How I’m using Notion to organise my business
Notion has been doing the rounds a lot recently in the creative community. It’s something I’ve used for years for work but only this year have I started using it for my own small business.
Notion is a all-in-one workspace. Want a task list? A product roadmap? A design repository? They are now all in one place.
We all know how much I rave about having a bullet journal? Well my Notion is a sort of companion to this although way less pretty! So I still keep my monthly calendars and weekly to do lists in my bullet journal but most other things live on a page in Notion. Now there's been a lot of cute Notion show and tell's on the internet lately that have crazy custom imagery and layouts but frankly I'm all about keeping it simple. If I'm going to put effort into the design of my to do lists it's going to be in my bullet journal.
Therefore, be warned it's not that pretty, but it's super useful so let me take you through some of my most used pages.
Goals
Does what it says on the tin, these are all my goals for the year. I have the list of 12 yearly goals I made at the beginning of the year listed here, as well as my yearly focus words.
As well as these I have split my year into quarterly focuses (look at me all business planning official 😂) which within these four they each have three main goals I want to achieve that quarter based around the focus.
Content calendar
This is the main reason I wanted to branch out into Notion, my google calendar was just not cutting the mustard when it came to organising my content calendar. This has all my blogposts, newsletters, and other big things coming up like markets and shop drops.
The best part of Notion calendars is you can have pages for each event. So this blog post you’re reading was written fully in my Notion content calendar in an event on the 29th of April! Once I finish writing I’ll tag it as written and once I’ve scheduled it to post I’ll tick it off. So it’s clear from one look over my calendar what content is coming up, what’s written and scheduled and what’s still waiting to be written. I love it!
I also love that you can view the content in different views, although 99% of the time I have it set to calendar view.
Idea pages
I have a big list of idea pages that are essentially just a better way to store all my random ideas I write in my notes app on my phone. I have a page for blogpost/content ideas, one for product ideas, one for video or reels ideas, and another for ideas for my newsletter.
Inside each page is a giant list of ideas that I can keep all in one place and go to when I’m struggling to come up with ideas. They’re not pretty in any way but they are super handy and something I definitely recommend if you’re a creative and are constantly making idea notes either in the notes app or on scrap paper.
Planning pages
My planning pages are similar to the ideas pages in that they’re basically just glorified lists. I have one main planning page I use and then I have some others that I dip in and out of depending on the time of month.
Monthly page
My monthly page is the main page I use throughout the month. I keep the weekly spreads and to do lists in my physical bullet journal but the goals and aims I have for the month go in this monthly page.
To make sure I’m keeping to my goals I have my quarterly goals at the top, very visible ensuring I see them every time I hop into Notion. I also have a main goal for the month, and also three things to work on. At the end of each month I do a wee review and note down three things that went well and three things to work on that I take onto the next month. Once I’ve reviewed and set up the monthly page for the next month I archive the previous month so it’s hidden away but still available if needed.
I also have a wee tracker for my blogposts and instagram posts, I aim to post at least weekly on both so that’s there to remind me. Then I just have a big list of the things I want to do that month. Usually I rather overestimate the amount of things I can achieve that month but as long as I manage to tick off half to three quarters of the things on the list I feel that I’ve done well that month!
Other planning pages
Similar to the monthly pages I also have quarterly pages that include my quarterly goals and a list of things I want to do that quarter. Often my monthly list of things I want to do is pulled from this quarterly list.
My other planning pages include a wee shopping list of all the creative supplies and books I’d like to buy in the future when I have some spare spending money. I also have a couple of pages dedicated to bigger future career plans and goals.
My main goal for using Notion is to keep everything planning wise I use on a regular basis in here, and then have my weekly to do list and life calendar in my bullet journal. I found I forget to update trackers and yearly calendars that are in the beginning of my bullet journal just because I have to flick back all the time. In Notion it’s as simple as clicking on a link in the side bar.
It also helps to keep my notes organised, so they’re not just piles of random notes on my phone that I forget about or lose in the sea of other notes in the notes app.
Let me know if you use Notion and how you’re using it if it’s different to my way. Plus if you do end up trying out any of the above let me know how you get on!
- Sophie
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