For the last ten years, I have been hellbent on having it all. I have carefully constructed my life to be exactly as I want it to be: loving husband, two adorable kids, a house technically in the city but with a suburban feel, three-row SUV, two hounds, lots of friends, in a community I love, with a meaningful and mission-driven job. And until about 3 months ago, I had exactly zero capacity to enjoy any of it. My ambition got the best of me, and I had backed myself into a corner. My perfect world, having been carefully (errr… foolishly?!) constructed by me, was also utterly dependent on me running a constant sprint to continue turning on its axis. Creating a the life of my dreams meant that in creating the life I desired, I sacrificed a part of myself… My ability to think straight, relax, and just be. I enjoyed my perfect life in a constant state of hypertension. Not exactly what I was going for…
My digital existence was a fair representation of my literal existence. At any given time, I had 20-30 tabs open on Chrome. I lived in a constant state of distraction, not because of social media (I have a strict, only while going to the bathroom rule for Instagram. #tmi #yourewelcome #sorrynotsorry) My task shifting was all legitimate, work-related tasks. Someone on my team needed something. An urgent email here. A facilities emergency there. I was here, there, and nowhere all at once.
And then I was introduced to the world of productivity tools, and everything changed.
Notion has transformed my life. I gave up on ever thinking that paper systems or planners would work for me about 20 years ago. Even so, before Notion, I had information stored in any number of places for various purposes: email, Google doc, iPhone notes, a random excel spreadsheet, bookmarks on a web browser. These disparate and fragmented bits of information meant that I spent 10-15% of my time just getting my shit together before I could even start on a task.
Notion allows me to keep everything in one place and organize it in a way that makes sense for me.
On December 15, 2023, at 7:32pm, I created a Notion login, binge watched YouTube videos on how to set up a Notion Dashboard, and then I texted a friend:
I am writing this on January 30, 2024, and Notion has completely changed my life. It’s not as scary as it seems! Here’s how I got started:
Many of the online tutorials will suggest that you build your dashboard first. While that is certainly one of the sexier features that Notion has to offer (to whatever extent software can be sexy…), I suggest instead building the component pieces that you’ll want to go on your dashboard first. Yes, picking a cute coverage image and an inspirational quote is going to be SUPER satisfying, but I promise that a Comprehensive Task List is way more transformative.
Everything in Notion is basically a table, similar to an Excel spreadsheet, that Notion can organize into different views to make it more usable. The easiest way to practice using Notion itself, is by building a table in its simplest form. Take all of your To Dos, for every part of your life, and put them into ONE task list. The point is that you take the To Dos from the 20 different sticky notes you have in your random purse pockets, along with the various digital tools you may be use them, and put them all into ONE place.
There are many tutorials online about how to create To Do lists in Notion. I suggest keeping it as simple as possible first and then adjust as you start to use it. Here’s what I use:
Tags to Categorize: When creating the different tags, consider what you want to be able to filter later on. For example, I want to be able to filter out all of my “Personal” tasks when I’m at work; or I want to look at “Operations” tasks when I’m meeting with my Operations Manager. Don’t get stuck in analysis paralysis here. You can always adjust them later on. If you want to play with other “Properties,” like Date, Status, etc… feel free. But the first step of consolidation and the most important.
Dates: I generally use the date when I want to complete the task rather than the Deadline.
Status: I adjust the status to be more specific (Deferred, To Do, Calendared, To Discuss, Waiting to Hear Back, Doing, Done). These are useful later on if I want to use a Kanban style board view of the tasks.
I need a place to be able to jot things down when I think of them. Sometimes I’m not in a position to be able to organize things into a task list right away. Or maybe my thought isn’t fully-baked, but I want to come back to it tomorrow. A thought-catcher or notebook can be useful for this. Mine include thoughts for newsletters, general ideas, and things I want to talk to a colleague who is on maternity about when she returns.
