Everybody keeps talking about Notion Planner? What the heck is that, you say?
The Notion Platform lets you collaborate, annotate, store, search, generate and manage tasks, documents, workflows, and information. It can be used by an individual or as a team. The company also describes it as a toolbox of essential building blocks to let you manage work and life in whatever way you find most useful.
Notion combines many aspects of tools into one product like email, document editors, databases, task management, and much more.
You can do a lot with Notion, but does it prove its ability to multitask? It helps to have a reason to use it. You may already have tools for your business planning, but what if you could reduce how many devices you use? What if you could only use one platform, Notion, to do all the tasks that you used to do with three tools? That is the problem Notion is trying to solve.
Who is Notion?
Notion is headquartered in San Francisco. When the pandemic hit 2020, Notion skyrocketed from 2 million users in 2019 to 20 million users by October 2021. Eighty percent of their users are outside of the United States. Their team grew from 40 to 200, and they are currently valued at $10 billion. Notion's primary competition comes from Microsoft Teams, followed by Slack.
Pricing
There is a free personal version of Notion to organize every corner of your life. You get unlimited pages and blocks, and you can share with five guests.
Personal Pro is $4 per month when billed annually and includes unlimited file uploads, unlimited guests, and a 30-day trial version. The next level is team which is $8 per user per month when billed annually and includes collaborative workspaces, sharing permissions, and admin tools. There also is an Enterprise version with advanced security and controls, and a dedicated success manager, which you contact sales for pricing.
Each version includes web, desktop, mobile apps, and a web clipper. All versions also have many starter templates. While there is no support for the free version, the Reddit community provides guides and tutorials.
Get Ready
The Notion Platform combines elements of Microsoft Teams, Google Docs, and project management apps like Asana and Trello, Evernote, and OneNote. Notion is based on a writing model, like wiki and Google Docs, but without the confusing and often hectic communication in chat via Teams or Slack. The Notion does not have a conversation, video, or audio calls like Microsoft Teams or Slack, though you can integrate with Slack.
Sign up for a free account to see whether Notion would work for you or your firm. You can use it through any browser or install the download to your computer. The Notion also has an IOS and Android versions as well.
How to Get Started With Notion
Go to Notion and add a page once your tools are in place. You can give the page a title and then start typing. You can add formatting like headings and bullets. You can add comments, or other users can comment.
Each page has blocks or sections. In addition to text-based content, you can create a table. Tables are like spreadsheets or databases, like Microsoft Lists. You can also add a Kanban-style board, a calendar, a timeline, images, video, audio, or embed a link to a document or upload a document from your computer. You can also add a to-do list.
Notion has database elements like boards, lists, timelines, tables, galleries, and lists. These elements can be duplicated, shared, saved as their page, and locked. Each aspect is highly configurable, and you can filter, sort, and search them. You can also create custom views.
You can create pages and sub-pages and organize them any way you like them to appear in the left column. You can also link pages and sub-pages to each other.
Anytime you need to see your options, you can type the "/" (forward slash), and the menu pops up. You can tag content or use the @ symbol to add deadlines to any text, call out a person or call attention to another page.
Templates
You can get some ideas and some help with templates. In the left column of the Notion interface, click "Templates." There are no templates for legal professionals but marketing, human resources, sales, or personnel. Under the "Other" templates, you will find samples for docs, team homes, team tasks, and a task list. You can choose any template and edit it to your liking.
If trying the free version of Notion, look at the personal templates. You can add task lists, a journal, goals, a travel planner, a habit tracker, a weekly schedule, or others.
Do you want to create a task list? You can pick the Task List template. The default view is a Kanban board configuration, but if you prefer an index, just go to "View" and choose "List." You can toggle between the Board view and the List view. You can also add a Calendar view.
When you add a new task, you can give it a title and add additional fields or properties. You can add a due date, assignments, drop-down menus, files, and as many as you like! You can also add comments with attachments.
You can organize where your task list is located. You can share it with others, look at the page history, export it as HTML or PDF, connect it to a Slack channel, and much more.
If you are already using tools like Google Docs or Word, or if you have a CSV file, you can import them as a page. Just open a new page, click the ellipses at the top right, and choose "Import."
In general, Notion Planner is an excellent All-In-One choice for your business because it lets you collaborate, annotate, store, search, generate and manage tasks, documents, workflows, and information, all from one platform.
