Notion has surpassed 100 MILLION users recently, from the time of the writing of this post.

This means that there are businesses, students, entrepreneurs and just normal people spending hours, daily, organising, growing, and getting smarter.

Being productive isn't about just putting things in their right folders or ticking checklist boxes. It starts with the capturing of ideas, filing, categorizing, tagging, using and searching all that information you wish to store.

Being productive with Notion — or rather, with your use of Notion — is being able to find and use it efficiently and effortlessly. The structure matters as much as the content itself.

This isn't just at the business level — even though that's what we will talk about — but also at a personal level. That one, though, will be a subject for another post.

I've become much more productive after I've realised that, when growing a business, organisation is paramount. Nothing gets done when you don't know where things are, when you have to dig in for information, when you don't know what's next, what you're aiming for, and what your big picture is. When you are getting more collaborative, and not having a structure for people to onboarding in and share your thought process of how you do things.

How you organise will reflect on the work you output. You can't obtain your maximum output — that is, be the most efficient and effective — in mess and chaos.

In fact, long is gone the notion that you need to be in chaos to be creative. People are creative in different ways [1], and the more expert you are in your area, the more creative you can be, specially at an organised and methodical environment, be that digital or physical.

There are absolutely no drawbacks to getting your business organised, whether you have a team, are just starting, are by yourself, with 2 people. 

I will warn you though, this post isn't a beginner friendly Notion tutorial, nor will I be talking about in a step by step manner. You will grasp the meaning behind the concept if you have enough Notion experience. If you don't, keep this post in the back of your mind for later referencing.

Having said that...

Who should organise with Notion

Notion is a highly collaborative tool. Paired with tools such as Slack and Figma, it can be a true powerhouse to running your daily operations.

But, whilst it can cover a lot of niches and business types, it might not work for absolutely every single niche. I believe there are niches where certain applications need to be used to regulations or because Notion just simply doesn't cover all their needs — and that just to be fair.

For some, it can work in the backend, but not the frontend (as in, where the customer will have contact with it), which might be a deal breaker for some.

For example, I still find booking a meeting within Notion complicated, but you can use an external app such as Google Meets and automate it easily with Make to bring the meeting information into Notion, so it can be visible to everyone who needs to see it, immediately.

So, here's a list for you, since you love lists:

1. Freelancers

2. Digital Marketing Agencies

3. Graphic Design Studios

4. E-commerce Businesses

5. Event Planning Companies

6. Real Estate Agencies

7. Law Firms

8. Consulting Firms

9. Coaching Businesses

10. Non-Profit Organizations

11. Tech Startups

12. Content Creation Studios

13. Human Resources Agencies

14. Software Development Companies

15. PR and Communications Agencies

16. Architecture Firms

17. Educational Institutions

18. Fitness Trainers and Gyms (backend)

19. Accounting Firms

20. Photography Studios

21. Interior Design Firms

22. Healthcare Clinics

23. Construction Companies

24. Travel Agencies

25. Podcast Production Companies

26. Videography Studios

27. Social Media Management Agencies

28. Venture Capital Firms

29. Personal Finance Advisors

30. Legal Consulting Businesses

31. IT Support Services

32. Professional Writers and Bloggers

33. Music Production Studios

34. Catering Services

35. Translation Agencies

36. Recruitment Agencies

37. Fashion Designers

38. UX/UI Design Firms

39. Wedding Planning Businesses

40. Management Consulting Firms

41. Subscription Box Services

42. Online Course Creators

43. Virtual Assistant Services

44. Corporate Training Providers

45. Property Management Companies

46. Bookkeeping Services

47. Product Design Firms

48. Art Galleries

49. Cybersecurity Companies

50. Agricultural Businesses

51. And these are just 50, I could keep going.

Table of Contents

• Setting up your dashboard is quite easy, here's ho …

• Pages as folders and pages as dashboards

• The role of databases in the business systems (and …

  • How I think of and use relations

  • How I use linked views

• The front page of your system

  • What to put on a organization's "home"

  • Sources

    • [1] https://www.apa.org/monitor/2022/04/cover-scie …

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Setting up your dashboard is quite easy, here's how to do it

You want basically 2 things in your Notion: databases and well organised pages, which you can think of as folders, that you will be able to share with people, alongside the database views contained in them.

The database views are like mirrors of the original database, but with data displayed in different format (a gallery, a list, a calendar). Same data, just viewed differently.

You can filter this information, — such as showing transactions only from the last week — sort, and hide properties. You can show the date and the value, or just the value of a transaction, for example, without altering the original information.

Properties, on the other hand, are these extra information about your entry, which you can choose from many formats. The date, the value, the category of a transaction, for example, are properties. These properties are 100% configurable.

To start with, list what you need to organise for your business.

I will start for you:

1. Finances

2. Client management (client area included) aka CRM

3. Projects (and their tasks)

4. Marketing (different platforms, content, ads)

5. The brand elements

6. Processes

7. Meetings

8. Onboarding

9. Product development (pipeline, pricing, launches)

10. Business model, structure, and future projections (what I call Panoramas)

Now, you can organise these into folders, and even have a hierarchy of folders so you and share with people that need to see it.

Your next step is to figure out the structure of the system itself, how will you store away these systems? 

All business and work styles are different. There isn't just one way of doing things. I like to have a database will all the databases separated by categories (this makes it easier to share with people) and then add the views in "mini" dashboards. Breathe, I will show you. I also organise my personal system this way.

So, you can have a folder called "Databases" in an area, or even just a list database view, with everything you need.

Databases can be in a page (inline databases) or a page itself (and therefore be entries on other databases — I know), it depends on your style. I prefer when they are pages, so I can create a "menu" looking area.

Business, marketing, and branding are normally enough as main containers, but you will need to reflect on the structure of your business with your team or with a consultant if you really want to get grainy with it.

Below is an image to help you visualize the structure.

Pages as folders and pages as dashboards

Like in the image above, you see that I use the folder icon as a "container". For your Business's workspace, you will need to share a container with collaborators that have all the databases they need to access. A container is just a page you design for that purpose.

The other option is to create teamspaces, which then you will need to create them minding who can access what. But that is just in case you need teams, and, unless you have more than 5 collaborators, I'd stick with the regular flow.

Container pages are just that: folders. It's a lot easier to collaborate this way, fine tuning these folders and how you spread the databases and their views.

You really do need to think of your teams and the structure of your business. Who needs to see what?

Then, you have pages as dashboards. These are armed with views of the databases in these container folders that will help your daily operations, like you'd have in a marketing system, or in a product development system, or your financial system.

Again, even this structure will depend if you will have separate people for designing launches, ads, and content, and how involved you want them to be with each other.

The role of databases in the business systems (and their views)

I view databases in two different ways:

1. As filters (like categories)

2. As storage (like to store the databases, or expenses, or editorial content)

Databases as filters are much like "centrals" for data pertaining parts of the system I want to converge. As in, see all the information in my system through a specific set of rules that I configure.

In my advanced financial system (which you can get and use in your dashboard, btw), you will see that categories have an overview of multiple other databases, but showing data for only that category.

This is only possible because this central hub, the filter-like category list has relations to other databases (but they don't necessarily have with each other) that I can then converge through the individual categories themselves through the database views.

This can only happen because you can filter the information according to the category itself, by adding a filter to the pasted databases views inside a database template.

In the filter database, the database template will serve as an automation for you. 

Could you do this with a database "select" property? No, because properties are referent to just one database itself, and thus can't be used across databases like these, fully custom, "filter" like databases.

You will have the template itself as the automation, and this is important, because at each new entry, all your information will be configured automagically and be set for analysis from the get go, even if you don't have any information in it.

All you have to do is reference the template itself in the filter for database views you've pasted in the database template.

Build once, use multiple times.

Now, of course, you have the traditional use of databases, which is to simply store information.

Be your individual blog posts, images for your brand, your logos, individual colors, processes, or clients.

The variety of view types allow you to present your data in the most appropriate format for the quality of the information. If you're creating content, maybe you'd prefer a kanboard, so you can see the properties that are relevant as well as a cover photo, or for your brand data, lists and boards.

How I think of and use relations

I remember having a lot of trouble understanding relations at first, and I think it's every person's struggle when getting into Notion at one point or another.

Think of relations as links, as connections. They allow you to connect two databases together, so you can "pull" entries and their data from one to another or both ways.

So, if I want to connect a "coffee with friends" expense to the account I spent from, I will build a relation between Accounts and Expenses, add value, date properties, and maybe a relation to the categories, a filter-like database.

Databases can have as many relations as needed from and to multiple other databases, as many times to the same database or to itself (which we will see later).

Then, we have the rollups. If relations are like connections, like a door, the rollups are the "pull" of information. So, if you have a relation and a rollup, you can choose what to show from one database in the other, and vice versa.

In the accounts -> expenses relation, for example, you can pull the "value" as a rollup and then calculate the sum, to display the value of the linked transaction and then calculate the column to add it all. This way, you will know how much you've spent per account.

1. Relations are for databases, rollups are for properties

2. You can't have a rollup without a relation

3. Databases can have multiple relations to another database

4. Databases can have as many relations to different databases as needed

5. Databases can have relations to themselves

6. Rollups can show the value as it is, count the amount of values, or make other operations such as sum or averages

7. You can use formulas to create custom filtered rollups without using relations at all ([Notion Formula 2.0](https://www.notion.so/help/guides/new-formulas-whats-changed))

But, what happens when you connect a database to itself? When connecting a database to itself through a relation, you have what we call a subitem.

A subitem is just two entries from the database referencing each other, which is great to create projects and subprojects, categories and subcategories, tasks and sub tasks, and so on.

Referencing two entries will create a hierarchy between these two items that can be viewed in toggles. So, in a financial system, I can get a grainier view of my expenses per categories, and budget better.

In a project management system, I can create multiple stages of development and their tasks, to help the pipeline be more organised.

Understanding this will give you a huge advantage in creating your systems, and making them simple, yet complete and through.

How I use linked views

Databases will be created, by default, with the table view. But, you can add as many views as you want or need for any database, with as many filters as needed to show only the properties you want per view, without altering any of the data input.

With linked views, you can place only the relevant information into the areas of your business that needs to view them.

For example, you can have your product list with only their value in your BMC in your revenue streams page, or, if it has a relation and a rollup that shows how much that product has many in revenue in total, show only that, or show the MRR, the profit margin, etc. On the other hand, in the product development area, they would have different information visible, such as the release date, development stage, and so on.

All you have to do is add a view, a filter, configure it, hide the properties you don't want, copy the link to the database view (right click on the view tab) and paste it precisely where you need it.

That is how you create dashboards for the different parts of your system, making it less overwhelming and crowded with information.

You just need to know what your priorities are, and what is the most important thing to view first per dashboard.

The front page of your system

Okay, you have the 3 enclosing pages, their "folders" and databases, but what then?

It... depends. Are you an organisation with teams? Then the folders will be different, and so will the front page.

Are you working alone? Then the front page will also be different.

Are you working alone, but dealing with freelances? Then that will also, you guessed, look different.

What to put on a organization's "home"

I won't say it depends again, you already know it.

There are, however, elements I find extremely important, specially because you want the culture, you want the onboarding, and you want an easy way for people to self-"medicate" so to speak to be readily accessible for people.

So, in the front page of an organisation that has teams, each team would have their corner, and that would require different "homes", but all businesses would need to have AT LEAST:

1. A link to the FAQ page (or a WIKI if you will, see 4.)

2. A link to the brand's story and culture book

3. Instructions for the roles your members are performing, and who their superior is

4. Link to the processes they need to follow

5. An onboarding page, so new members know what to do, who to talk to, and so on.

6. And then the rest of your structure, according to your business' structure.

All in all, building a business in Notion takes months, and it's an evergoing process. It never ends. Your organisation will evolve, people will find different needs, Notion itself will update with different (hopefully better) features and you will find yourself always tweaking things.

Sources

[1] https://www.apa.org/monitor/2022/04/cover-science-creativity

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