Whether you’re learning how to start an agency, or you simply need more structure in your day-to-day, using a quality planner can make all the difference in terms of your success. On the plus side, there are countless options out there with unique features that can be the perfect fit for your planning needs. That’s why we want to talk about how to use Notion as a planner for any of your needs.
The good news is that we at Slam Media Lab are here to help facilitate your research by diving into one of the top options for planners on the market: Notion. We’ll talk about how to use Notion as a planner, as well as the ins and outs of using Notion as a planner for different tasks, so you feel ready to harness the full power of this tool.
Why are we talking about Notion? Well, we may be a bit biased.
Slam uses Notion for our own internal documents, as well as to help mission-driven businesses achieve their goals—you can see for yourself with our case studies. This all-in-one solution has been crucial to the success of Slam, which grew into a $2M business within three years. Our team is focused on providing top-tier brand strategy and identity, content writing and strategy, SEO, and Webflow design and development services to mission-driven businesses of all sizes.
From nonprofits like Community Solutions to venture capital firms like Acumen America, Slam has experience forming and executing digital marketing strategies that meet the unique needs of our clients. Notion has been a huge asset in helping us achieve these goals, as well as keep our own internal processes running smoothly year over year.
Enough about how we love Notion for us, though. Let’s talk about how to use Notion as a planner, so you can get your business done the right way!
What is Notion?
First things first—let’s talk briefly about Notion as a whole. Notion is a versatile productivity tool that functions as an all-in-one workspace. It started as a simple note-taking app back in 2016 but has grown into much more over the years.
Now, it is a single space where you can think, write, and plan as well as share information and collaborate with team members in real time. It’s your planner, your database, your project manager, and anything in between. According to a Forbes report, Notion had one million users in 2019, four million by April of 2021, and more than 20 million users by October 2021. Today, Notion has well over 30 million users and counting!
Clearly people like Notion, but there are a lot of options out there when it comes to planning, note-taking, and project management solutions. If you’ve looked into the topic, you’ve probably seen names like Todoist, Asana, Airtable... The list goes on. Ultimately, Slam chose Notion because of its intuitive design, wide range of features, customizable interface, and collaboration capabilities.
See for yourself how Notion stacks up against similar solutions:
- Airtable vs. Notion
- ClickUp vs. Notion
- Notion vs. Asana
- Notion vs. Confluence
- Notion vs. Goodnotes
- Notion vs. Monday
- Notion vs. OneNote
- Notion vs. Todoist
Top Benefits of Using Notion as a Planner
Whether you’re the head of a large business, or you’re balancing tasks in your regular day-to-day life, having functional planning and management methods in place will be key to your success—and your sanity. On a professional level, this means having processes in place for strategizing, managing projects, handling employees, and essentially taking care of every other corner of your business on a regular basis.
Notion offers an experience that is tailored to each specific user, making it the ideal planning tool for any situation. Its flexible, all-in-one approach allows for custom workflows and versatile integrations that lead to endless possibilities for businesses and individuals alike.
Some of the key advantages Notion brings to the table is its:
- Functional & Collaborative Design
- Diverse Set of Features
- Customizable Interface
- Convenient Syncing
Plus, Notion offers fair pricing for services, including a free option to get you started.
Functional & Collaborative Design
Notion’s organization capabilities make it a top choice for project planning and management of all scopes. It was created originally as a note-taking app, so it has a strong, functional interface that makes it easy to create notes, embed multimedia, and keep everything organized as your projects grow. You also have access to various formatting options for titles, headers, lists, tables, code blocks, and more.
Moreover, Notion’s collaborative features make it great for working in larger teams. Many note-taking tools are more geared toward individual work while Notion scales with the user. You can manage a company-wide project as easily as your personal notes with Notion’s modular system.
Diverse Set of Features
Part of what makes Notion such a powerful tool for planning and project management Since Notion has adapted into an all-encompassing solution for project management and organization, it’s packed with powerful tools to make your life easier. This includes:
- Collaboration & Comments
- Database Integration
- Full Template Library
- Knowledge Bases
- Mobile App
- Modular Pages & Blocks
- Project Management Tools
- Rich Text Formatting & Embedding
- Task Management Tools
- Web Clipper
Customizable Interface
Notion’s interface lets users create new pages and populate them with any content they need. You can essentially build whatever type of workspace you need for any given project, ranging from simple note-taking to comprehensive project management.
Content blocks on Notion can include things like:
- Databases
- Images
- Text
- To-do lists
- Videos
- And more!
With Notion’s pages, you can really let your creativity fly free and create something that is truly yours. And if the idea of making creative assets yourself seems daunting, you can use helpful graphic design tools like Canva and import your projects into Notion when you’re done.
Convenient Syncing
When it comes to content planning, Notion is the tool to have by your side. For starters, you can leverage synced databases to bring data from external tools into Notion. This will allow you to organize every piece of information for your convenience. When it comes to social media, you can track metrics on a site like Sprout Social or Iconosquare and port that data over to Notion to keep everything in one place.
You can also handle smaller individual tasks like planning static and video content across different platforms with tools like our Notion Content Creation Template. You’ll have access to:
- Custom templates for straightforward content creation
- Content calendar to visualize publication dates
- Filters & views for easy collaboration
- Detailed tutorials & examples
- Access to our support community
- Exclusive & discounted access to Slam’s products
Notion also allows you to sync content blocks within the same page and on different ones, so you can update content simultaneously without enduring any repetitive tasks. Learn more about synced blocks and see why you should use Notion for your business endeavors.
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Using Notion as a Planner with Templates
Using Notion as a planner is a breeze because you’re not left to fend for yourself. In addition to allowing you to build pages from scratch, Notion offers over 10,000 templates that provide a basic structure for any type of page, so you have a jumping off point. From there, you can customize every aspect to meet your needs and match your vision.
Slam offers a variety of Notion templates to streamline routines and elevate productivity:
- Notion Assignment Tracker
- Notion Documentation Template
- Notion Feedback Template
- Notion Meeting Notes Template
- Notion Social Media Planner
- Notion Sprint Template
- Notion Task List Template
- Notion Vision Board
- Notion Wiki Template
- Startup Roles & Responsibilities Template
- TikTok Content Planner
- TikTok Script Template
How to Use Notion as a Planner for Work
Notion is a cohesive project management tool that is designed to handle large, complex tasks. From improving meetings with a Notion meeting notes template to elevating teams with a Notion feedback template, you can enhance every part of your business with Notion templates.
With everything in one place, Notion acts as the ultimate planner in any workspace. You can organize every single internal process with the Notion Documentation Template and streamline operations altogether by creating a Wiki with the Notion Company Wiki Template. Plus, you can plan out individual tasks with the Notion Task List Template and keep track of information in every area of the business.
How to Use Notion as a Planner for Personal Projects
Notion is an effective tool for balancing personal and professional commitments of all types. As far as project management solutions go, Notion is a pretty involved one. That said, one of the best parts about its customizable and modular interface is you are able to use whichever features you want and exclude the rest. So, you can have peace of mind knowing you can have a cleaner, more straight-forward structure for your personal planner if that’s more your vibe.
Notion offers a variety of templates for both monthly and weekly planners as well as:
- Daily schedules
- Event Planners
- Habit Trackers
- Monthly Overviews
- To-do lists
- Weekly agendas
How to Use Notion as a Planner with AI
Want to take your planning to the next level? Enter: Notion AI. Notion AI offers a broad range of tools to elevate your planning capabilities at every level. You can get quick answers to questions, facilitate brainstorming and writing, and turn overwhelming data into clear information in seconds.
At Slam, we aim to offer our clients cutting-edge digital marketing solutions, so it’s safe to say we offer stellar resources when it comes to artificial intelligence. Whether it’s AI for nonprofits or fortune 500 companies, it’s important to have the right AI tools. Notion AI offers a variety of solutions including:
- Auto-fillable tables
- Brainstorming & writing assistance
- Explanations
- Grammar & spelling suggestions
- Paraphrasing
- In-time Q&A capabilities
- Text generation
- Translations
How to Create a Planner in Notion
There are a couple different ways to create a planner using Notion depending on your wants and needs. Are you focused on flexibility and collaborative capabilities? Or are you more concerned with aesthetics and organization? Whatever the case, you’ll have to choose which type of Notion planner you want to create:
- Block-Type Planner
- Database-Driven Planner
Block-Type Planner
If you’re more interested in a clean aesthetic for your planner, a block design may be the way to go. With this type of planner, you can create columns underneath headings for each day of the week and populate a list within each. At the end of the week, you can either delete the items and create new ones or create an entirely new list with a template button.
A block design planner is a great choice for simple tasks and deadlines. It’s easy to create and manage, and it offers a nice, clean aesthetic. On the downside, these planners aren’t as flexible and don’t have as many features as a database design.
Database-Driven Planner
Database planners are a bit more complex, which means you enjoy more features and customizability, too. If you need to use Notion as a planner for a more complicated project, these features can help simplify processes and elevate your strategies. Some of these features include:
- Different planner views
- Filtering & sorting capabilities
- Formulas & conditions
- Relations to other databases
Using Notion as a Planner and Everything Else, Too
There are plenty of creative tools out there for you to leverage, and Notion is one of the best for many reasons. For starters, it isn’t just a planner; it’s a full-service project management solution for individuals and businesses of all sizes alike. All the Notion productivity tools and resources you need will be housed on one cohesive platform, so you can save time and energy from day to day.
Using Notion to Write
In addition to planning projects, you can execute them in Notion with their docs and notes. From meeting notes to assets to pitch decks and everything in between, Notion Docs helps you go beyond text to communicate effectively about any project.
Leverage key Docs resources like:
- Charts
- Code snippets
- Comments & collaboration
- Company wikis
- Images & videos
- Integrations for Figma, GitHub, etc.
- Simple document storage
- Table of contents
- Toggles
- 50+ content building blocks
Using Notion to Organize
With Notion wikis, you can centralize every facet of your business with ease and keep everyone organized and on the same page. Notion’s simplistic interface makes it easy to stay organized no matter how fast you grow. Plus, you’ll be able to find the information you need within seconds with their powerful filters and intuitive designs.
How Slam Uses Notion to Plan & Manage Projects
Notion is also capable of tracking and managing projects of all sizes. Slam uses Notion as a project management tool in many different ways—from internal meeting notes to complete project management, you can bet there’s a Notion template involved. One of our newer Notion resources is our SEO Content Writing Guide Template, which helps clients rank #1 for their top keywords.
Need to make a website in the first place? The Notion Website Template helps keep you organized and guides you through every step of the process. Our Go-to Market Strategy Template is another great tool to have on hand if you’re in the midst of a product launch as well as our Agency Meeting Template and Notion Content Creation template for ongoing tasks
All of our Notion resources exist to make planning and executing business strategies as simple and straightforward as possible, and we’ve barely scratched the surface on the many templates and resources you can use to plan and execute any strategy with ease.
Using Notion as a Planner is a Breeze with Slam
From helping with how to start an agency to organizing your personal life, Notion is the all-in-one planner you need. That’s why Slam uses it! As a growing digital marketing agency that focuses on brand strategy and identity, content writing and strategy, SEO, and webflow design and development, we count on productivity tools like Notion to keep everything running smoothly.
In fact, Notion touches nearly every corner of our business. We’ve built a comprehensive company wiki and continuously create assignment trackers, store meeting notes, and manage projects from start to finish—and so can you! We offer a variety of products and resources for you to leverage for any personal project, business endeavor, or anything in between. Moreover, you can stay in the know about relevant topics, tips, and tricks with the Slam blog.
Ready to get started? Contact our team to start collaborating on your next project, and enjoy high-impact web design, content marketing, creative services, and SEO solutions tailored to your needs.
In the meantime, stay on top of every endeavor with these Slam resources:
- Craft a Nonprofit Marketing Plan that Slams [Guide + Examples]
- Start a Digital Marketing Agency [Business Plan + Documents + 20 Templates]
- Slam’s Guide to How to Start a Content Writing Agency with Pre-Made Templates
- How to Start a Consulting Agency in 6 Actionable Steps [Templates + Course]
- How to Start a Google Ads Agency: 13 Essentials You’ll Need [Course & 20+ Templates]
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