Using Notion as a ToDo List

I’ve tried many “to do” list tools throughout my career. Some examples:

• Monday.com
• Workflowy (and old favorite)
• Google Keep (blech)
• Asana
• Trello
• Notion

Notion is the current winner, given we use it as our Knowledge Management Platform at Abre (I also use it frequently for home and hobby projects). Here’s a quick breakdown of the process.

Notion as my To Do

The “Live CINO GTD List”

I’ve created a Notion Database with the following columns:

• Name of the item
• Day
• Date
• Status (no started, skipped, stuck, in progress, done)
• Job Area
• People (used infrequently)

Job Area is clutch for me given I’m constantly trying to understand how I’m supporting the company. It’s a good proxy for where I spend my time and to ask, SHOULD I be spending time in this way?

The “Date” column is associated with the Notion Tasks feature (giving me a quick todo list on my Notion Landing Page).

I will occasionally use the people column (which can notify my peers), but tend to find that I associate people with different parts of Notion.

Saturday mornings are my quiet mornings (where I can reflect on the past and future week). I create the list and share with my executive team. I invite feedback. And I change the status of items during the week to monitor accomplishments.

The Archive Database

At the end of the week, I select all the items and then move them to a database called “Archived Todo List”.

This keeps my active todo list clean (I realize I could set up another column for this – but this has a simplicity that scratches an itch).

The Archive Database also shows, well, how I’m doing. I can filter by dates (ie, our quarters) and use to track growth.

What About the Method?

I’ve also tried many methods (time blocking, Eisenhower Matrix, Pomodoro, bullet lists, GTD). I usually settle on a hybrid “Get Things Done” and “dumb list” method that keeps things simple enough to deliver results.

The point is to find what works for you.