The Wonderful World of Notion.

Adopting a Notion Lifestyle

Growing up I watched old reruns of Shell's Wonderful World of Golf, a televised series of golf matches that began in the 1960s. Sponsored by Shell Oil, it featured challenge matches between pairs of professional golfers. What struck me most about the series was the opening video in some episodes that announced the title "Shell's Wonderful World of Golf" by showing a golfer hitting out of a bunker. This always made me laugh because how could it be a *wonderful world* if you are hitting out of a bunker? Bunkers are a problem!

But then I had an epiphany. If I could get to a place where I was confident I could solve any problem on the golf course, including hitting out of a bunker, what a wonderful world it would be.

Almost 6 years ago I migrated from Evernote to Notion.?Notion has been a game changer for me, both in my professional career and in my personal life. When I realized that Notion had enabled me to solve any problem that would surface, for some reason it took me back to that vision of the golfer hitting out of the bunker.??

In this article, I'll explain why Notion sets itself apart from the other software tools I've used in the past. To be transparent and with full disclosure, I am not employed by Notion and have not been compensated by any commercial references in this article. All content is original and has not been created or refined with AI.

Prologue

I don't remember how I came across Notion, but what I do recall at the time is feeling increasingly frustrated that my personal productivity tools were not making my life easier, and were becoming more of a cumbersome daily chore. Balancing work and life, managing recurring tasks and events, and organizing an endless list of todo tasks rather than the actual execution of them.?I had made countless transitions before to what I felt was the next best solution: Lotus Notes, Sharepoint, Evernote, box, Onenote, Dropbox, Asana, Google Docs all in pursuit of a solution that could overcome these challenges.?Would Notion now be the solution for me?

When I first started using Notion, it felt strangely safe to experiment and customize the environment. It was too easy.?The typical learning curve and conversion over to this new lifestyle wasn’t evident.?It is built to enable ”*launch and learn*” iteration and refinement in a straightforward and fluid manner.?Notion technology exudes a culture of sharing and transparency built right in with its databases and templates, which made me feel that the people behind Notion were kindred spirits in helping us all improve our lives. Little did I know the adventure I was about to embark on. In my experience of use, Notion has become the viable "no code" platform that legitimately can be single hub of activity and integrate with just about anything. I quickly discovered this can be both a strength and a risk that needs to be mitigated.??

Below, I highlight some of the core benefits I achieved in adopting what I describe as a “Notion Lifestyle”.

Flexibility

Notion is a powerful tool that enterprises can use to streamline their operations. By combining applications used for Finance, Sales, Marketing, and Product Management into a single hub, businesses can save time and resources. Notion's basic templates offer users the flexibility to customize and add features as needed. Teams can work collaboratively on projects, tasks, and calendars in real-time, regardless of their physical location even while these changes are being implemented.

Throughout my professional journey, I have transitioned from Fortune 100 corporate roles to becoming a startup entrepreneur, a fractional CIO, and an advisor. Notion has been a reliable tool for seamlessly integrating my experiences and content into new operating roles. It has allowed me to preserve all of my valuable information and knowledge, while still making it accessible and shareable. One example of this is the ability to directly bookmark through a browser extension. While this capability is common today, I now have a decade-long chronology of web postings that are meaningful to me and provide a historical encyclopedia that I can actually leverage in my career.

Spoiler Alert: If implementing Notion in the Enterprise with your Team, create Team Workspaces around your Operating Mechanisms (meeting, events, processes) and Projects that reflect the appropriate access controls.?Contact me (below) if you’d like to brainstorm.

Customizability

Notion takes personalization and customization to meteoric heights. In the past, software forced me to change my habits and fit into its paradigm. However, Notion is different. Due to its database-centric and template-sharing framework, Notion rapidly helped me organize my design thinking while, at the same time, refine and tweak as adjustments became necessary. The end result is that there is no end result other than a reduction in stress, because one is "building to change, not building to last."

One aspect that is enduring is that features and capabilities of the core Notion product are not retired; they are leveraged to create new capabilities. As a result, there appears to be limited technical debt that limits recurring innovation.?A recent example is the introduction of Notion AI, which has been effortlessly and virally adopted with recurring rollouts over the last few weeks and months.

Spoiler Alert: Be careful that the pendulum doesn’t swing too far in making endless refinements.?I now restrict my refinements to a monthly review of my various databases and templates.?Also, checkout the diverse and comprehensive templates at Notion and on Gumroad.

Automation

One of the things that I appreciate about technology is its potential to automate tasks. Personally, I find it useful to integrate my Notion workspaces with various tools to achieve this. Here are a few examples of how I use this automation:

• One of the ways that I benefit from automation is by capturing important emails from my different inboxes and adding them to my Actions list. This is particularly useful when I'm pressed for time and don't want to miss any important tasks.
• Another example I use automation is by adding my daily events and meetings from my Google, Outlook and Calendly calendars to my Daily Dashboard in real-time. This helps me to stay on top of my schedule and ensures that I don't double-book myself.
• I also automate recurring administrative tasks, reminders, financial obligations, wellness and health activities, social engagements, and even menus and shopping items. This not only saves me time, but also helps to reduce the chance of errors that can come from manual input. With all of these tasks and reminders automated, I can focus on more important things in my life.

Spoiler Alert: Checkout the integrations available on Zapier, as well Notion Automations and Notion Forms.

Community

Notion's large and diverse user community boosts its value and longevity. Creating and growing a vibrant community is a two-way street and has resulted in the formation of thriving ecosystem. The community is as passionate about the product as much as Notion is focused on supporting its stakeholders.

The ecosystem has created stronger end-user support and problem-solving, while its diversity has resulted in a substantial variety of third-party integrations. It also promotes the financial stability of the product, mitigating the risk that users will need to transition to another tool in the event of dwindling product investment, or worse, corporate decline or bankruptcy. Below are some valuable resources in the ecosystem I regularly access and participate in:

???Notion Support

??Notion Automations

??Twitter

??Notion Forms

???Create Web sites with Notion

?Notion Template Gallery

Conclusion

I absolutely love feeling organized, and Notion has been a valuable asset to achieve that. It has simplified life and reduced the stress, making it an essential tool for me. While I've found it easy to get carried away with creating and managing to-do lists, Notion has helped me learn that it's important to focus on actually completing tasks on my Calendar. Over the past few years, I've created and refined a set of templates that have been helpful and I enjoy sharing them. Feel free to reach out to me through the Tech is Life link below if you're interested in experimenting with them or just want to chat about how you have leveraged Notion to enhance your lifestyle or team's productivity!?If you don’t have Notion yet, just select this link ?? Try Notion.

About the Author

Jeremy is a trusted technology authority with a diverse background in life sciences, biopharma, and financial services. He has held key leadership roles at Bank of America, Amgen, McKesson, Intuit, and JP Morgan, where he has had an impact in digital transformation, technology risk management, and driving innovation.?Jeremy is known for his entrepreneurial spirit, creative thinking, servant leadership and sense of humor. He is a skilled leader in digital vision, product development and management, AI/ML, enterprise architecture, and e-commerce execution. In addition to sharing his insights as the author of the Tech is Life newsletter and mentoring startups, Jeremy provides advisory services and fractional technology leadership as a partner with Fortium Partners. When he's not working, he enjoys searching for his lost golf balls and creating his latest Notion templates.

This article is all original content with no AI input.

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