(ICYMI) What Had Happened Was...

I’ve joined the Notion gang.

I’ve talked in previous issues about how I organize my work as a freelancer, using tools such as Toggl, Google Drive and handwritten to do lists. Previously, I’ve used Google Sheets to track my pitches, assignments, press hits and branded work each year. This year, though, I decided to finally give Notion a try in both my personal and professional life.

We’re nearing the end of Q1 and I can honestly say I’m obsessed with using Notion as a project management tool. It’s been really great to have all of this information in one, neat app that I can easily utilize on my laptop and phone.

In my “Freelance Planner” inside Notion, I’ve created a main business page to track my income and annual project goals, then I’ve recreated my Google Sheets assignments tracker using a modified version of this template. I’ve added some new pages, too, including one to track my time off and one that keeps track of any client info I might need (payment terms, accounting contact, rate range, etc.)

I’m happy to go into more details about these templates, if it will be helpful to y'all. And, I’d LOVE to know how other self-employed people are using Notion for their businesses. I know there are a lot of assets to the app that I’ve yet to discover.

Here’s a terribly kept secret: Sometimes I get so caught up in all of my lists and goals that I get paralyzed by anxiety. Yes, you read that right. Lists help me to process and organize things and, therefore, minimize my anxiety…but they can also be a big source of stress if I don’t remember that they are a meant to be used as a guide not the Bible.

Q1 has been an incredibly humbling reminder that sometimes your goals don’t happen on your time. I’m finally ready to grapple with the reality that my year has been much different than I ever could’ve expected. If I step back and look at my freelance career over the past four and a half years, this has always been the case, though. My biggest accomplishments are typically beyond anything I could’ve conceived of to add to some list…