Notion Notes: How to Take Notes in Notion and Find Them Later

Notion is a good home for notes that belong to something: a client, a project, a meeting or a topic you keep coming back to. Each note becomes a database page you can filter, link to its project and share. For a quick personal scratchpad, Apple Notes on Apple devices or Google Keep for Google users asks far less of you. If you take notes in Notion, I'd start with one Notes database that has a single Type property and send every quick capture into it.

For a freelancer or small team whose clients and projects already live in Notion, keep notes there too, because a note filed next to its project is one you'll find again. For grocery lists, parking spots and thoughts you'll never search for, use your phone's built-in notes app and skip the setup below. For private notes you want as plain Markdown files, Obsidian fits better; my Notion vs Obsidian comparison draws that line.

Is Notion a good app for taking notes?

Three independent signals (an editorial roundup, a store rating and a published review) agree on where Notion shines for notes and where it gets heavy.

Read together, the three point the same way. Notion earns its praise when notes are shared, linked and organized, and draws complaints when it's asked to be a fast personal scratchpad or a phone-first tool. Zapier's author puts it plainly: for them, Notion is “really best as a team notes app or an AI-powered notes app.” If your notes are about clients and projects, you're in the group Notion serves well, and the setup below keeps it light enough to stick with.

Set up one Notes database

A database turns each note into a page with properties, so you filter and link notes instead of scrolling one long page. Notion's guide to team notes and docs builds notes the same way: “You can build databases for meeting notes and team docs from scratch using Notion, or use templates for a quicker start.” Start with one database and one property, then add more only when a view needs them.

1. Create a page called Notes. Type / in its body and choose Table view from the Database group. Notion's writing and editing basics describe that option as one that “Adds a table on your page.”
2. Give every note a title you'd search for: the client or project name plus the topic, such as “Acme kickoff: scope questions.” Search's default sort favors page titles over page contents, so this habit pays off later.
3. Add one Select property named Type with four or five options, for example Idea, Meeting, Reference and Draft. One property you fill every time beats five you skip. My guide to organizing Notion databases covers when a second database earns its place.
4. Select ⭐ at the top right of the Notes page to add it to Favorites, which pins it to the top of your sidebar.
5. Add two views, each answering one question. A To file view filtered to Type is empty answers “What still needs filing?” A Reference view filtered to Type is Reference answers “Where did I put that how-to?”

If several notes need the same skeleton, such as Agenda, Decisions and Action items headings, add a database template and make it the default for the view you capture into; my walkthrough of database template defaults shows that step. Once you run a Projects or Clients database, a relation lets each project show its notes. Notion's team notes guide describes that link as a way to see “which meeting notes or documents are related to a specific project,” and my relations and rollups guide builds the client and project version.

The database files each note and keeps it findable. Deciding its Type, and whether it needs a next action, stays with you. If you want the full PARA system around it, with an inbox and a repeating weekly review, my Notion second brain guide builds that from three related databases.

When a single Quick Notes page is enough

If you write a few notes a week and never filter them, one page will do. Notion's Quick Notes guide sets up a single page as “a one-stop shop for all your thoughts and ideas,” where you drag notes in and favorite the page for faster access. I'd move to the database the first time you want to see only meeting notes or only one client's notes, because a plain page has no properties to filter by.

Which quick-capture path should you use?

Each capture path in Notion ends somewhere different, and that decides whether the note shows up in your views later. This comparison is built from Notion's help pages on keyboard shortcuts, mobile widgets, Notion for mobile and AI Meeting Notes.

My default has two paths. On a computer, type [[, write the note's title and pick ↗ Add new page in... → Notes. Notion's shortcut help describes this as a way to create a page and “select the page or database where you'd like that page to be added.” On a phone, add a Page widget for Notes and write the note there. Both paths end in the one database your views and search already cover.

To add the widget on an iPhone or iPad, long press any app icon, select Edit Home Screen, tap + in the top left, search for Notion, swipe to the Page widget and tap Add Widget. Then long press the widget, tap Edit Widget and choose the workspace and page. On Android, long press the Notion app, scroll the menu, tap Widgets, place the widget and tap it to choose the workspace and page.

Write notes faster with blocks and Markdown

You don't need to reach for the mouse to format a note. Type / to open the block menu, or use Markdown at the start of a line:

• -, * or + followed by a space starts a bulleted list.
• [] followed by a space creates a to-do checkbox; there is no space between the brackets.
• #, ## or ### followed by a space makes a heading.
• > followed by a space creates a toggle list, which keeps long detail folded; my guide to Notion toggles covers both kinds.
• --- adds a divider.

Inside a line, wrap text in ** for bold, * for italics, ` for inline code and ~ for strikethrough. Type @ and a page name to mention it, which creates an inline link to that page. To turn a bullet into a checkbox or a heading later, click the ⋮⋮ handle in the left margin and choose Turn into. The full key list, with Mac and Windows keys side by side, is in my Notion shortcuts guide.

On a phone, editing works differently. There are no / commands and no icons on hover; everything comes from the toolbar above the keyboard. Tap + there for the full block menu, and use the same toolbar to @-tag a person or page, add a comment, insert an image or indent a line.

How do you find a note later?

Open workspace search from Search at the top of the sidebar, with cmd/ctrl + P, or with cmd/ctrl + K when your cursor isn't in a block. Notion's search help explains the behavior that matters most for notes: in the default Best Matches sort, recently edited pages rank higher and “page titles are more likely to show up than page contents.” That's why the title habit above matters.

• Put a phrase in quotes, like "scope questions", to match it exactly.
• Use the In filter and pick your Notes page to search only there; subpages are included.
• Use Title only when you remember the note's name, Created by for a teammate's notes, and Date for Today, Last 7 days or Last 30 days.
• The Teamspace filter appears in Plus, Business and Enterprise workspaces.
• Inside a long note, press cmd/ctrl + F.

Two blind spots catch people out. The search bar on a database looks at titles and property values but not the text inside each page, so a phrase from the body of a note needs workspace search; my guide to finding page text in a database walks through the right scope. Workspace search, in turn, skips comments, @-mentions of pages and people, and select values, so find notes by Type with your filtered views or the database search.

Mentions pay off in another way. Notion's help on links and backlinks says backlinks “are created automatically every time you @-mention a page.” Mention the client or project page in a note, and that page lists the note among its backlinks for people who can open the note.

Where should meeting notes go?

For an occasional call, a Meeting option in the Type property is enough. For recurring meetings, I'd give them their own Meetings database with a template, since Notion's team notes guide adds that “You can also create database templates for recurring meetings.” My Notion meeting notes template builds that database with Agenda, Notes, Decisions and Action items.

AI Meeting Notes transcribes a call and writes a summary. Notion's AI Meeting Notes help sets the conditions: a Business or Enterprise plan, or one of the “eligible mobile subscriptions where Notion AI is included,” plus desktop app 4.7.0 or higher (macOS 13 or later on a Mac). You start with /meet in the desktop app, confirm that everyone in the meeting consents to recording and transcription, and record at least a minute of audio before a summary appears. In a browser, only microphone input is transcribed. Business costs $20 per member per month billed yearly, or $24 billed monthly; my Notion AI review for small teams works through whether that's worth it.

The AI writes the summary. You still decide who owns each action item and when it's due, which is the part Notion's own notes page puts last in its must-have list: “action items with owners and due dates.”

What limits matter for notes in Notion?

• Uploads on Free: Notion's pricing page caps images, videos and file attachments at 5 MB each on the Free plan. Paid plans raise that cap to 5 GB per file. That's fine for text notes and tight if you attach recordings or long PDFs.
• Page history: 7 days on Free, 30 on Plus, 90 on Business and unlimited on Enterprise. On Free, a week is your window to restore a note you overwrote.
• Blocks: a Free workspace you use alone has no page or block cap. Invite a second member and Free allows a limited number of blocks; at the limit you can still read and edit existing content but can't add new blocks.
• Phone editing: there are no columns on mobile, so a two-column note collapses into one, and importing data needs the desktop app or a browser.
• AI: Notion AI on Free and Plus is a limited trial, and AI Meeting Notes needs Business or Enterprise.
• Offline: it works in the desktop and mobile apps, not in a browser tab.
• Large workspaces: eesel's review relays complaints about workspaces slowed by many inline databases. I'd keep one Notes database with several views instead of starting a new inline database on every client page.

Questions that come up next

Can I move my notes from Evernote or Google Docs?

Yes. Notion's notes page says its importers bring existing content from Evernote or Google Docs into Notion “in one click.” Importing isn't available on mobile, so run it from the desktop app or a browser.

Are notes in Notion encrypted?

Notion's notes page says all data is encrypted in transit (TLS 1.2+) and at rest (AES-256), and you control sharing at the page or workspace level. For a private diary, read the privacy section of my Notion journal guide before you decide where it lives.

Is Notion good for class notes?

It works well once courses and assignments live in their own databases. Notion's free Education plan gives Plus to students and educators at eligible colleges and universities, using a school email in a one-member workspace; K–12 doesn't qualify. My guide to Notion for college students builds the Courses, Assignments and Class Notes setup.

My pick: one Notes database, two capture paths

For notes about clients, projects and meetings, I'd choose a single Notes database over loose pages, because every note gets a Type you can filter, a place in search and a way to relate it to a project later. My default capture paths are [[ with ↗ Add new page in... on a computer and a Page widget for Notes on the phone, since both land where your views already look.

1. Create the Notes page with a Table view database and favorite it.
2. Add the Type select with four or five options.
3. Add the To file view filtered to Type is empty.
4. Put a Page widget for Notes on your phone's home screen.
5. Add a database template once you catch yourself typing the same headings twice.

Notion files and finds the notes; deciding what each one is, and which become a next action with an owner, stays your call. Start today with step one and capture your next three notes into it before you add anything else.