In autumn 2020 I faced a big problem: My online marketing agency took off because – despite the economic crisis in my country and Covid-19 – I managed to land several great clients. On the one hand, I was glad to have a thriving business, on the other hand, I wished to work more creatively on digital products because in my long-time vision I see myself not so much as a consultant but mainly as a product creator.
But due to the inflow of new clients, there was no time left for all of my side hustles. I felt like I was constantly fighting deadlines, and always had the feeling in the back of my mind that there were unfinished client tasks I had forgotten.
At that time, I had been working with David Allen’s “Getting Things Done Method†for over 2 years at the time. Still, didn’t feel like I was becoming much more productive or organized.
My Business controlled my life
I lived a life where my business controlled me instead of the other way around. I was also always afraid that my successful streak with acquiring new clients would eventually stop: After all, I was 100% dependent on mouth-to-mouth marketing and had actually no working marketing channel for my consulting services.
But one day, when I mindlessly scrolled through YouTube, I clicked on a video by Ali Abdaal where he talked about this cool new productivity app called Notion. I was hooked immediately and this was the beginning of my Notion journey, which should totally change my life within a few months.
With Notion, I finally could really put the “Getting Things Done Method†into a system that worked for me. Before that, I used Google Sheets, but as my GTD system got bigger there, it just got more and more confusing.
How did IÂ benefit from using Notion?
The app allowed me to manage my clients better and made sure that I no longer had to worry about forgetting tasks or appointments.
This finally freed up a lot of my mental capacities: Only because of Notion I had the courage to start my personal blog, reactivated my YouTube channel, and created new online courses for Udemy.
This is not to say that everything is now joy, happiness, and sunshine. I still often struggle to hit deadlines and am behind on my content calendar, but I can say that I’ve definitely become a much better online marketing consultant in the last 6-8 months. Plus in this time period, I’ve definitely created more content or digital products than in the 34 years before. See my list of all the content I have created in 2021.
If you are overwhelmed by your work as a freelancer, solopreneur or small business owner, I can definitely recommend using Notion.
Notion for Freelancers and Entrepreneurs.
If you need a template for your task and project management, check out my Freelancer Compass Template:
This is a To-Do-List & Task Management Dashboard for Entrepreneurs who are using Notion. This template Includes among others: GTD Dashboard, Daily To-Do-List, Eisenhower Matrix, Habit Tracking, Kanban Priority Board, Time Tracking, Progress Bar, Daily Tasks Overview, Priority Calculation, Revenue Stats. Grab your copy on Gumroad or in my Online-Shop.