How Notion made me and my team more efficient
It seems rather obvious that meetings should have a clear goal and visible minutes for all participants. It also seems evident that, when something is being determined, there has to be someone who makes a final decision. This, after taking everything the team has set forth into consideration. Or that, at least, there has to be an explicit methodology for the decision-making process to be efficient. However, as unbelievable as it may seem, what I have encountered throughout my professional career and in my experience within different cultures and working methodologies, is that these seemingly obvious procedures are actually quite uncommon. Indeed, teams that have put these methodologies-and others- into practice and that have internalized these ways are the exception to the rule.
Unfortunately, all this has a detrimental effect on our productivity. ‘So…what did we resolve last time?’, ‘does anyone know where this or that is?’, ‘I couldn’t make it to the meeting and I don’t really know how to get up-to-date’, are sentences that are frequently heard within these environments. I, for one, as I am far from perfect, often find myself falling into these patterns despite making conscious efforts not to, because acquiring habits that support efficiency is hard! We waste valuable time arguing about the same stuff over and over again, or when we arrive at a meeting with the intention to make a decision without having prepared the necessary information beforehand. But do not despair, for there is hope for everyone! Many times, this happens because of the mental effort that goes with thinking stuff like ‘where do I take notes?’, ‘where is that email I need with the minutes of the last meeting?’, ‘where is that presentation? I better ask John to explain everything to me’. Fortunately, there are certain tools that help us make this process easier.
Notion: the tool that marks a turning point
One tool that changed my life is Notion. Notion can be used for almost anything and, the more I use, the more advantage I take from it and the more I discover its benefits. This app allows you to create wikis, boards, lists, tables, roadmaps, calendars, managing tasks, creating text documents integrating all said functions, programming reminders within tasks and files, and the lists goes on and on; everything in an organized and clear way. Besides, it is extremely easy and intuitive, but I can assure you that you will never stop finding hidden functions as you use it. For me, Notion must be the main guide, like the user manual, in which you can find all information, utensils and guidelines necessary to move around all the information you need for your work, in every sense, from general company information to the most specific task. As we go through the different problems teams usually face, I will be showing you how I use Notion to prevent difficulties. It must be noted that there are limitations for the agile methodology, for which other tools like JIRA and Clubhouse offer more possibilities, but Notion does allow task management.
Efficient and useful meetings: how Notion helps
One of the topics that more commonly harm productivity are ineffective meetings. This can happen for many reasons:
- Many meetings aren’t necessary.
- By the end of the meeting, agreements and actionables aren’t clear, and notes on the conclusions aren’t written down.
- Participants are more than is required with the intention of letting ‘everyone know’, while actually, what would be ideal is for truly indispensable people to go, and for the visibility to be made available for everyone.
- They take time, wasting time from your calendar.
- They last longer than they should, because participants don’t arrive with the asynchronous necessary work.
Many meetings can be replaced by asynchronous work, since they imply simpler conversations. We should avoid meetings in which discussion and work can be carried out in a precise manner through the document that is being worked on. For example, Notion allows you to create documents in which we can post comments, insert tables, calendars, etc. Additionally, we can always attach a link to go to any online document.
As for the second aspect, the first advice is to have a specific section in which to take notes on the meetings. For instance, for the project AGJ3 I have a specific section called Meeting Notes in which I save the meetings’ minutes. In this section, I can create a list that will allow me to create pages in an orderly fashion.
Within every page, different properties can be added, like people, dates or numbers, among many others. For instance, you can tick who did or didn’t take part in the meeting, and who took notes.
Having all the information from the meeting in the same place, the whole team knows where to look for so as to catch up, without the need of everyone being there. For that same reason, it’s important that the whole team has automatic access to everything corresponding to their crew. This can be done by sharing the parent section or folder of the used documents. Also, a company workspace can be created for everyone to have full and complete access. Likewise, for the meeting not to last longer than it should, it is essential to have a context and guidelines for the meeting, be it on the same page, Meeting Notes, or in complementary files.
Work documentation: Notion also solves this problem
What is the company’s organization chart? Where do I find information about vacations? What are the project definitions? Where do I organize my tasks? Where do I find the project’s roadmap? While there are specialized platforms for managing organizational charts and company objectives, such as 7geese, or for managing tasks and projects, Notion allows you to have everything in the same place in a simple and orderly way. If you use Slack to communicate with your team members, ideally all the definitions of the conversations should always be documented in the corresponding file in Notion. Both email and conversations via Slack or other media should only be used for discussion and notification, but not for storing relevant information.
An example of use: For the ABCD project we can have a roadmap, role definition, working documents, meeting notes, task board, wikis and tools, etc. In addition, in the organization’s folder there is documentation on the work methodology, interesting readings, course and training guides, and even the very definition of Notion’s structure and Google drive. Notion has everything to make your work and productivity easier.
Personal home: first thing I see when the day starts
Many times, we are overwhelmed with all the things we have to do and that we have in our head. Maybe we are working on several projects at once, or one with many tasks and unfinished tasks. In order to be more efficient, the best thing to do is to write down absolutely everything. Even the smallest tasks that we can’t solve at the moment. This way we take the weight off our shoulders worrying that we might forget something; we can clearly visualize all the tasks and prioritize and organize our day and week. Notion lets you organize everything to your liking. For example, you can create a “personal home” page where you can quickly access tables of tasks, reminders, and so on. The best thing is that you can link everything from other pages that you share with your team. So, for instance, if you work with several different teams, where each one has its own board, you can link everything to your own page and you can see everything in the same place. On your page you can not only put tasks, but everything that is relevant for you to have at hand. I even have my personal to do list, and so I can clear all the mental load in one place. Here are some examples of how to set up your personal home. In addition, Notion offers many templates for you to get inspired and also to use as it is.
Personal folder for notes and drafts
This has also been wonderful for me since I started using Notion. We don’t always take notes or work directly in the folders shared with the team. There are times when we first write or work on our personal notes and then make a fair copy and later share it. Before Notion, I would use a tiny notebook sometimes, sometimes a Google doc, etc. It was very easy for things to get messy, despite the efforts to keep everything organized. With Notion, that’s over for me. I have an easily accessible folder (you can link it from your personal home) where I jot down ideas that come up in conversations, or in the middle of a job, etc. Everything always stays in the same place and I can easily make fair copies and delete what I don’t use. Strongly recommended.
All updates and reminders: notifications that let me keep up to date.
In Notion, we often tag colleagues in tasks, in documentations that are important for them to read, in comments, etc. Fortunately, so that we don’t miss out on anything that we need to be aware of, notion has a notifications section where you can quickly get to the content that is important for you to see. Even if you get tagged in something important but can’t check it out at the moment, you can create a reminder right there and write it down. I also recommend writing it down on your task board.
Reminders are very useful, since there are certain things that you have to do at certain times. For example, sending a recurring minute, sharing a report, etc. To do so, you can create one or several reminders in the same task, and Notion will alert you so that you don’t forget.
The unthinkable: reports in Notion
Monthly or quarterly reports, which are more formal reports, can also be worked with on Notion. The best part is that you can work on them collaboratively, and then publish them on the web to share them. This creates a link that allows you to spread it to all the people involved who need to see the report. It’s a very easy and neat approach. As you have already seen, Notion is very versatile to do anything you can think of.
Working with members from other organizations
When working with clients, as with consultancy services, it is likely that they use different apps for everything. My recommendation is to share Notion folders or pages with them, so they can access relevant contentes and collaborative documents. As Notion is easy to use, they probably will have no problem adopting the use of the tool.
Working with members from other teams
Within the same organization, it’s ideal to use the same support tools. Many times, a project requires the interaction of several teams, and it is extremely hindering for every team to use a different app. Some use Trello, others Asana, others Monday, etc, which is why tasks or minutes from the meetings, for instance, are all scattered. To review updates, comments, and other things, you must ask constantly, the story is lost, and you waste time once again. Personally, I believe it is crucial for the productivity of a company to choose its work tools properly, and let every team partake.
Final thoughts
It’s worth noting that tools by themselves are not enough: we could get familiar with and use every tool we can find (though I believe this is actually a less is more scenario), but this is pointless if we don’t build the habit of actually using them, and if we do not continuously look for ways to take full advantage from them. Undeniably, it is fundamental that we find the tool that best suits ours and our team’s needs and that we make the most out of it so as to improve efficiency in the workplace.
