Are you looking for a new way to plan and organize your PhD work? In this post, I’m sharing how I use Notion for graduate school!

Notion is a notetaking and organization app and the best one I have found for Ph.D. students! Notion allows you to create beautiful and easy work with pages and templates for almost anything! I used Notion to organize my Ph.D., dissertation, and other aspects of graduate school research and life for the past several years. It’s really helped me to stay on track, more so than other notetaking apps. I liked using Notion as a student because I like having a digital copy of all my work and digital space to organize my to-do lists and notes, manage projects, and track my Ph.D. progress!

In this post, I’m sharing with you how to use Notion as a PhD student and giving you a tour of the PhD student and dissertation planner Notion template! I created the Ph.D. Student Notion template while I was doing my PhD, and now I’m sharing it with the world so you can easily track your research progress, coursework completion, and Ph.D. milestones. A Ph.D. degree is a complex process that varies greatly between programs, so I wanted to make a Ph.D. Notion template that allows you to manage required classes and a range of research-related tasks that go toward your degrees, such as publications, dissertation chapters, presentations, and more!

This template is a space for only Ph.D. and dissertation work, so no personal life content is included. If you’re more interested in a “second brain” style Notion template that encompasses personal life and Ph.D. life, check out the All-in-One Graduate Student Notion Template. This template keeps everything grad school-related and personal life organized in Notion! It also has over 20+ pages of professional and personal development resources and trackers. I also designed the research notebook template, which is only for managing research projects, data, and experiments.

Now, let’s tour the Ph.D. and Dissertation Planner Notion Template!

Why do I love using Notion for my Ph.D?

I’ve been using Notion for several years and have found it to be one of the best (and most fun) software for note-taking and organizing. Firstly, it’s fun to organize and design your template! You can easily create your Notion aesthetic and design pages to fit your needs. I also love how I can use it across all my devices. It’s also very affordable for students because you can either use the free version or the $10/month Plus subscription. By upgrading to Plus, you get unlimited file uploads (which is great for storing documents and data), integration with more 3rd party apps, and more customization. Notion also offers add-on tools such as Notion AI, which is just $8 a month and uses AI to power your Notion template.

The Ph.D. Degree and Dissertation Planner Notion Template Features

Ph.D. Milestones at a Glance

The most powerful part of the Ph.D. student Notion template is the Ph.D. milestones at a glance! This is where I can store my relevant Ph.D. work, such as projects, conferences, manuscripts, and dissertation chapters. Each database element below contains a template for me to log my progress, take notes, and store information!

Interconnected Databases: Link Papers, Protocols, Lab Notebook, and Tasks to Ph.D. Milestones

This Notion template uses the relation property feature in databases to link databases together. Relations are used for:

• Linking papers from the literature review template to the protocols or lab notebook databases.
• Linking protocols to the lab notebook and Ph.D. milestones databases
• Linking tasks to lab notebook and Ph.D. milestones databases

Daily and Weekly Tasks

The daily and weekly tasks databases are built to automatically populate tasks labeled with today’s date or for tasks within one week. Setting up the databases in this way makes priority tasks visible on the homepage.

All Tasks List

To have everything available in the daily and weekly task lists, there is an “All Tasks” database. This is where I import all of my Ph.D. milestone tasks, from experiments to writing goals to scheduling meetings. Then, I use the relation property in Notion databases to relate the task to the milestone in my Ph.D. milestones at a glance database. This way, I can see all of my tasks in list form and view them if I click on one of my PhD milestones.

Automated Buttons for Creating New Entries Easily

Weekly Schedule and Time Blocking

The last part of the Ph.D. student Notion template is the weekly schedule database for time blocking the week! I like using the time-blocking method to keep my week organized. In time-blocking, I designate specific times for tasks such as research, writing, studying, etc. I will add these to my weekly schedule in between fixed events such as classes, meetings, and other recurring weekly events.

Degree Tracker and Coursework Organizer

Another central section of the Ph.D. student Notion template is the degree tracker and coursework organizer. Here, I have a database where I imported all of my classes for my degree. Then, using the relation property, I related the courses to the degree database (located on the homepage) so I can see the progress bar change as I complete classes. Like with the Ph.D. milestones at a glance database, I use the coursework database to store anything related to each class. I click on the class and use the page that appears to take notes, store information, etc.

Research Project Manager – Research Lab Notebook

The research lab notebook is located on the research page in the menu bar. The lab notebook is designed for creating daily entries like you would in a paper and pen lab notebook. Each entry lets you link to other databases and fill in your daily goals, schedule, and results.

Meeting Notes

Lastly, there is space for storing your meeting notes since there are always so many meetings during a Ph.D.!

This Notion template for grad school is much simpler than others I’ve made and seen online. I think it’s nice sometimes to have the Ph.D. work in a separate Notion template so it doesn’t get mixed up with other things. This way, when I go on this template, it’s only coursework and research-related tasks! If you’re looking for a template that allows you to plan and organize everything in your grad school life, consider checking out my all-in-one grad student Notion template!

Why should I buy a Notion template?

Purchasing a Notion template instead of making your own takes the work out of getting organized! With a ready-to-go template, you can dive right into organizing your Ph.D. without having to tinker with databases or create an aesthetic.

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