👋🏼 Hey there!
Welcome to Issue #24 of Notion Creators Weekly, where I share 1 Big Idea & ~3 Resources to help you work with more focus and intention.
Before we dive in, if you asked yourself: Wasn’t this The Manifest newsletter? You would be right!
The name change was to simply make the focus of the newsletter as clear as possible, especially for new subscribers. 😎
😶🌫️ Top of Mind: Is it time for a reset?
First off, if you’re wondering where we’ve been, my wife and I just welcomed our 2nd girl to the family; newborn + toddler is interesting!
The past few weeks have also got me thinking about resets.
My first day back online after some time off, I realized my old routine no longer worked. Apart from the obvious waking up every few hours at night, everything else is different. I’m no longer teaching (yay, summer!), which means no more commuting, and the day largely revolves around our newborn’s schedule.
But I found myself trying to maintain the same habits and routines, even though they no longer work in this new context.
That’s when I realized it was time for a reset.
Resets aren’t to be taken lightly. Reset too many times and you make it impossible to build momentum. Not resetting enough prevents optimizing what you do, when, and how.
Whether you’ve changed jobs, started your own venture, had a big life-changing event, or just feel like you’re stagnating, there are a few key actions to consider when resetting your routine:
Time block your new week. You may be surprised how much is different. Blocking the week by hour allows you to decide how much time to invest in what actions.
Clear out old projects. Still listing those projects from January as “Active”? It’s time to either complete them or move to the archive. Too many active projects can weigh you down, diluting the creativity needed to do great work on the projects that matter.
Review (or revise) goals and OKRs. If you defined goals, objectives, and/or key results at the start of the year, resets are a good time to do a full-scale review. I’m rarely still highly motivated about all of my goals by the end of the year; that’s a good thing. It means you are identifying what’s really highest priority and most motivating. Don’t be afraid to archive goals if they no longer represent your journey. Here’s a deep dive on setting up OKRs in Notion.
Schedule a time and place for weekly review. Rethinking your routine, habits, and schedule can be overwhelming, and harder to mainta. The weekly review allows for time to reflect on what’s working with your new routine, and where to make improvements. If you don’t have a weekly planning routine, check out this walkthrough.
What do you think of the topic of resetting? When is it a good time to rethink your routine? Hit reply to let me know. 🤗
💼 Notion Fundamentals for Teams with Optemization
If you’re interested in deep-dives on topics that help teams use Notion more effectively, definitely check out this series!
Events are free, and the Optemization team is comprised of some amazing minds in the productivity space.
📖 Notion for Business: The Ultimate Guide
This extensive guide from Khe Hy and Matthias Frank runs the gamut on how to set up, maintain, and operate in a team workspace. The guide is impressive, including 17 templates, 89 screenshots, 110 hours of writing, and 17,000 words.
💾 Notion for Designers from Sara Loretta
There are templates, and there’s Notion for Designers. This bundle takes premium templates to another level, putting together resources, templates, and 1:1 support in an actionable package.
Learn more about Notion for Designers
📰 Exploring the New Status Property
Notion’s board view is one of those features that — we know is critical as project managers — but brings a learning curve for users new to sprints, kanban boards, or project management in general.
I think the product team at Notion picked up on this early, because this update followed months of beta testing (and deliberation) around one key question:
What should be the default statuses for project boards?
Here’s a walkthrough of the subtle but important update:
Notion Just Made Boards Way Better with the new Status Property.
💡 Tip: Create a Web Bookmarks Page
I like to keep my web bookmarks organized, but that can be hard when you use multiple computers, browsers and operating systems. So I figured, why not just make a bookmark manager in Notion?
You can check out how it works here:
YouTube: Organize Your Web Bookmarks in Notion
And if you want to explore it further, grab the template for free!
Template: Web Bookmarks Manager
That’s it for this week!
I’d love to hear what you think. What content resonates? What do you want to see more or less of? Just hit reply to let me know!
And if you’re loving Notion Creators Weekly, tell your friends to subscribe. 😀
Until next time,
Dave