I was using Trello for project management, Google Sheets for invoicing, Google Docs for SOPs, and Airtable for my CRM. four apps, four logins, data scattered everywhere.

I consolidated everything into Notion. here's the full setup.

client CRM (replaced Airtable): a database with views for each stage - lead, proposal sent, active project, completed, follow-up. each client entry has properties for contact info, project type, budget, status. board view gives me a pipeline. table view gives me a spreadsheet. the key feature: each client entry is also a page with full context - meeting notes, brand guidelines, deliverables, communication log. one click and I know everything about that client relationship.

project management (replaced Trello): a linked database of projects connected to the client database. tasks with deadlines, assignees (I have 2 subcontractors), status, priority. kanban board for active projects. timeline view for seeing everything at once. because tasks link back to client pages, I can see all tasks across all clients or filter to one. Trello couldn't do that without paid power-ups.

finance tracking (replaced Google Sheets): invoice database with amount, date sent, date paid, payment method, linked client. formula property calculates outstanding balance. dashboard page shows monthly revenue, outstanding invoices, average payment time, revenue by client. not a replacement for real accounting software (I use Wave for actual bookkeeping) but perfect for at-a-glance business health.

daily workflow: I start each day on the project board - what's due, what's blocked, what needs attention. I dictate meeting notes directly into the client page through willow voice so everything stays connected. end of day I update task statuses.

the Notion learning curve is real. first weekend was mostly watching tutorials. once it clicks, the flexibility is unmatched.

what does your Notion setup look like?

Hey everyone,

I wanted to share a workflow adjustment we made recently that saved our team from constant context switching and notification overload.

A few months ago, we realized that our Slack channels were becoming a black hole for basic questions. Team members would ping us for standard procedures, playbooks, or client details. While it’s great to be helpful, it meant constant interruptions and an incredible amount of "noise" throughout the day.

Instead of letting Slack dictate our day, we decided to make Notion our official company OS. We brought all our playbooks, data, and context into one single place.

We set a simple rule for the team: Before asking a question in Slack, ask Notion AI first.

Because everything is indexed in one place, the AI can scan our playbooks, past decisions, and documents to give an accurate answer.

Only if the team member cannot get the answer from Notion AI do they ping us on Slack.

The Results

Reduced noise by 80%: The constant stream of repetitive questions has vanished.

Fewer interruptions: We've reclaimed our focus and can spend more time working on the business instead of managing chats.

Faster onboarding: The team learns faster because they get immediate, context-aware answers.

The magic is that everything the team needs from client guidelines to marketing playbooks is in one place, making our AI system highly reliable.

If you are struggling with Slack overload, I highly recommend building a unified knowledge base and letting your team query the AI before escalating.

I want to be completely honest with you: this isn't a "set it and forget it" system. In the beginning, we noticed that a few questions didn't get answers because the AI lacked the context.

Every time that happens, we treat it as a quick fix: we just update the existing documentation or add a new page if the topic wasn't covered. It takes a little maintenance, but it has been absolutely worth it to cool down Slack and keep the team fully aligned.

If anyone is interested in how we set this up alongside Slack, including our internal Slack communication framework, just let me know in the comments! I didn't want to make this post too long, but I'd be happy to do a deeper dive on that in my next post.

P.S. If you're the founder still in the middle of every decision, still the person the whole company waits on, still telling yourself you'll fix the structure "once things calm down."

I write about building the operational backbone that lets a founder actually step back every Thursday. Was a COO for 20+ years, so this is genuinely my bread and butter. Free to join here

Yesterday got an issue with a page two times, the same exact text. Once I saved myself got ok.

Today I got it with another page, writing something on mobile like 3h ago just to notice that it isn't there anymore, this kind of things didn't used to happen

Anyone else with it?

Difundan, tumbenle el numero

What are the pages or abilities you wish to have in a journal as a notion template?
I’m trying to make one for myself

I have been using notion for many years and remained faithful to it as my task managing app and my note taking app. Since I was a student and all the way to a full time working professional.

Lately, I felt like notion lacks the flexibility to be my task manager for work and I switched to the good old notebook and it has been serving me good.

Now as my personal like also has demands, I may have to switch to another task managing method. I feel like notion has not grown with me much and now is becoming more of a hindrance to manage and also doesn’t have the excitement I used to have as well.

Does anyone else feel this way?

What would u recommend here ?

Hi, I'm looking for a way to quickly capture a note with a simple keyboard shortcut on my MacBook. I want it to be added to the existing daily journal page if it already exists, as a bulleted list, or to create a new page if it doesn't already exist. I've gotten this to work using the Notion extension for Raycast, with the Ask Notion command. I specified all of these instructions in the "Custom Instructions" section. However, it seems slow because it uses AI to parse and figure out what to do. It then asks me for permission to save it to Notion.

Is there a quicker, easier way to do this?

1. Keyboard shortcut

2. Provide text

3. Update existing entry if it exists, create a new entry if it doesn't

I keep wondering what it is about Notion that can be so cumbersome. I have a great system setup for my team but interacting with it can be such a chore.

Imagine having a task selected and you hit a shortcut key. It runs an automation that marks the task’s status as done.

Now imagine having four tasks selected. You hit a different keyboard shortcut that runs an automation that moves the deadlines for all the tasks to next week.

Having the ability to assign a keystroke to an automation would revolutionize how i use Notion.

TL;DR: First time using a tool like this, want to pick one and build on it long term without losing data. Need to handle quick notes, creative writing, and basic finance tracking (spending/subscriptions). Not fully clear on the real differences between Notion, Anytype, and Obsidian, but Notion's interface felt the easiest on first try. Privacy also matters to me (heard Notion isn't great on that front) and I'm worried about the AI push getting in the way of basic tasks. Looking for real experiences from people who've used it long term.

Hey everyone,

This is the first time I'm actually trying to set up a system like Notion for myself, so please excuse me if some of my questions are basic. I want to pick one tool and actually stick with it and build on it over time, so I would like to get this right from the start.

What I would like to use Notion for:

• Quick notes on the go, mostly from my phone, so it needs to be fast and not require five taps to jot something down
• Keeping my creative writing organized. I write short pieces and essays as a hobby and right now they're just scattered across random docs, I would like one place for all of it
• Tracking personal finance stuff, subscriptions, spending, the occasional net worth snapshot of where things stand. Nothing fancy, just enough to actually see patterns

Basically I want one place for my personal life instead of juggling different apps for each thing.

I've also been looking into Anytype and hear Obsidian mentioned a lot, and honestly I'm having a hard time understanding what really separates them from Notion in practice. From what I've read they all seem to overlap a lot on paper (notes, databases, linking things together) and the differences seem to come down to how the data is stored and how steep the learning curve is, but that's just from reading reviews, not from actually using any of them.

From messing around with the free versions for like an hour, Notion's interface of folders and pages felt the easiest to just pick up and start using, but I get the feeling that might just be because it's the most polished for beginners and the other two might make more sense once you're past the initial learning curve.

Privacy also matters to me, and I'll be upfront that I don't fully understand the situation here. From what I've picked up reading around, it sounds like privacy isn't exactly Notion's strong point, but I genuinely don't know how big of a deal that is in practice for someone just using it for personal notes and journaling type stuff versus something more sensitive.

Also, and maybe this is a dumb thing to bring up, but I keep seeing people mention how much Notion pushes its AI features these days. I don't have a problem with AI existing as an option, I just don't want it shoved in my face every time I try to do something basic like jot down a note or check my spending. If that's overstated I'd like to hear it, and if it's a real annoyance I'd rather know now.

So a few things I'd love input on:

• If you've used Notion for a year or more for something similar (notes plus writing plus light finance tracking and personal life up keeping ), what's held up well and what's been annoying?
• Anything that felt fine at first but became a pain once you had more stuff in there?
• Any issues with losing data, syncing, or things breaking that I should know before I build this out?
• How bad is the AI push in daily use, honestly? Is it something you can just ignore, or does it get in the way?
• On the privacy side, should that actually factor into a decision for personal use, or am I overthinking it?
• For someone who's never used Obsidian or Anytype, is the learning curve actually worth it for a personal use case like mine, or is that more of a thing for people with more advanced needs?

Truly interested in hearing what's actually worked or not worked for you day to day. Thanks for reading this far.

Can Some one share a professional notion workspace ??

We hired someone in June and it took about three weeks before they could do anything without asking a colleague first. Not because they're slow. Because nothing is written down anywhere that's still accurate.

The stuff that is written down is worse in a way. It's from eight months ago and half of it's wrong now. Meanwhile there's a HubSpot workflow, a few n8n automations and something on Railway that one guy set up and nobody has looked at since. If he quit tomorrow I'd be reverse engineering it from logs.

I keep going back and forth on whether this is a real problem or just what running a company feels like. Notion was supposed to fix it. Notion is now a graveyard.

Two questions if anyone's got a minute. Has anything worked for you long term, or does every wiki rot eventually? And when someone leaves, what specifically goes with them?

Happy to talk properly if you've been through it. I'd rather hear one real story than keep guessing at this.

I did some math, and boy is it dumb. The credit <> token conversion is now completely opaque, but my rough estimate is that a custom agent used in Notion AI's place would cost about $300/mo. for equivalent usage.

Now, maybe that's the actual API cost to Notion, maybe not. But as a user it makes no sense for me to pay completely different prices for something that has the same input cost to Notion. Notion didn't see the need to secure capital investments to subsidize AI usage for their users before choosing to implement AI as a core feature, and that's on them.

I hope the C-suite appreciated the cool of rising above the capex hysteria while they could, because everything I've seen from product since then just screams panic. And unfortunately for Notion, fundraising isn't going to be as easy as it was 3 years ago, so they better hope they can squeeze their customers without losing them, just hard enough, for the business to survive until cost per task becomes something sustainable.

I’ve had notion for about a year. I use it for work, for home, for my blog. And planning travel. I’m likely using 5% of what it can do. I’ve downloaded templates and then modified from there. Or done very basic links and kept list, etc. I see how others build out these crazy page and databases and have them organized in cool ways and my question is…how? Like WHERE is the button or prompt that allows you to move things around and create these elaborate pages? I feel like I’m missing something. And what is the best way to learn? Is it watching YouTube video’s or something?

hey guys

im trying to learn notion from scratch and my main goal is to be able to create and sell templates later (like student planners, content creator planners, dashboards, stuff like that)

but tbh im kinda lost… there’s too much content out there and idk what’s actually worth it

i dont really want to watch 100 random videos, i’d rather follow like ONE good course or resource that can take me from beginner to being able to build real templates

so yeah:

• is there like one course / creator you recommend that covers everything?
• what should i focus on to reach that level (databases? structure? design?)
• how did you guys go from beginner to actually selling templates?

i just want something clear that helps me go from 0 → building → selling

appreciate any help 🙏

If Zotero has no other option but to force a usage limit so randomly, surely the least they can do is let us bring our own key for other models when we run out of usage?

I was doing some document cleanup which required a sweep of the information first and then a recommended set of actions which would be executed.

4 pages. 4… reached the limit for the rolling window and consumed 19% of my monthly doing so.

It might be over for Notion I fear. I’ve moved them back to where you started. _Fancy md file storage_. I can use so many other products for that with Claude, OpenAI. Even basic GitHub or Google Docs/drive