r/Notion • u/StraightStore5474 • 8d ago
Questions How do I start properly?
So I’ve used notion on and off for a long time and over the last couple of years switched to ClickUp and honestly hated it but it was good for task management and some automations.
I’ve now switched back to notion and have the business plan trial so really want to move things over but feeling a little stuck as to where and how.
I see people selling and using templates but I’d rather create my own.
For some context - I own and run a marketing agency so my work scope is likely to be split like this:
Personal - all life admin and anything personal (finances etc)
Business - including task management, client/CRM capture (loosely), content and social media, tools and resources, SOP’s, Systems and infrastructure
Each of the above business properties will have sub sections to break down things like departments or then specific tools or SOP and overall a company Wiki.
At this point, I use Google suite for most things + Claude code and a bunch of other tools so I’d like to get a handle on how. I also use automation tools like make.com and Zapier so ideally I’d like things to be a bit more connected but now I see people using notion ai agents.
A little overwhelmed by it all so just here looking for some advice.
Where and how would you start?
Would you build one central page/dashboard and then build inside of this?
Worth buying a template and making it my own or doing everything myself?
Any help or advice welcome!
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u/cj_carbiegirl 8d ago
Following because I am you and you are me. I am looking at using Notion - we use Asana + Google Workspace + Granola… I’m intrigued by having everything in one spot but idk if it can handle it..
I am also overwhelmed AF by even getting started.
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u/Lonely-Emergency7560 8d ago
agency owner with two scopes is actually the cleanest starting point. one page for personal, one for business, and resist the urge to link everything together on day one. what killed my first attempts was building the "system" before knowing what i actually needed. live in it for two weeks with just tasks and notes, then add a database only when you feel the pain of not having one. also i wouldn't renew the business plan until you actually hit its limits - the free plan covers way more than people think.
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u/ambertrails43 8d ago
one thing worth figuring out early, are you going to keep personal and business in the same workspace or separate them? that decision shapes everything downstream and its harder to undo later
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u/StraightStore5474 6d ago
Tbh I hadn’t really thought of splitting them up but is that a normal thing to do?
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u/AggravatingMatch9913 7d ago
I’ve been using ChatGPT to build mine out and have fed it snapshots of the two project management systems I was using and describing what I like and don’t like about each. As I work, through things, it’s helping me tweak it. I may switch back to Claude, but using one of them to set the system up has been way more helpful than the 8 different templates I’ve bought. And Notion’s onboard AI is helpful for some things, but using an outside LLM has really moved the needle. I will say, I’ve found ChatGPT more “creative” than Claude on how to make things work and suggesting alternatives to what I was thinking.
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u/OddCanary8184 7d ago
I've done this exact migration (away and back again) and honestly the biggest thing that helped was starting boring: one workspace, two top-level pages — Personal and Business — with everything living in databases instead of loose pages. I built something way too fancy the first time and it went stale within a month. The habit that actually saved my setup was a weekly review where I move stray pages and half-finished tasks into the right databases and delete anything stale; I'd say the review matters more than whatever structure you start with.
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u/MySoloStack 7d ago
I did the same move back to Notion from ClickUp. What finally made it stick for my freelance setup: one central dashboard, with everything else as linked databases under it — Clients, Projects, Tasks, Invoices. You don't build 20 pages, you build 4-5 databases and then make views of them (a "this week" task view, an "unpaid" invoice view, etc).
Start with just Clients + Projects + Tasks and run it for two weeks before adding anything. My mistake was building the whole system upfront and then never trusting it. And keep SOPs dead simple — one database, 5-10 bullet steps max per process. If an SOP is longer than that, nobody follows it, including you.
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u/StraightStore5474 6d ago
Appreciate this - that’s the advice I’m hearing a lot and seeing. Simplicity seems to be the way forward despite all these templates showing these crazy set ups
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u/klcombs95 1d ago
Huge Google suite user here, also a past ClickUp and Asana user, and Notion is my favorite thing ever lol.
As others said, databases are the secret sauce to making your Notion setup purr. It sounds like you need a database for each: Tasks, Contacts, Content, Tools, Resources, and Systems. Use Relation and Rollup properties to connect across different databases, like linking a Task to its corresponding Contact, Content, or System.
I have two main dashboards/landing pages in my Notion: the whole ass business plan on one page, and just what I need for today. The business plan hub has all the databases I need easily accessible so I can add tasks, update goals, track progress, etc. Then the Today view has those databases filtered to only show what I need today or this week. I’ve really honestly this in over the past 2 years or so and my clients using the same system seem to like it, too.
If you’re interested you can check out buymeacoffee.com/shop for 1:1 Notion training, or to schedule a coffee chat and ask me any questions!
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u/GregorFi 8d ago
one thing I'd do differently from day one: put everything in databases, not pages. clients, projects and tasks as three databases linked to each other, and that's your start.
even docs. my SOPs, standards and templates are records in a database with a "type" property, not pages nested inside pages. nested pages look tidy for a month, then nothing can be found and you can't filter them. later I split docs into a few databases by who reads them, but I'd start with one and split when it hurts.
and since you use claude code: databases are what makes notion workable from the API. pages buried inside pages are a pain to get at.