Understanding Systems Thinking with Notion

Introduction

• Speaker introduces themselves and their background in streamlining business operations
• Mention of their discovery and use of the notion platform for productivity

The Benefits of Using Notion

• Notion is the most effective tool for small businesses and entrepreneurs to design productive processes
• Flexibility and accessibility combined with deep database functionality make it powerful

The No Code Software Movement

• Emerging platforms like notion, Kota, and air table in the productivity and business performance space
• Modular and customizable without writing code

The Importance of Systems Thinking

• Requirement for high degree of systems thinking to effectively use platforms like notion
• Next video will explore systems thinking further, followed by a video on systems thinking specifically for notion and personal productivity

Notion's Role in Personal and Professional Performance

• Clarity, organization, and focus through accessible notes, research plans, and team communication
• Single source hub for all aspects of life, including shared data, tasks, calendar events, and more
• Boosts personal and professional performance, eliminates redundancy of overlapping information

Using Multiple Tools vs. Notion

• Combining task apps, project management platforms, note taking tools, and collaboration documents into one platform enhances functionality and coordination
• Time and effort required upfront to learn and customize notion, but ultimately leads to better workflows and systems

Conclusion

• Series of videos will introduce the power of notion and a system for improving personal and business performance
• Subscribe to YouTube channel and newsletter for updates and written versions of videos
• Leave thoughts and questions, and hit the like button to help boost the video in the algorithm.

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Hi, everyone, I'm August Bradley. Welcome to this new channel.

I've been designing personal productivity systems and streamlining business operations for small to mid sized businesses for 25 years. I turn mediocre operations into rocket ships. It's amazing to see companies in people's lives change so quickly with the right methods and processes in place.

But in all my time doing this, both using enterprise on one approaches, and integrating best in class specialty software, I've never seen a platform as capable as notion for productivity. I have no involvement with the company. I just want to share how I've used the notion platform to enhance my performance and help clients achieve more.

I have found notion to be the most effective tool for enabling small businesses and entrepreneurs or freelancers to design life changing productivity processes. The power comes from notions of flexibility, combined with accessibility, on top of its deep database functionality.

This new software movement, called no code software, includes emerging platforms such as notion, Kota, and air table in the productivity and business performance space, and many more across website creation, content creation, ecommerce, and endless other business functions. Tools like notion in the productivity and business operations category, allow you to custom develop functionality to the point of creating your own applications, not just formatting an existing tools interface. You can design the core functionality, as well as how you interact with it. These platforms are modular and endlessly customizable, without the user writing a single line of code. This is sculpting clay or Lego building blocks for everyday users.

However, there's a catch, they require a high degree of systems thinking. Systems thinking is not the way most people approach the world. It's counter to the typical component thinking that dominates modern societies. My next video will explore systems thinking further, and the one after that will be about systems thinking specifically for notion and personal productivity.

But when thoughtfully implemented, this new wave of productivity software, led by notion, enables you to work and think with enhanced clarity, organization and focus. Notion keeps your notes, research plans, and team communication accessible through diverse customizable touchpoints. It can serve as the backbone for a small business, family functions, creative pursuits, and side hustles. And it can be an integrated single source hub for all those parts of your life, together. This software cross references, shared data, tasks, calendar events, information resources, team notes, and any other digital asset.

This connectivity unleashes a new level of personal and professional performance, and it eliminates the redundancy of maintaining overlapping information across different locations. This matters because we don't rise to the highest version of ourselves that we can imagine, we fall to the level of our systems. It's systems that catch us and hold us above our minimum standards. If you want to operate at a higher level, you need higher standards, and better systems to hold the line that you won't drop below. As tall buildings and large vehicles need structural integrity to consistently perform well, a person or business needs structural integrity to consistently perform well. Structural integrity is a matter of system design. Doing more and performing at higher levels increases your structural load, which requires greater structural integrity. Notion provides us with the necessary structural integrity when shaped with the right methods and processes.

Many of us have to use multiple task apps such as to do lists, and project management platforms such as Asana or Trello, and a note taking tool such as Evernote or OneNote, and collaboration documents like Google Docs or Microsoft 360. But these functions are enhanced when all combined into one platform, interacting and communicating with each other. Tasks, notes, knowledge, resources, cross reference

That's what a comprehensive notion system achieves. I think it's easier and more fun to learn a tool like notion along with a system or methodology that is already proven to be effective, then customize as you see fit along the way. So over this video series, I'll show my notion setup designed to be a personal life operating system, or a small business and freelancers life operating system. I've been using this methodology for a long time and it has changed what I'm capable of achieving on a daily and monthly basis. My performance jumped further when I put the process into notion. I've seen and heard the same from clients who have begun using notion with the system. For us, this platform has boosted speed of implementation and transparency across goals, project information, and action.

This series of YouTube videos will explore how to improve personal and business performance with this new kind of software, an endlessly moldable personal platform, and I'll show how it can get you closer to your goals by bringing better clarity to the path and better alignment between your daily activities, priority projects, and ultimate aspirations. If this is of interest, hit the YouTube subscribe button and the bell icon to get updates on future videos.

Now, every tool has its trade-offs, and notion is no different. Notion is young and will steadily get more functionality. But in the aggregate, notion already offers more than any other task management tool I have ever seen. More than any project management tool, more than any personal management tool, more than any collaborative workspace. You occasionally see pushback that notion is slower opening up than specialty apps. And that's true, but only slightly, especially if you work in an environment with Wi-Fi. But even on a cellular network, I find it totally usable. And what notion gets you in terms of overall time savings dwarfs the extra second or two it can take to open. I'll get into the speed versus performance issue more in future videos.

I've been running my world in notion for a while now. And I've custom-built streamlined systems and processes for clients in notion. Since building a personal life and business operating system in notion, my annual goals are directly connected with my quarterly objectives, and my daily actions, with visual references and links rolling up each level. So I see both the forest and the trees together. My daily tasks connect with all the research materials and notes I've assembled for each project. They're all organized in a cleanly formatted and easily skimmable project hub, with a table of contents automatically generated at the top of the research pages, linking to subsections.

Inside notion, my content creation hub for videos, podcasts, and writing provides organization and transparency, coordinating across all team members. And my client center hosts a development area for each client, with a shared client-accessible workspace, aggregating their progress, their collaborative work, their deliverables, communication, history, and admin. It's all organized and updated in real-time. This will reduce reliance on my team for admin or info follow-up requests from clients.

Using this type of platform is an investment in your future. Up front, you'll go through a good deal of trial and error, exerting time and effort. But this process forces you to think about how you want to work and will reveal so much about what makes you most effective. Implementing the software requires you to step back and study your workflow, review your systems, and think about how they can be enhanced. Learning the tool forces you to make your life and business better. I've worked with hundreds of people over many years streamlining and optimizing business operation systems. And I've never seen anything reveal problem spots in business systems the way notion

In business systems, the way notion implementations do, and I've never seen any other tool provide the ability to reshape life and business systems as well as notion. But to do this, you need to think differently. So in the next video, I'm going to share a concise introduction to systems thinking for notion users. Then I'm going to share how I brought my 25 years of systems thinking and system design for businesses into notion and how notion has turbocharged my methodology in a way that no software ever has before.

I have a roadmap laid out in this video series to introduce both the power of notion and the system I've taught to business owners to enhance their lives and their companies. If this is of interest to you, be sure to hit the YouTube subscribe button and the bell icon to get updates on future videos. Leave any thoughts or questions below and hit the like button if you found this valuable. It helps boost the video in the algorithm so that others can find it more easily.

Each of these videos is also available in written form. The link to my blog is below in the show notes. And I write a newsletter every three weeks on increasing human capability. That link is also below. Thanks for watching. Lots more to come.

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