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Replacing a paper planner with Notion

December 2019 update: In the three months since I shared this, I’ve made a lot of changes to my setup. The template link below still works and will take you to the revised template, and here is a video showing what’s new:

Here is the rest of the original post showing how this got started.

——————

I’ve used Michael Hyatt’s Full Focus Planner for a while, along with some others, but I’ve slowly been working on ways to create much of that experience in Notion. Here’s what I have so far:

Here is the Notion template if you want to try it for yourself: https://www.notion.so/greenmellen/Planner-2d47afe6eb53423aa74cc7d1f8f4beb8

Comments

  1. Tim says

    November 16, 2019 at 9:56 pm

    Thanks so much for this post! I’m a newbie to Notion and trying to go all in. I’ve used the FFP before and I’d like to try to integrate. I’m trying to get a task list going. How do I make tasks repeated? Also, if I’ve created a database to track habits, how would I link that to my week to make a new one each time? Thanks again!

    Reply
    • greenmellen says

      November 16, 2019 at 10:15 pm

      Good questions!

      For recurring tasks, I have a little hack that works pretty well. For any given task, I have a dropdown status of “Open”, “Complete” or “Recurring”. Anything that is “Complete” is hidden, and the others are shown (based on project, date, whatever).

      When an “Open” task is finished, I mark it as “Complete” and it goes away. However, when a “Recurring” task is finished, I simply change the date to the next recurrence of it. It works pretty well.

      As for tracking habits, I’ve been adding those to my daily database. I’ve made a column called “exercise” that I have a dropdown for (“Run”, “Work out”, “Hike”, whatever), and I have another column called “Reading” that I linked to my books database and update when I read things. I covered that a bit in this post: https://www.notiontips.com/dont-keep-your-notion-data-in-silos/

      In your case, just add more columns to the daily database for your various habits, and then you can easily see your progress in there.

      Reply
  2. Jez says

    December 24, 2019 at 6:12 am

    you’ve saved my day ! Loving this template you’ve created and looking forward to use it with my Notion setup

    #followed

    Reply
    • greenmellen says

      December 24, 2019 at 3:56 pm

      Awesome, I’m glad you found it helpful! If you have ideas on how to adjust it to make it even better, I’m always looking for tips.

      Reply
  3. Anna says

    December 30, 2019 at 3:43 pm

    This is a fantastic template. While experimenting with Notion, my ‘planner pages’ have got a bit big and unwieldy . So I’m wanting to strip it back to something more efficient. Thanks so much for helping me set up my 2020 spread.

    Reply
    • greenmellen says

      December 30, 2019 at 4:12 pm

      Awesome, I’m glad you found it helpful! There’s a lot in this one, but I found that creating a separate “page” for each day is a good way to make it feel a bit more manageable. Let me know if you end up tweaking it any ways that others might find useful.

      Reply
  4. Liz Travers says

    December 30, 2019 at 4:55 pm

    Thank you so much. Like so many others I have been trying to develop a BuJo system. This is exactly what I need. Hate reinventing the wheel. Have been watching alot of YouTube but never quite hitting the mark. Then everything getting unwelding and doubling up. So excited to start using this.

    Reply
    • greenmellen says

      December 30, 2019 at 5:34 pm

      Very cool, I’m glad this is what you were looking for. I hope it works well for you, and please let me know if you have any thoughts on improving it further.

      Reply
  5. Lucas says

    January 5, 2020 at 6:21 pm

    Wow, pretty useful!
    I’m learning how to use Notion now.
    How did you manage to reduce your options to only “Daily Schedule”, “Empty Page” and “New Template”? Mine shows that regular options. Is it because you have the Team/Enterprise plan? I have the Personal one

    Reply
    • Lucas says

      January 5, 2020 at 6:24 pm

      Uh, nevermind, I just figured that out. You can create a template under tables. I was trying to do it on a regular page. Sorry (I’m not able to delete the comment)

      Reply
      • greenmellen says

        January 6, 2020 at 6:52 am

        Cool, glad you got it sorted out!

        Reply
  6. Ernie Ayres says

    July 6, 2020 at 4:55 pm

    I’m new to Notion but want to use it for this exact reason! Moving from a paper planner to digital where I can link tasks and other items has been a dream of mine for years.

    Being new I’m struggling with finding the databases. I’d like to change the Morning and Workday startup items to add a few things but cannot find where the database is located.

    Reply
  7. Aijaz says

    September 20, 2020 at 6:39 pm

    Hi,

    This is awesome! Thank you for all your insights.

    how can i import your template into my notion? or do i need to re – create?

    Reply
  8. Brian says

    December 13, 2021 at 7:36 pm

    Thank you so so so much for this. I found the process/rituals of the Full Focus Planner SO helpful to all aspects of my life, but I just do so much better with digital and so eventually the physical-ness of the Full Focus Planner became too much friction.

    I’ve been wanting to implement the Full Focus Planner methodology digitally in Apple Notes, Day One, or something like that so this is PERFECT, especially since I just started using Notion for another mini-project last week.

    I really appreciate the thought you put into this and for making the templates available for us.

    Reply

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