I am excited to learn more about how to use Notion to structure my life. It’s a pretty big tool with a lot of customizability. This means it’s pretty scary and daunting when you first open it up. Thankfully this is one of those tools that has a gajillion tutorials online.
Notion makes it pretty easy to learn about futures you encounter on the fly. Look, they embed tutorials everywhere.
I am not experienced yet using Notion. The following blog is more of a getting started template for me to follow so I have some focus with the app. My main goal is to create a functional dashboard that lets me get a snapshot of my life.
With this snapshot I can focus on working on the most important stuff and not let little things slip through the cracks. Maintaining a tool like Notion is long term faster than my current Google Doc solution.
Notion lets you organize pages and content blocks
When you start using Notion there are a few tutorial items to gamify your introduction a bit. You are going to start with some pages. You will be able to organize information across different pages and subpages and Notion will let you easily go to each project.
Each of the pages you create would be related to unique topics. As an example here is an early version of my project set up:
There are a bunch of subpages within each page that further break things down. Each page is made up of content blocks. This goes pretty deep. You can add links, images, text and tables of information. You can even embed some widgets and integrations with other apps.
You can create databases of information and dynamic checklists. From what I can see online you can structure tasks with due dates and create one place to house all your work. Especially if your life consists of a lot of unique files or pages of notes. Take a look at my One Note:
There is something like 7 years of Behind That Suit related information in there. Notion appears to be a cooler version of One Note with a lot of project management capability built in. I plan on using it to take all my notes, from every platform I ever took notes on and organize it in a single place. Then I can flush out my ideas into project plans with a lot more ease.
I tried Clickup, One Note and Google Doc setups. It’s time to try something new.
Who would benefit from using Notion
While the cheeky answer is everyone, I don’t think that’s fully true. Notion appears to be a very content heavy platform. This appeals to me because I have hundreds of pages of notes. I write blogs, lyrics and all kinds of stuff.
Since my life consists of a lot of note files, I need an easy way to pull key information when I need it. Whether this is best tips for festival applications linked to a list of festivals I can apply to, or whether it’s the chores for the apartment, it can all be tracked in Notion.
There is also room to document processes and how things are done. You can take notes for competitive analysis or journey map your dreams. I’m sure Notion can be used for journaling and it’s definitely valuable as a tool to manage a website.
There may be other options that are more streamlined for your niche but from what I can see Notion has a lot of potential to customize that other apps don’t offer. Notion is good for the people who are messy and need to keep track of a complicated life. Or a project. Or a business.
Since Notion is collaborative it can serve as a workspace. You can leverage permissions to keep your private information private while using team workspaces to share with others. I think Notion will help me, and the people I work with, move projects forward.
I’m going to get Notion to tell me what to do
I like to organize my life into repeatable, but detailed tasks. As an example, take creating a podcast episode. Logistically it may look like this:
Come up with podcast topics
Write caption
Post promotional posts for podcast
Confirm guest and provide Zoom details.
Set up stream on each platform
Make sure OBS is set up correctly for stream
Stream podcast episode (start recording a backup as well).
Take note of the timestamps
Get thumbnail for Podcast episode
Upload episode to YouTube
Add description, keywords and add the podcast to the playlist.
Create MP3 Version of podcast.
Upload to Podcast networks
While the specific steps may change per show, I can create a repeatable checklist via the Notion database tool. The reason I will do this is to track all the work that goes into my whirlwind of work.
Everything I do in life can be broken into a list of tasks. Notion can let you create your own templates for tasks that you can easily import. As I structure the various projects in my life I can organize them into categories. That way when I open my dashboard, I will see each project in my life, and the top things I need to do for it.
What’s appealing about Notion is how easy it is to call on your work. I can name each checklist distinctly, and import it into each week’s episode with a simple / command.
There will be some time setting this all up, but organizing my life is going to take time anyway. Notion offers a lot of templates where other people already created a lot of the visual and technical set up. You just need to update it with your life and personal touches
What’s great is that going through this process will help turn Notion into an assistant in my life while documenting the real level of effort it takes to complete work.
Once configured, Notion is pretty
What I realized looking into how other people use Notion is that it looks clean AF when it’s finally ready to go. You can add custom images, and set up each page with elements like a website builder. You can rearrange content to fit how you want and it’s really easy to use.
One of the things I’ve often struggled with is communicating the scale of things I work on simultaneously. Notion will help me put that into a simplified dashboard, where with a few clicks I can expand into the full details of any project. They have a Calendar built in where I can delegate my time according to priority and need.
The Notion pros on YouTube instantly get to aesthetic customizations as they go through their demonstrations. My Notion looks really basic at the moment. While I can tolerate a boring workspace, and work out of One Note and things like that, having a nice looking work hub makes collaboration easier.
I struggle to get people into things like Discord because of what the app looks like. I think once people can see my completed Notion workspace, the one that matches the vision in my head, it will help communicate what I am trying to convey in this blog.
With a proper project management tool in place I can build out what I need to get grants and sponsorships. Most importantly I can do it in a way that makes it easy to work with other people. As long as I can get them over their fear of new apps.
I encourage you to explore other apps as well and get your life in order.
Live Long and Prosper Everyone