How I use Notion for Project Management

Notion calls itself an all-in-one workspace for notes and documents, wikis, tasks and projects, and spreadsheets and databases. Although I still prefer Todoist as my task manager (I wish Todoist and Notion could integrate!), Notion has become my project management software tool (as of 2022 I barely use it though).

I’ll admit: the learning curve on Notion was a bit rough atfirst. It took a while to understand how the databases work, how pages fit inwith databases, navigating the workspace, and collaborating with others. Idoubt I am using Notion to its full potential right now. But right now, it’sworking perfectly fine for what I want it to do.

Below, I will detail four ways I am using Notion: tracking publications, my thesis students’ progress, summer goals, and notes about the courses I teach. (Click on the links to go straight to that section.)

Notion for tracking publications

This is the simplest way I am using Notion is through tracking my publication pipeline. I found a template on Notion and adapted it to my needs. After reading a recent blog post by Chelsea Hetherington, I added tracking the journal, publication date, PDF, and journal URL. I imagine this will be useful for sharing publications when people ask me for the PDF or location of an article. Use this template to track your publication timeline by clicking the “duplicate” button on the top right of the page here.

Below are the two views I currently use for my publication timeline. The first is the table view, in which I can easily see my role, status, and publication information.

The second is the timeline view, in which I see it based on what status the publication is in. Note that under “Properties” I could choose to add showing my role of the publication if I so choose.

Notion for tracking theses

I adapted the same timeline template above for tracking theses across the main stages of the thesis (ideas, proposal, data collection, data analysis/reporting, finalizing). Names are crossed out for privacy.

Each thesis student has their own page so I can track them along the timeline. On this page, we can add comments to each other, add a wiki or notes, link to other pages, and so much more.

The bottom link is the most important. This links to another page that is a more detailed tracker of their thesis. I have a template based on the general timeline to get students finished by graduation within the two year program. I let the student track and add things to this timeline and keep us updated. For example, this student ended up creating a table to organize their thesis literature, which was added to the template. Use the template for this thesis tracker by clicking the “duplicate” button on the top right of the page.

Notion for tracking summer goals

After taking a workshop by Cathy Mazak on staying on top of summer writing for academics, I sat down with my list of projects for the summer, developed all the tasks needed to accomplish those goals, and created a rough timeline of when each task should get done. Use the template for this goals tracker by clicking the “duplicate” button on the top right of the page.

I have many views I use for this tracker. I like to View All when I’m adding new tasks.

I like to view by Status to hone in on what I am currently working on this week. I plan this out every Sunday to ensure I’m always moving projects forward.

I like to view by Due Date to get a general sense of what I’ve accomplished each month and make sure no month is too heavy.

Lastly, I like to also look by Project to see the list of tasks for each project. Notice I can change the properties shown as well as the sort and filter. If I only want to see tasks that aren’t “Done” or for a single project, I can use the Filter feature. If I want to sort by due date or task status, I can use the Sort feature.

Lastly, there is a calendar view that I could use, butI haven’t found that useful because I prefer to add these tasks to my to-do list on Todoist and track the individual tasks there instead. So I usually only look at this once a week.

Notion for tracking course notes

Lastly, I have been using Notion to keep notes on all the revisions and notes I make about my courses throughout the semester and as I’m prepping. I had not yet found a satisfactory way to track these notes and thoughts until now! Whenever I have a thought, I can just post it here, add which class(es) the note refers to, add a URL if necessary, and even add more comments and notes by converting the note to a page (the third and fourth items have a page icon on the left, which indicates there are comments inside as a page). I can then check off if I’ve reviewed the content already for when I’m doing course revisions. As you can see, I’ve already reviewed all the material for PSYC 570 which I’m teaching over the summer (a course on interpersonal effectiveness which I’m incredibly excited about!). Use the template for this course notes tracker by clicking the “duplicate” button on the top right of the page.

If you find these templates useful or have questions, let me know in the comments below!