How I Use Notion (A Tour): Book Progress And Webclipping Articles

A single Notion “HQ” page is used as a command center for reading, webclipping, mood tracking, and book-drafting—linking multiple databases so items automatically move through states like “to consume,” “currently reading,” “done,” and “archived.” The core idea is less about storing information and more about building a workflow where progress, filters, and relations keep everything synchronized, so the right books and articles surface in the right places without manual reshuffling.

At the top of the workspace sits “Currently,” anchored by two linked databases: one for books and one for web articles. For books, the page tracks reading progress with a slider tied to total pages and the current page, then displays that progress as a visual bar. The “Currently” section also pulls in book metadata from Goodreads—cover images, descriptions, and a Goodreads link—so each title has enough context to decide what to read next. For articles, the system uses a status workflow with two main states: “to consume” and “done.” Items saved from the web land in “to consume” by default, along with publication name, date saved, and a rating field that can be filled later when the article is read.

The page’s web-article pipeline is powered by the “Save to Notion” browser extension. Two separate forms feed the same database: one for general articles and one for news articles. Templates automatically set fields like the article type (including a newspaper emoji for news) and store the full page content inside the Notion entry. A formula extracts the publication name from the URL by stripping away protocol and domain suffixes, so the database can display a clean source label without manual editing.

Mood tracking runs as a separate database that’s been in use since the beginning of last year. Each day records the day of the week, a mood selection, mood severity, and a short “cause” sentence—kept intentionally lightweight. A formula then classifies moods as positive or negative using if-statements tied to the mood selections. A calendar view lets the user scan mood patterns across months and years, and the data was previously exported to Google Sheets for visualization.

The library section organizes books through a main “shelf” database connected to a “genres” database. Genres are hierarchical via parent/child relations (for example, “Historical Fiction” as a child of “Fiction”), and a rollup counts how many books sit under each genre. To make the UI more visually consistent, the user uses a toggle workaround: a separate “library set” page is created with the desired columns and then converted into a toggle so the entire block can be recolored as a unit.

Book recommendations flow into the shelf via a backlog view. Each recommendation includes title, author, a Goodreads rating, a “recommend” checkbox, and cover images via a links/files property. When a recommendation is unchecked, it moves into the bookshelf view; when reading begins, the user fills in page counts and current page numbers so progress automatically updates. Completed books are automatically archived using a progress-based rule (progress equals 100), avoiding manual checkboxes.

Finally, book drafting is handled with another database that breaks the second draft into smaller units for editing. Each unit includes checklist-style cues—whether sections should be removed, whether the “we” word is overused, whether questions are posed, and whether voice is acceptable. A progress rollup summarizes editing completion, and the page links back to the next draft work so navigation stays inside Notion. The result is a tightly connected system where relations, formulas, templates, and filters turn scattered reading and writing tasks into a single, continuously updated workflow.