How I Plan My Week | Notion And Google Calendar Workflow
This video is all about how I plan my week using two of my favorite productivity tools: Notion and Google Calendar. I’m sharing how I integrate these two productivity tools into an efficient system that fuels my weekly workflow and makes getting things done easier.
The biggest takeaway I’d love for you to hold onto is to remember your why. I personally like to approach productivity from a place of self-care, and not a place of self-worth. To me, productivity is knowing that you deserve to create a structure so you can make the most of your efforts, reclaim your energy, and find more ease. It’s all about being mindful and intentional. This has taken me time to truly grasp, but since I have, my life is filled with much more joy and happiness.
My way of doing things is in no way the gold standard, but it’s what I’ve personally found success with. I’ve worked hard to create these efficient systems, so I can spend less time spinning my wheels and more time connecting to what actually matters to me. Together, let’s tap into a more sustainable flow of purposeful work, rest, ease, and everything else in between.
If you haven’t seen my OG Google Calendar video, head over to How I Organize My Calendar for tips and tricks on task batching, calendar coding, and time management.
A Look Into Notion… My Second Brain
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, Notion is my literal second brain! It's what holds my tasks - big, small, and everything in between. It holds my projects, it's my weekly planning, my yearly planning, my goal setting, quarterly planning. I store my recipes and date night ideas in there. I track which Korean dramas I'm watching. I use it when I’m going to the grocery store, and when I’m packing for a trip. My husband and I are building a house and I have a whole house database filled with potential furniture, dates I need to purchase by for supply chain lead time, important dates from the builders, inspiration for different rooms… Notion holds all the things I care about in one platform.
Team Hub: Another great part about Notion is the ability to collaborate with others inside of it. My Notion task system is also synced up with my team's tasks, which is another database that also lives in my Notion called Team Hub. We have team projects, team tasks, specific documents we all reference, and basically everything within our Team Hub. When we log in in the mornings, this is the first place we go. My team can tag me in a task, I can tag them, we can set a due date, label it a certain priority, and so much more. Also, the tasks I'm tagged from my team are auto-populated into my own personal weekly planning dashboard so nothing is missing between the two.
*If you all are curious about Notion templates from an entrepreneur perspective, from a project planning outlook or task management as a group, let me know! This is something that I would be curious to dive into, as my team and I have gotten into a great rhythm with our current templates. My team has a whole different universe of Notion templates that help us on the small-biz, entrepreneur side of things and keeps this biz up and runnin’ each day.
Breaking Down My Google Calendar
My Google Calendar is clutch. It’s what helps me manage my time, prioritize what’s impactful, and stay on track. It helps me see things like:
what my day is looking like
who I'm meeting with
what task(s) I need to be doing during this time block, this day of the week
how am I staying on track and making the most of my day
I find that when I time block - dividing my day into blocks of time where each block is dedicated to accomplishing a specific task - I'm able to get so much more done because I'm staying in that one lane of focus. It truly highlights your top priorities and enhances concentration. I also like to make my Google Calendar looking calm and aesthetically pleasing. If I’m going to look at my calendar all day long, I want it to be easy on the eyes. To get your calendar looking more calming, you can grab my free Calming Calendar Hex Codes here!
Overall, I talk a lot about these tips in my original Google Calendar video, How I Organize My Calendar. Watch that video if you want to dig into making the most of your Google Calendar and time management system!
How To Integrate Notion and Google Calendar
So, how do I use Notion and Google Calendar together? How do I integrate these tools?
Notion is the database that holds all of my tasks. It holds all the projects, goals, and tasks that I need to do. It is my second brain.
Whereas, Google Calendar is reflective of when I'm gonna do those tasks.
I don't necessarily need to jot down every single task from my Notion to-do list into my Google Calendar, but I find it essential to mark the high priority tasks for different time slots. I'm able to keep on track with my day and better manage my time this way. If I just have an open day where I don't really plan when I'm gonna do specific tasks that need to get done, then I might not allocate the right amount of time for the task. You know how that goes… next thing you know, it’s 4:00pm, and I've barely made a dent in my to-do list! Not a great feeling. I want to be as efficient as possible with my time.
Essentially, what I do is have both my Google Calendar up and my Notion window up. Tip: I download an app called Magnet that “makes it easy to compare lists, use screen space effectively and efficiently and present data consistently and attractively”. It’s been a great tool and it allows me to just drag something from one area of the screen to another. From here, I can take my Notion tasks and pencil in my tasks onto my Google Calendar to plot out the time to get it done. With two screens up, it's really simple to integrate the two together.
Use These FREE Tools To Your Advantage
The cool thing is Google Calendar is free to use, and Notion is free to use for personal use. How great is that?! There are so many tools out there today that you can utilize that can completely change your life. Notion has been a truly life-changing tool for me, both for my biz and my personal life.
Focused Energy = More Freedom
You can free up more time, more energy, and just create more space in your day when you learn how to do things more efficiently. Productive systems are a means to giving you back more freedom in your day and in your life.
On a personal note… I considered last year to be one of my most productive years. Rather than just measure “productivity” by how much I “accomplished”, I focus on what my productivity allowed me to do outside of my day job.
For one, I am finally able to take Fridays off. It had been something I wanted to do for a while, but it took me a few years to get here. Once I buckled down and created a system that worked for me to have more focused energy, I shifted into a four-day work week and I'm still doing that today. I also made friendship and community a priority. I made more plans, I co-worked with friends, met up for drinks after work, and really felt like I had a social life without the stress of work looming in the back of my mind.
I also watched a TON of Korean dramas (to cope with the anxiety of this crazy world lol). And with all of that, I was still able to hit my biggest financial milestone yet. All in all, I made a lot more impact with a lot more focused energy - and I felt more free.
I hope these productivity tips, systems, and solutions can help you get your time and energy back, so you can go out there and live your life.
It’s also important to remember that these systems are never going to be absolutely perfect. While I hope these tools and my tips taught you something you can implement into your workflow, life is always going to throw things at you that you cannot plan for. When that happens, practice the pause, take a deep breath, and adapt accordingly. Some days might just be a wash because it’s just a bad day, but that’s okay. Like I said, productivity should not be wrapped up in our self-worth. Even on those days, you’re still deserving of it all. Make sure you check in with yourself and make your mental health FIRST priority.
Thanks for walkin’ through how I plan my week with me. Let me know what videos you’d like to see next!
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