Love Letter To Notion

May 4

It has been a few years now since I first discovered Notion. It was for sure love at first sight. I was sitting on the computer listening to a guest video call hosted by DBM (Design Biz Mastery) and the guest speaker was Rachel from the SquareStylist. If you don't know who she is, checks her out, the best Squarespace educator out there—BY FAR.

Anyway…She was talking to us about using Notion as ‘her second brain,’ and WOW. I was speechless. She showed us her back-end virtual office and tour us around her portals, and that day, I decided this was the missing piece I needed, to take my business to the next level. It was a pivotal moment now that I look back at it.

I was converted.

I had been craving an all-in-one place where I could offer my clients a better brand experience, and have a virtual office where I could have access to important brand documents and my daily agenda of to-dos because let’s face it, post is not where it is at! Especially with a toddler taking them down as soon as you put them up.

Notion was the answer I was looking for. It is essentially a giant whiteboard that can nest pages, links, galleries, and tables, that I can edit with ease, and share with anyone I want with a few clicks. What I love most about it, is that its interface is so simple, that it can be as easy or as complex as you want it to be. It really is up to you!

If you want a tour of the back end of my Notion you can get it here.

“What I love most about it, is that its interface is so simple, that it can be as easy or as complex as you want it to be. It really is up to you!”

Something I should warn you tho! —I do remember being a bit overwhelmed at first. And feeling like I would never get the hang of it or another of those organization platforms that are more work to get set up and that never get used. But I have a secret about that. You will have to keep reading though. Spoiler Alert! Notion is nothing like those.

Okay, so let me tell you how I did it.

I was tempted to use one of the templates they offer, and even though I find it an okay solution to not start from scratch, it is not what I did. Why? Because I like more work. Nah! Just kidding no one likes more work!

I did it because I needed something that felt just like my own head, it needed to make sense to me, first. If I was using someone else’s template I had to learn their ways, and it just felt like not something I wasn’t going to keep up.

I started in PAPER.

I wrote my intentions and listed sections I really wanted in there.
Something like this:

A client portal for each client - Priority 1
An office Hub with nested pages
A daily todo list with a calendar (like a planner)
A personal section for my home projects

I knew that if I had this list of items, my life would be sooooo much more manageable. I also assigned priorities to each so I knew what should I get started on ASAP. This list might look completely different to you if you are a student, or have a product-based business, but I think the common denominator is, to ask yourself, what needs to be organized that is keeping you up at night!
And start there.

The second step I took was—Get familiarized with Notion’s capabilities.

Note I am not saying master it! —just familiar! It is impossible to start if you don’t understand more or less how it works. This is where Notion shines. They have tons of videos from basic to more complex. I’ll leave it here for you to check out.

BASIC’S OF NOTION VIDEO

By now, I hope you have a bit of clarity on what you want out of this tool, and more or less how to make it happen. So let’s jump into it!

Start with the free version. I don’t want you to start paying for something that you aren’t convinced about. Do something simple like create a to-do list.

Something like this:

Now, let’s select all of that and copy and paste it, five more times. Now you have a whole week you can use and reuse. (Quick tip if you check the box the whole line gets crossed which I find to be one of the most satisfying things in the world!)

Okay, so that was a baby step! But the capabilities of this platform are endless. Remember every section you create can be moved around so just get started with sections you know you definitely want to have and move them around based on how you want your clients to experience this page.

Quick Note: Notion allows you to share single pages with other people. So if you share this page with your clients they will only see this one page, not the rest of them.

HERE IS A TOUR OF MY NOTION

I hope this inspires you to see how this tool can be helpful for you and take advantage of it! It’s not bragging.. it is the only way I feel it will help you see what is all you can do!

Hope you enjoy this mini workshop. If you have any questions just holler! I love nerding out about Notion.
Since I am such a fan, I decided to make it official and become a Notion Affiliate!

AFFILIATE LINK

The options are unlimited. Honestly you can use Notion for everything.