Notion Project Management Explained for Beginners

10 min readMar 20, 2021

Article taken From nTask Blog — The Notion Project Management Explained

If you were wondering about Notion project management you have come to the right place.

Although known for its note-taking abilities Notion is a great tool for collaboration and Notion project management is also very effective.

Read on to understand how you can use the application to your advantage, what the benefits are of using Notion, as well as some of the features you may miss in the tool, we will also talk about Notion project management.

But first…

What is Notion?

Notion is an all-in-one workspace that allows you to write, plan, and get organized.

While essentially being a note-taking application, the tool also offers a range of other features allowing you to manage your projects.

This tool has the ability to connect your notes, projects, and wiki in one tool. Therefore, it is a great choice if you are looking to keep your team members informed, updated, and collaborating within a single platform.

Notion is the software that improves focus and transparency, while simultaneously consolidating tools, and improving efficiency and productivity.

How Is Notion Project Management Structured?

Before we get onto how you can use Notion project management it is important to be aware of how Notion is structured and how it functions.

The main modules of Notion that you should be aware of are:

We will go over each of these views in detail and illustrate how you can use each of these tools to your advantage.

Let’s start with Wikis.

1. Wikis

Source: Notion Website

According to Notion’s website, Wikis are “your team’s long-term memory, all in one spot.”

In other words, Wikis is a directory of documents with all the information your team members or organization may need.

This information could be about the project you are currently working on or even be a group of documents about essential company manuals that need to be shared with individuals.

The documents you create within Wikis have detailed formatting options. The documents also support code snippets and everything else you could need from such a feature.

Moreover, Wikis can be organized to keep everything in order and according to what your needs are. You can group documents for easy knowledge management.

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2. Database Views

You can take advantage of different views in Notion. Apart from the Kanban board view that we will discuss below, you can also view your projects and tasks in other views.

The available views in Notion include a task list view, a gallery view, a calendar view, and a table.

3. Kanban Board View

Source: Notion Website

Apart from the possible viewing options mentioned above, Notion also offers a Kanban board.

Kanban boards are based on the Kanban methodology of project management. To find out more about the Kanban methodology read our blog post here.

Kanban boards are a great way to be updated on the exact progress of any particular task and get knowledge on what your team is working on at any point in time.

With the help of Notion’s Kanban board, you can know the status of all your project’s tasks by the column that the task is in. The columns depict stages of the process your tasks go through, so either a task will be in ‘to do’, ‘doing’, or ‘done’ status.

Moving tasks is very simple and only requires users to drag and drop the card that shows the task being worked on to the relevant column.

The Kanban board not only shows the tasks and their status of the progress of the task but also who has been assigned to work on the task.

4. Blocks

Another way that Notion work is based on is a feature called ‘blocks.’

Simply put, a block is a group of content in Notion. This content could be anything. In a way, a block is a means of organizing the data and documents or other tasks that you put into the platform.

Each block has a dropdown menu that allows you to choose what kind of block you want it to be. You can also turn a block into a ‘page’ which we will discuss in detail below.

5. Project Pages

A page in Notion is equivalent to a document of a sort. Each item in your Notion database will have a dedicated Notion page.

Pages allow you to gain detailed breakdowns of each individual item. Pages can be a page of text, a Kanban board, a to-do list, a complete knowledge base, or any other thing.

In fact, Notion allows you to be so organized that you have the option to create a page within a project page.

Benefits of Using Notion

With so many project management tools available you may be wondering what Notion has to offer your team.

Firstly, Notion is a great choice if you have a small team. The software can provide all the features needed to meet your basic project management needs. With Notion, you can store project documents, assign tasks, and collaborate with colleagues.

We will discuss more on these features below.

Apart from the basic project management features, there are also some other benefits to be gained from Notion.

Notion can be accessed from just about any platform. The app is available as an iOS app, an Android app, a desktop app on both Mac and Windows, as well as a Chrome extension. Thus, making the software a great choice for people on the go.

Moreover, Notion also offers a web extension that allows you to clip and store webpage clippings, links, articles, or pictures all directly onto your Notion workspace which is a timesaver.

Another great thing about Notion is the templates it has to offer.

You can create custom project pages specific to the needs of your project or you can choose one of the templates available that have been created by other Notion users. And when we say there is a template for everything we are not kidding.

Since the app was predominantly a note-taking app, it is no wonder that Notion is also a great tool for real-time collaboration.

You can add comments on the project page or in other locations on the database. You can also ensure your team stays up to date by mentioning them in a comment which will allow them to receive a notification of the comment.

The Notion also functions somewhat like Google Docs where you and other team members can simultaneously work on a document or a Notion page thus making it a great tool for collaboration and communication.

Using Notion for Project Management

Before you can get on to Notion project management you need to understand how to start using the software.

Signing Up for Notion

Signing up for Notion is simple and can be done from their website. You can download the application either for your desktop or choose their Android or iOS apps.

Currently, Notion does not offer a Linux app.

How Much Does Notion Cost?

Notion provides four different pricing plans, that is the personal plan, the personal pro plan, the team plan, and the enterprise plan.

The personal plan is free of cost and is great for individuals using the application. With the personal plan, you can create and add as much content as you wish to Notion. You have a limit on uploads up to 5MB each. You will not be able to add members to your workspace but will be able to invite 5 guests.

The personal pro plan costs $4/month if you choose to pay yearly, or $5/month if you pay monthly. You will have unlimited storage and there is no limit on file uploads either. You can invite as many guests as you like which are free. Although you will not be able to add a member to share the entire workspace with you.

Notion’s team plan costs $8/month, per member if you pay yearly or $10/member, per month if you pay monthly. You will get 1000 blocks of content to work with. You can invite as many members as you want that will be billed or invite free guests.

The enterprise plan is a custom plan for larger teams and businesses who are looking for more control and support. To learn more about the enterprise plan you can get in contact with Notion’s sales team.

Notion Project Management

Notion provides features to help you manage your project. Features that you would find in other project management tools such as Kanban boards, roadmaps, calendars, collaboration tools, and tasks lists are all available.

Notion allows you to build roadmaps.

You can choose from readymade roadmap templates which can be found in different template menus.

You can also build your own roadmap. Notion databases allow you to sync and execute your efforts by creating roadmaps with initiatives, projects, tasks.

In order to create your roadmap, you will need to start by creating a new database. You can add helpful context to the description of your database to help with the entire process and make sure everyone is on the same page.

You may then want to add properties such as projects, timelines, tasks, priorities, status, etc. It is all entirely up to you.

Then create a task template. This will allow you to avoid having to create each task from scratch and you can use your template to easily add tasks.

Add details and content to your database as you see fit.

You can choose how you view your data from the different views available as we mentioned above.

Finally, to ensure your roadmap is accessible remember to share the roadmap with all members of your workspace which can be done from the top of the page in Workspace Access.

Assigning and tracking tasks is essential in any project management. As mentioned above you can do so with Notion.

You can create a to-do list in Notion as a block inside any database or any other page. Creating a template as we mentioned above can make the entire process of task assignment both simple and easy.

You can also choose from the variety of task templates already created to streamline the process and make it even simpler for you and your team.

Creating a task can be similar to how you created a roadmap. You can start by creating a database, configure properties, add tasks, choose how you want to view the data, and then share with your team members.

Collaborating is another important part of project management and we have touched upon the different ways you can collaborate with your team using Notion above.

And that is how you can use Notion for Project Management.

Is Notion for You?

While Notion is a great choice for many individuals and teams it may not be the right choice for you.

With all the blocks and databases, it has often been seen as having a complex interface which can cause it to be daunting for many teams.

If you are looking for a tool with a user-friendly interface that can be understood even by those that aren’t tech-savvy, nTask may be the choice for you.

nTask has a simple and easy-to-understand design with everything laid out clearly for its users. Along with round-the-clock support available, the tool is easy to get used to and start using thus reducing onboarding time for you and your team.

Try nTask For All Types of Projects

nTask offers a simple hierarchal structure to its project management starting with your team, then workspaces, and then your projects thus keeping everything organized but still easy to manage and find.

Another feature users of Notion may miss is a project tracking feature.

nTask offers the Kanban-style board available within Notion along with Gantt charts which are a visual representation of your project and timeline; where you can view the progress of your tasks individually as well as getting a view of how your project is progressing in entirety.

You can even add milestones to your Gantt chart to keep track of your project goals.

To find out more of the features available in nTask check them out on the website here.

Originally published at https://www.ntaskmanager.com on March 20, 2021.