Entrepreneur Tommy Barav built a second brain in Notion

As the founder of Supertools, a company using AI to help people use their time more effectively, Tommy Barav made productivity his business. To no surprise, self-improvement is important in his personal life, too. With Notion, Tommy has a custom productivity and improvement system that connects and tracks all his goals in one spot.

Insights from

Tommy Barav

Founder

Use cases
Personal Self-Improvement
1

The morning routine that sets his day up for success

In Tommy's opinion, self-improvement is so difficult because we're all too busy to make space for it. So he created a system that forces him to focus every morning on what's most important, and put the entire day into perspective. And that system is repeatable — giving him time back instead of forcing him to re-create his routine every day.

coffee cups
Tommy uses a Notion template to set intentions for every day.

One page to set his intentions

Every day starts with his Notion homepage, with a dedicated section for reflection. He created a template that he copies each morning, prompting him with questions that help him set his intentions for the whole day. What's he grateful for? What's one thing he learned yesterday? What's the most important thing to accomplish today? The answers to these questions serve as his North Star, helping him budget his time for the right things. He even archives previous days, so he has a record of past growth and accomplishments.

I can create a template, build a history of what I've accomplished, and capture it in one place. That's really meaningful for my self-improvement.
2

A personalized reading list, right at your digital doorstep

Reading is an essential part of Tommy's goal to always be learning, so he dedicates time for it every day. But he found news apps — using algorithms to curate his media diet — frustrating. They didn't feel personalized, and he was spending too much time scrolling for gems.

newspaper
Tommy uses a Notion database to curate his personal reading list.

The news feed he's always wanted

Tommy created a Notion page just for sourcing articles he wants to read. He even shared this page with his friends and colleagues so they could also add to it. Using Notion's web clipper, articles are added to the page then categorized with tags. He's also linked this list to his Notion homepage so it serves him what he wants to see next. And once he reads them? He simply checks a box, and the next one appears on his list.

Instead of waiting for a tool to be updated or an app to get my dream feature, I can create my own productivity tools in Notion.
3

One place for the mind-body connection

With so much time dedicated to mental productivity, it's easy for the physical side of things to get overlooked. Tommy keeps his health goals top of mind by putting them right in his Notion homepage, instead of needing to log meals or track calories in a separate app.

zen rocks
Tommy uses a Notion table to track all his meals and make sure he’s hitting his goals.

Keeping good habits front and center

Every day on Tommy's homepage includes a table that has empty slots for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. For each meal, he chooses from the dozens of recipes that he's saved as individual Notion pages, complete with macronutrient breakdowns for each — fat, protein, carbs, and total calories. When all meals are logged, the table automatically calculates the totals, which Tommy measures against his daily goals.

At the end of every day, he's able to look at his homepage and see exactly where he netted out on all his objectives — and what he can do better when he sets his intentions tomorrow.

Notion allows me to be hyper effective because all the things I want to promote are part of the same workflow and view.

Build your own self-improvement system

Notion is free to try and works across many devices.

Web app

Desktop app