Hi friend,

It’s been a minute since we spoke. Just returned from a summer adventure in Europe last week—Lots of eating, photography and family time.

And now it’s time to get back to work.

Over the last few months, I met dozens of really interesting coaches, consultants and aspiring solopreneurs.

During these mini-coaching calls, we talked about their Notion and productivity struggles, and where they would like to be in 90 days. And I got a ton of great insight.

Some of them were already using Notion (but wasn’t maximising it’s full potential), some were using a mash up of tools (e.g. Apple notes with Google Tasks) and some were not using anything at all!

These calls helped me uncovered the one big question you gotta ask yourself when deciding whether it’s time for you to level up your digital tool kit to take your personal productivity and business to the stage.

💡 Today at a glance

• The one big question to ask yourself when deciding if it’s worth the pain of swapping tools.

• Who is Notion for and not for?

• 3 tips to make change less painful

When it comes to digital tools, we all pick something easy when we first start out (e.g. Evernote, OneNote, Apple Notes, Google docs).

At some point we start to experience some friction with the tools and we think about changing the tools we use.

But change is hard and time consuming (that’s why change management is a field of it’s own!)

When you think about changing from Evernote to Notion or Google docs to Notion… it sounds a bit painful. So you want to make sure you get a big return on investment on your time and effort!

The One Big Question

Everyone has a tipping point for making the change worth while.

This question will help you uncover it.

The mini-coaching calls quickly confirmed something I already knew:

Notion is not for everyone.

Here are just a few examples of what I mean:

• A newly minted coach has found the simplicity of Apple Notes has been enough to keep track of ideas and notes

• A health coach has found Google Sheets sufficient to track their clients’ diet and exercise stats, and share that with their clients, even if it’s not the prettiest thing.

• A 9-5er building a side hustle has found using Trello’s kanban board to track their tasks the quick way to get started (especially when they’re starting with no system at all!)

Do you see a common pattern?

The bespoke tools all do one thing pretty well, but they will struggle to be an all-in-one tool (if that’s what you’re looking for in the long term).

What you gain in upfront ease, you lose in long term flexibility, power and leverage.

So who is Notion for?

If you want to leverage the power of Notion, unfortunately you need to invest a bit of upfront time and effort.

So knowing who it’s for is really important to avoid wasting time tool-switching.

The mini-coaching calls confirmed who I think Notion can really help:

• People who want an integrated and customised system that works for them, and are willing to put in a bit of time and effort at the beginning so they get the long term reward of efficient systems at the end.

• People who benefit from having some structure, especially if they struggle to focus and be productive, or have ADHD (Marie Poulin has shared how Notion has helped her as someone with ADHD)

• Early stage solopreneurs who are serious about turning their time into dollars, which means getting serious about tracking things like tasks, projects, clients, meeting notes etc.

• Expert coaches and consultants who are getting busier with more clients and projects, and their lack of organisation is now starting to catch up to them. They’re experiencing more stress, overwhelm and anxiety from their messy and disconnected systems (or there lack of).

• Expert coaches and consultants who are thinking about hiring an assistant or outsourcing work to contractors as they can’t keep up with their business expanding. Without good documentation or systems, it’s impossible to hire help effectively.

Notion can become your all-in-one workspace so that you’re spending time on things that matter, boost your personal productivity and stop you wasting time tool hopping.

(by the way, this is something I’ve helped coaches, consultants and soloprenuers do)

Notion is a connector tool

Notion’s mission is to become “your everything app”, the one tool that lets you build and connect anything together.

It’s a lofty goal (especially amongst all the digital tool competition out there).

It’s free, has a ton of in-built features, connects to with dozens of external apps and is so simple (though maybe not easy) to get started for any solo-business.

But the one big Notion superpower that beginners avoid but is a must-know?

Databases.

It gives you the power of linking your information to action.

Here are a two practical examples:

• Linking your learnings to sharing your thought leadership through content creation

• Linking your client meeting notes to tasks that you need to execute after a meeting

Fear of databases

From my calls, I noticed there was a lot fear about using Notion databases.

Whether it’s the perceived complexity, or not knowing how to build them effectively.

I totally understand that.

When I first started using Notion 5+ year ago, I felt the same. It felt overwhelming and complicated. But trust me, it’s worth your time investment!

Building effective database has allowed me to design systems in Notion (for myself and my clients) based on the Slow Productivity, Deep Work and World Without Email principles that Cal Newport shares in his books.

Systems helps be more productive, focused and spend time on things that truly matter.

It reduces the overwhelm and stress of juggling work, family and hobbies.

Three tips to make the change less painful

1. Don’t try to migrate everything over from your old tool to the new

Start with a blank slate and copy over just want you need. The information still still exist in your old tool if you need it.

Treat your old tool as your archive.

2. Get clear on why the change is needed for a better life and business

It will mentally help you power through the difficult emotions you might feel during the change process.

Here are a few more questions to think about:

1. Is your old way of organising things causing you friction?

2. Is the change needed to turn your side business into your full time gig?

3. Have you outgrown your existing tool because you’re trying to do something that it can’t really handle?

3. Find a guide

There is no shortage of videos, articles and courses to help you with implementing a new digital tool in your life or business. All it takes is some time and effort on your part to self-learn and experiment.

If you’re strapped for time, the quickest and lowest friction way is to hire a coach or consultant to help you make the smooth transition.

It will cut the learning curve and reduce the time and effort on your part to get a system up and running.

(If you’re looking for some help, tips or advice with changing over to Notion, just reply to this email, I’m happy to help or point you in the right direction)

I hope this helps you to figure out if it’s time to graduate from the tools you’re using right now, into a better tool that serves your life and business goals.

🛠️ First step to your dream workspace

A couple of months back, I ask you (my readers) if you were interested to learn how to work clean and productively in Notion. A bunch of you said yes! (thanks!)

Between your yes’s and what I learned from the dozens of mini-coaching calls I did, it sounds like there’s some real value in creating this email course.

Over the coming month or two, I’ll be working on creating just that for you.

Show your the first 5 simple steps to design your dream workspace in Notion.

Why?

I want to help you:

• Clean up your workspace in under 30 minutes.

• Unlock access to your most important information in seconds.

• Regain more time to actually run your business with an efficient system you enjoy using (Even if you’ve struggled with a productivity systems in the past)

Join the waitlist today so you don’t miss out when it drops.

You’ll be part of a special group of people who’ll get early access to the course, shape the course content, and access to a live workshop I’m planning to do exclusively for waitlisters during this time🙂 

That’s it! Thanks for reading.

Just one more thing, if you use Notion but have not tried using databases, or struggle to use it effectively, hit reply and tell me about it—I love to help, no strings attached!

Have a slow week!

Janice

📌 Noteworthy

The Rise of the Solopreneur: Harnessing Technology for Success

Digital tools like Notion and ChatGPT are making breaking out of a 9-5 for coaches and consultants easier than before. That's the power of leveraging technology to run your own business.

→ Read the article

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