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You’ve been sitting in front of your computer since 9am. It’s now 4pm, and that project you’ve been working on has changed from 0 words to 10 words. It’s looking dismal. The bright (but semi-depressing) side is that you’re not alone. According to a recent Microsoft study, humans now have an attention span of around 8 seconds. That’s less than a goldfish–yikes. This also means that we need to find new ways to keep our attention spans in check and on board. One solution we’ve found? Using Notion for productivity.
How do we know that Notion works as a peak productivity tool? It’s because we use it on a daily basis. As a remote, fast-paced digital agency in San Francisco, we at Slam Media Lab depend on Notion to align on goals, keep each other accountable on our tasks, store documents, log meeting notes, and manage communication with clients. It’s one of the tools that have helped us grow into a $2M agency in three years.
Now, we want to share the love. In this article, we’ll be covering how you can optimize your workflow by using Notion for productivity, overviewing topics like:
- What is Notion?
- How does Notion help with productivity?
- How do you use Notion productivity templates?
- Why use Slam’s Notion productivity templates?
You can also check out the products & resources we’ve built, including a whole lot of Notion templates, so you don’t have to create anything from scratch and make your team work at peak efficiency in no time.
What is Notion?
By now, you’ve probably at least heard of Notion, but when faced with comparing tools like Notion vs. Asana, Notion vs. Confluence, Notion vs. Monday, Notion vs. Todoist, Notion vs Goodnotes, and other competitor project management tools, the question becomes what exactly is Notion and why it is the optimal choice.
Notion is a versatile workspace that offers various solutions for helping to improve organization and productivity. It offers access to a moldable, omnichannel digital workroom where you can seamlessly consolidate your productivity efforts in your own unique way. This means that multiple team members can be a part of one Notion workspace. Think of it like Google Drive meets a tool like Asana, where you can see changes live, share docs, and be on top of your sprints.
With its customizable interface and robust features, Notion offers users a dynamic platform to capture, refine, and execute their ideas confidently. At its core, Notion provides a flexible structure for organizing information, allowing users to create databases, pages, and organized groups to reflect their unique thought processes and workflows.
For example, Notion pages can be used to create shared documents where managers can invite team members to contribute and review creative ideas, current tasks, or even future goals. Alternatively, users can also create their own pages where they can organize overarching goals, daily tasks, and project progress in a way that makes sense for your creative process.
This flexibility enables individuals and teams to tailor Notion to their specific needs, whether brainstorming new ideas, planning projects, or tracking progress on tasks.
The beauty of Notion lies in its sandbox style that encourages experimentation, personalization, and a curiosity to use the platform in a way that makes sense to you. One of Notion's key strengths lies in its ability to seamlessly integrate various types of content. Users can combine text, images, files, links, and even embedded multimedia to create rich, multimedia documents that capture the essence of their ideas.
How Does Notion Help with Productivity?
When you first dive into Notion, it can be difficult to see where to begin amidst the labyrinth of possibilities. However, this is normal!
Notion is designed to be fluid and customizable, and it may take some time to get used to its unique functionality. After some time with a few templates and clicking around the site, you will begin to get a feel for how it works and all of the ways in which you can get creative with its different features.
According to experts, one of the main challenges that both individuals and organizations face is the proper utilization of digital tools. In many cases, productivity can suffer due to the use of too many different tools. Bouncing back and forth between various applications while trying to use each one appropriately can harm creativity and productivity.
One of the most important ways that Notion can help is its ability to enhance productivity by streamlining workflows and reducing communication bottlenecks. With all communication channels integrated into a single platform, teams can easily switch between different modes of communication based on the context of their tasks, eliminating the need to juggle multiple tools and interfaces.
At Slam, we use Notion as our main workspace and hub, but it took a lot (like hundreds of hours a lot) to get there. We don’t want you to have to go through that. That’s why we created templates like our Notion Wiki Template, which has everything you need–from sprint templates to individual trackers–to start your team on Notion.
Task Management
Task management is a fundamental feature of Notion. It provides a centralized platform where you can create, prioritize, and monitor your to-do lists, projects, and deadlines in a way that makes sense to you.
By utilizing Notion's task management tools, users can streamline their workflow, collaborate effectively with team members, and ensure that nothing falls through the cracks. Understanding this core feature empowers newcomers to harness the full potential of Notion and optimize their productivity from day one. You can also check out our Notion Task List Template to use Notion for checking off that neverending to-do list.
Why Do You Need Notion Productivity Templates?
Research has consistently demonstrated that productivity tools like Notion can significantly enhance both creativity and productivity. In a 2023 study done by Taliang et. al, researchers found that by providing users with structured frameworks and customizable workflows, these tools empower individuals to organize their thoughts, ideas, and tasks in a systematic manner. This organization, in turn, reduces cognitive load and frees up mental space for creative thinking.
How Do You Use Notion Productivity Templates?
There are quite literally thousands of ways you can use Notion for productivity with pre built templates, from project organization to social media planning and documentation templates:
- Tracking and Reviewing
- Project Organization
- Content Creation
- Organize Personal Tasks
- Vision Boards
Tracking and Reviewing
In Notion, tracking and reviewing mechanisms serve as invaluable tools for organizing projects and long-term commitments. By utilizing databases, calendars, and customizable views, users can meticulously monitor project progress, deadlines, and milestones.
These features enable individuals to maintain a comprehensive overview of their endeavors, and the ability to adjust priorities and ensure alignment with overarching goals. Moreover, Notion's collaborative capabilities facilitate seamless communication and feedback exchange, fostering a culture of collaboration and continuous improvement.
Project Organization
Organizing projects and managing long-term commitments efficiently is paramount for sustained productivity and success. Utilizing a structured approach can streamline workflows, ensure clarity, and help you maintain forward progress. Here are essential steps and strategies for effectively managing projects and commitments:
These considerations can be applied directly to our Notion Task List Template, helping you to concretize your tasks and ensure that you and your team are fully armed with the materials and background information needed to comprehensively complete your daily tasks.
Additionally, you can utilize the Notion Feedback Template in combination with a daily task dashboard to create a centralized hub for providing constructive criticism and guidance as you and your team progress through your daily tasks. Using these two templates can help to consolidate the feedback and task completion channels, helping you to stay on top of the progress of each task that is on your plate while keeping all related communication channels organized appropriately.
Content Creation
The pain points of content creators are all too familiar: scattered ideas, disjointed workflows, and a constant struggle to maintain organization amidst the chaos. Slam Media Lab recognizes these challenges and has developed a Notion Content Creation Template designed to help content creators streamline the planning and organization of both static and video content across various platforms. With this tool, users can create a dedicated calendar for posting, complete with the ability to make notes, attach files, and more.
Slam Media Lab's Social Media Planner Notion template is a game-changer for content creators and social media managers navigating the ever-evolving landscape of digital marketing. With trends constantly evolving across platforms, staying productive and creative can feel like an uphill battle.
Organize Personal Processes, Procedures, and Archives
Slam Media Lab's Documentation Template offers a transformative solution for organizing documentation and standard operating procedures (SOPs), significantly enhancing productivity for individuals and teams alike. In today's fast-paced work environment, having a centralized repository for essential documents and procedures is paramount for efficiency and collaboration. This template provides a structured framework for categorizing and storing documents, ensuring easy access and retrieval when needed.
Whether it's onboarding new team members, troubleshooting technical issues, or maintaining compliance with industry regulations, having standardized documentation readily available can expedite processes and minimize errors. With designated sections for different types of documents, such as policies, guidelines, and manuals, users can quickly locate relevant information without sifting through cluttered folders or email threads.
Vision Boards
Vision boards function as a helpful way to organize and channel those big plans and creative ideas into the real world. They provide a tangible representation of your vision for a particular project or idea, serving as a focal point for motivation and inspiration. Slam Media Lab's vision board template offers a structured framework to solidify abstract creative ideas, providing a dedicated space to nurture aspirations and plant your creative seeds.
The act of creating and regularly engaging with a vision board fosters a sense of ownership and accountability, empowering individuals to take proactive steps toward realizing their goals. As you fill in the template with images, notes, affirmations, and specific objectives, you can reinforce your commitment to your creative vision, fostering a mindset geared towards success and fulfillment.
Our vision board templates serve as a dynamic tool for goal-setting, visualization, and manifestation, providing a framework for transforming dreams into actionable plans and, ultimately, better productivity.
Improving Productivity With Slam’s Notion Productivity Templates
Integrating new tools into your business doesn’t have to be hard. We want to help people have easier workdays through Notion productivity tools because we know how beneficial it has been for our agency’s success. With our Notion templates (which we use on the daily), we’ve helped over 30 businesses scale to new heights, and we’re passionate about helping you reach your highest potential.
Want more Notion templates for your workflow? Here ya go!
- Notion Vision Board Template
- Notion Go-to-Market Strategy Template
- Notion Agency Meeting Template
- Notion Assignment Tracker Template
- Notion Company Wiki Template
- Notion Content Creation Template
- Notion Documentation Template
- Notion Feedback Template
- Notion Meeting Notes Template
- Notion Social Media Planner Template
- Notion Sprint Template
- Notion Task List Template
- Notion Website Template
- Notion Website Launch Checklist
