priority: broad notes at the back, focus notes ordered by relation count.

Review Questions

If a note has the tag “nutrition . diet” but no child relations, what drawer key pattern should it produce, and where would it likely appear within the Diet drawer?
What exact string feature distinguishes an X focus tag from a broad Y-only tag in this system, and how does that affect sorting?
Why does counting commas (and adding one) work for relation counts in this formula-based approach?

Key Points

1
Use an X-Y tagging scheme: X is the focus topic (often formatted with a period), and Y is the drawer umbrella.
2
Assign only Y when a note lacks an X focus tag, so every note still lands in a drawer.
3
Model connections with Notion relations (parent/child) and treat the number of child relations as the ordering signal.
4
Compute a sortable drawer key with formulas that detect periods in tags and count relations by counting commas in the relation field.
5
Separate focus-tag notes from broad-tag notes using different sortable prefixes (e.g., “a” vs “b”) so broad notes don’t crowd out specific ones.
6
Create filtered views per drawer (Productivity, Diet, etc.) and sort by the computed key in descending order for consistent automatic ordering.

Highlights

Drawer placement comes from parsing tags (period = focus tag; no period = broad tag), while ordering comes from relation counts.

Relation counts are derived by counting commas in the relation property and adding one, turning linkedness into a numeric sort key.

Different prefix letters (“a” for focus-tag notes and “b” for broad-tag notes) enforce a two-tier ordering inside each drawer.