My Notion just met Claude.

Originally published on: 2020-10-09 06:41

I am literally writing this on a Friday at 4 am, wow! Some things never change.

Years ago, I wrote the first draft of this exact thought right after the Education Ministry announced the cancellation of the HSC exams. Back then, I was just a stressed-out kid trying to figure out how to manage scattered notebook pages and a messy desk.

Today, as a senior economics student navigating the complexities of econometrics, a Director running daily operations at my design agency, Nartz, and the writer behind The Lazy Founder, my workload is exponentially heavier. Yet, I feel significantly less stressed.

Why? Because I stopped relying on my biological brain to remember everything, and I built a digital one instead.

Last week, I talked about the early struggles of organizing my daily workflow and how relying on physical notebooks or scattered apps like Google Keep and Ticktick just wasn't cutting it. Today, we are going deep. I'm going to show you exactly how I use Notion to run my entire life - and how you can build your own Second Brain.

The Problem With "I'll Remember It Later"

Before we dive into the dashboards, I want you to know something: I am inherently a lazy person when it comes to repetitive, unstructured work. I often come up with striking ideas, only to completely forget them an hour later.

This isn't a "me" problem, and it's not a flaw in your memory either. If you think you’ll just remember something later, you are lying to yourself. Humans, on average, can only hold a new thought for a few hours. Our brains are designed for having ideas, not for storing them.

When you are deep-diving into a complex project, the sheer volume of micro-tasks can cause severe cognitive overload. You need an external system you can trust—a Life Wiki.

Life OS: The Command Center

Notion isn't just a note-taking app. It is a blank canvas where you can build your own software. You can weave together to-do lists, project roadmaps, academic databases, and habit trackers into one interconnected web. It blends the capabilities of Docs, Excel, and Calendar into a single, dark-minimalist interface.

Here is a look at my Life OS - the root of my Second Brain.

I’ve designed this space to be the ultimate zoomed-out view of my existence. Notice the progress bars tracking the Day, Week, Month, Quarter, Year, and Life. It's a subtle, modern nod to Stoicism - a visual reminder that time is finite, keeping me grounded and focused.

From this central hub, I can access different specialized "Operating Systems" depending on what hat I am wearing that day.

A Backbencher’s Den: Academic OS

I am an economics student, not an economist (at least, not yet). Mastering the economic landscape requires absorbing a massive amount of data, theories, and mathematical models.

Every class has its own dedicated space containing lecture notes, flashcards, and reading materials.

The best feature here I’d say is the "Confidence" sorting system. By tagging my notes as Very Confident, Confident, or Motamuti Confident, I know exactly where to direct my energy during exam season without wasting time re-reading things I already know.

To Run My Agency: Nartz™ OS

Running a digital agency means juggling client expectations, internal research, and sales pipelines.

As a Director focusing on product development and operations, I need a bird's-eye view of everything happening at Nartz. This dashboard separates our workflows into distinct galleries: Sales, Client Projects, R&D, and our Vision.

Below that, the Nartz System Docs act as the single source of truth for our team. From the Client Onboarding Process to the Cold Call Templates, standardizing these workflows here is what allows us to scale smoothly.

The Creator's Studio: Content OS

Finally, this is where my personal brand lives.

Whether I am drafting the next issue of The Lazy Founder newsletter, outlining a new YouTube video, or planning an article for my blog, it all starts here. Having a dedicated space to stare at when I’ve "blocked an hour for content" eliminates the friction of starting. It houses my brand strategy, audience personas, and creator inspirations all in one aesthetic view.

For Lazy People - Claude + Notion MCP

Before I wrap up, I have to share the most mind-blowing update that recently changed my entire workflow. You might have heard whispers of something called "ICP," but it's actually known as the Model Context Protocol (MCP).

If you use Anthropic's Claude, you can now connect it directly to your Notion workspace using MCP. It's essentially a secure bridge that lets Claude read, write, and organize your Notion pages in real-time.

Instead of manually building out a project tracker or clicking around to format a database, I literally just open Claude and type:

Boom. It builds it right before your eyes.

It feels like having an incredibly fast, invisible assistant who knows exactly how my Second Brain is wired. You can ask Claude to search through your old notes, summarize lecture materials from your Academic OS, or automatically log ideas into your Content OS. If building a Second Brain felt intimidating before, this integration makes it almost effortless.

Why You Need to Start Too

To genuinely improve your lifestyle and workflow, you need a system that scales with your ambitions. I’ve tried countless mediums and failed. Notion provided the flexibility and the visual calm I needed to stay motivated.

It is as simple to start with as Google Keep, but it scales to the complexity of enterprise software. If you haven’t tried building your own digital workspace yet, you are leaving a massive amount of your potential on the table.

Give it a try. And if you have any questions or want to see a specific template from my setup, reply to this email or leave a comment. I read all of them.

Have a great week, everyone!

Nafim

My Favourite Things This Week

• Book: How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. I’ve just started reading it and I already love it. I might do a deep-dive on this book in an upcoming issue.
• Music: Aami Ashbo Phirey (আমি আসবো ফিরে) - an incredibly soulful track by Neel Dutt. I’m honestly a bit embarrassed that I only discovered it recently!
• Blog Post: I am exhausted by people who misunderstand feminism and conflate it with extremism. My friend Turzo wrote a splendid piece breaking down these general misconceptions: কেন আপনি ফেমিনিস্ট না? (Why aren't you a feminist?)

Quote of The Week

"Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic. Capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it."

- Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone