How to Use Notion as a Freelancer (My Complete System Revealed)

As a freelancer, you have to do a lot of work for a lot of clients with a lot of tools that take a lot of time.

You gather a lot of data to find a lot of potential clients. And you contact a lot of prospects and hear back not a lot of them. This makes you not a lot of proud and brings you a lot of pain.

When finally your pipeline is filled, you do a lot of repetitive work that brings in a lot of unstructured pieces of information. After the work is done, you’re left with a lot of knowledge and data, which requires a lot of attention and self-discipline to file away for hopefully a lot of future projects.

This is the way it is—it’s freelancer life.

In this post, I’ll show you how to use Notion as a freelancer. Before we dive in, let me ask a question…

What if you could make things a little better for each project?

The systems mindset will teach you exactly that.

The systems mindset to freelancing

The systems mindset is a fancy term for a single purpose: you examine your freelancing business (and your whole life) from a distant perspective and approach it systematically.

You break everything down into single, independent primary systems and then document, tweak, and templatize them one by one.

Your life is a collection of individual systems. Fix those systems, one at a time, and you will fix your life. – Sam Carpenter

The Notion Life Operating System is a great example of that. It breaks down your whole life into different databases with a top-down approach. On the top level, there’s your vision, Life Plan, or whatever you call it. At the bottom level, there’re the mundane tasks.

Information flows through this system from the bottom up. You can take a single action at a time, which hopefully will bring you closer to your goals.

The system must ensure that your daily actions are in line with your long-term vision.

Part of the Operating System is your freelancing business. It has all those levels from the bottom to the top.

I want to present to you the Ultimate Freelancer Hub, my plug & play Notion system, the result of a 5-year freelancer and productivity journey in Notion.

Before I introduce you to my system, let’s see the benefits of Notion for freelancers, consultants, content creators, and small businesses.

Benefits of using Notion as a freelancer, consultant & content creator

Notion earned its reputation as an all-in-one workspace for creative individuals and teams. Although you may not want to use it as an all-in-one productivity tool, it should be at the heart of your freelancing career. Here’s why:

• Flexibility: You can put together all kinds of different blocks to set up your system supporting your freelancing business.
• Surfacing information: One of the benefits of Notion is its capability for surfacing information. You can use shortcut keys, bi-directional links, sorters, filters, and rollups to surface what you need when you need it.
• Connectedness: There’re numerous ways you can connect different pages, databases, and individual blocks in your Notion account. This way, you’ll never leave with abandoned ideas.
• Top-notch editor: An often neglected part of Notion’s superpowers is the word editor, which is getting better every year. It works with WordPress like charm and it’s very pleasing to work with.
• Awesome community and development: I always check who is behind the wall, and Notion takes everything seriously. They constantly release new functions and gathered an engaging community.

Let’s learn how to use Notion as a freelancer and jump into my Notion system.

My system setup in Notion AKA the Ultimate Freelancer Hub

No surprises here; my Notion freelancing system leverages relational databases within my Notion setup.

There’re 8 core databases and 2 knowledge bases in my freelancing system:

1. Task Database
2. Project Database
3. Habit Tracker
4. Content Calendar
5. Affiliates Database
6. Prospecting Database
7. Pain Points Database
8. Testimonials Database
9. Email Swipe File
10. Headline Swipe File

Let’s figure out what they are and how they work together.

Databases

1. Task Database

I’ve built the Task DB based on the principles of the GTD method. While you can create task dependencies, I intentionally made this task manager simple. There are no subtasks, multiple priority levels, etc.

Based on GTD Next Actions, you can mark any task as a priority with the 🔴 button. Next to the red button, you’ll find a 🟢 button to deprioritize tasks. With these two buttons, you can easily toggle priorities (Next Actions) and put tasks to your My Tasks section (see later on the Dashboard) or remove them from your list.

I applied a three-point scale to visualize the state of any given task:

🔥 Overdue task

🔴 Priority

🟢 Normal

2. Project Database

My Project DB is a simple Notion database that communicates through a relation with the Task DB.

I prefer to group projects by life domains. With a select property, you can easily group your projects.

There’s a special project AKA the Waiting For list. This is based on the GTD method and it’s a placeholder for all your tasks from different projects (or without projects) that are waiting for feedback, action, or approval from others.

Once a project has been finished, you can archive it with a checkbox (and hide it from the main view).

3. Habit Tracker

This is one of the most important databases in my freelancer system. It’s a placeholder of all the tiny habits that move the needle for me.

This database applies a repeating template to automatically create a new entry for each day. The current day is displayed on your dashboard so you can easily track your daily habits.

You can access a 7-day habit streak that comes in handy when you’re completing your weekly review. I keep separate tabs for the weekly and monthly views, as well as for seeing everything in simple a table.

You can learn more about my habit-building process here.

4. Content Calendar

The Content Calendar is the place where I plan, write, organize, and reference all of my content.

Over the years, I’ve created five different database templates with exhausting pre-publishing, post-publishing, and content checklists and tips to make my content unique and SEO-friendly. These templates are at the heart of my Content Calendar.

I have a different database for keyword research from which the Content Calendar pulls keyword and word count data. For simplicity reasons, this database has its own keyword property, but you can create a separate database for keyword research if you’re an SEO geek like me.

I followed Adam Enfroy’s taxonomy on content creation:

• Transactional posts: These posts are typical list posts with affiliate links.
• Informational posts: These posts educate the readers without affiliate links thereby strengthening your brand and authority.
• Review posts: These posts may contain affiliate links. They provide in-depth product and software reviews.
• Guest posts: These posts are published on third-party sites.

A word about dates: There’re multiple date properties in this database for publishing, updating old content, and social promotion.

I like to keep the link of each published content in a URL property for future reference, which I would use a lot. Also, I have a dedicated checkbox property indicating whether the content has affiliate links.

Speaking of affiliates, I have a dedicated database for them.

5. Affiliates Database

This is a simple database to organize your affiliate links, and easily reference commission rates, affiliate platforms, program links, and legal notes.

You can add your affiliate links, affiliate terms, and commission rates, and check whether you added the affiliate deal to your Disclaimer Policy (which you should).

Next comes my Prospecting database.

6. Prospecting Database

I learned the basics of prospecting and warm emails from Paul Minors, Ed Gandia, and Kai Davis. They’re my superheroes. However, without my Notion skills, I could barely make any progress in leveraging what I learned from them.

This database has quite a few properties. Let’s see the most important features:

• Once you contact a prospect, press the Contacted button and it will automatically populate the Last Contact date. This will then calculate the follow-up date (FUP). Then this will be applied to your Dashboard displaying your daily nurturing tasks.
• Once you get on a call with a prospect, just open the prospect’s page, fill in the blank properties, and take notes. I’d use the client’s page for any upcoming calls, client work, assignments, and takeaways.
• I’ve come up with a useful tagging system (Resonance property): You can mark the draining clients whom you want to avoid in the future. I have a separate tab for the dummies.
• If you work with 30-day support, you can make use of the Support Starts & Support Ends properties. Just fill in the start date (Support Starts) and the formula will calculate when your support ends.
• Use the Pain Points and Testimonial relations to assign pain points and testimonials to clients. (See later.)

7. Pain Points Database

This is quite a simple database. It serves a single purpose: to get to know prospects’ pain points.

It’s essential to understand people’s needs, motivations, and pains to build a freelancing business that works and helps clients.

It took me a while until I realized I should have pain points in a single database. This forced me to ask, gather, and consolidate essential data from prospects.

In the intro call, I would ask a simple question from my prospect:

What’s your biggest challenge or obstacle when it comes to [industry]?

I simply enter the answer into my Prospecting Database’s pain points property (see above), which will create a new entry in my Pain Points database. Over time, it’s very helpful to see what people are struggling with.

Next comes my Testimonials Database.

8. Testimonials Database

This is where the fun begins. When I finish a freelancing project, I ask for a testimonial. It won’t surprise you that I have a template for that in my Email Swipe File. 🙂

This database communicates with my Prospecting Database to track and organize my testimonials from clients.

I use the consent checkbox to track whether the client has given permission to use their testimonial and headshot. (I encourage you to follow this best practice to avoid painful conversations downstream.)

Let’s discuss my two knowledge bases.

Knowledge Bases

1. Email Swipe File

My email swipe file is at the heart of my freelancing system. It contains all of the email templates I gathered from industry leaders or developed myself over the years for outreach, marketing, and requests.

It’s a single database; nothing fancy here: I just keep track of my email templates along with some tagging.

I use my Email Swipe File to get testimonials from influencers, sell my consulting services, connect with big brands, expand my professional network on LinkedIn, get guest post offers, and more.

What’s included in my Email Swipe File?

1. How to get testimonials from influencers
2. How to sell your consulting services
3. How to connect with big brands
4. How to craft a great prospecting email sequence
5. How to get free access to a paid product
6. How to connect with prospects on LinkedIn (without being pushy)
7. How to ask for a testimonial from clients
8. How to connect with influencers
9. How to hook prospects into a free post-survey consultation call
10. How to write a great copywriting email sequence
11. How to write a pro bono offer
12. How to pitch a discount offer
13. How to sell your services on LinkedIn
14. How to ask for guest post offers
15. How to ask for an expert roundup
16. How to pitch guest posts to your affiliate partners

2. Headline Swipe File

It contains 20+ proven headline formulas in templatized ways. Each headline formula has a blank space that can be filled with your content.

Headlines are organized into categories based on what they target. You can reference the Headline Swipe File to create engaging content for blog posts, videos, podcasts, social media, and more.

How to pull it all together: the Freelancer Dashboard

The Dashboard brings your entire freelancing system under one roof.

My Dashboard currently comes with four sections: (1) Navigation Bar, (2) Everyday Productivity, (3) Prospecting & Consulting, and (4) Content Creation. This four-part system ensures that you’re working towards what makes the essence of freelancing.

1. Navigation Bar

The navigation bar is what it is: a place for quick entries and quick links to your entire freelancing system. It serves a single purpose: to quickly access anything.

2. Everyday Productivity

At the top of your Dashboard, you’ll find the Daily Highlight and the Fleeting Notes sections. These are the simplest yet most important features on the dashboard: You can pin your daily theme (most important work) for the day as well as take notes throughout the day that can be turned into tasks, etc. by dragging them to the appropriate section later.

After playing with dozens of task manager apps for 8 years in a row, I’ve come up with mine in Notion. I took inspiration from Nozbe, Todoist, and Asana, which are near and dear to my heart.

I dedicated a single section to frogs. I applied Brian Tracy’s model to capture and complete the most important (often the ugliest) tasks in the morning. At the end of the workday, I’d plan the next day by scheduling 1-3 frog tasks for the next day. These tasks will be automatically delivered to you on your dashboard under the Today’s Frogs section.

The My Tasks section is similar to what has been a central design concept in project manager apps. This is the list where I live all day long, displaying 🔥overdue tasks, tasks scheduled for today, and tasks marked as 🔴priority. Remember, there’s only a single priority level in my freelancing system; P2-P3-P4 is overkill. Sorry, Todoist.

The third section displays a habit tracker, which is auto-filtered for today. Finally, the last block displays my favorite projects. You can easily toggle between favorites and all.

3. Prospecting & Consulting

I created a chart for displaying my client stats. Next to the chart, you’ll find the daily 🍼Nurturing section, which shows the follow-ups scheduled for today.

This table brings data from the Prospecting database and calculates the follow-ups based on a formula. This way, you’ll never forget to check in with prospects.

Next comes the Clients section with multiple tabs, making room for every need. Here, you can quickly take notes on a client call, reference prospects, work with clients, or create new outreach requests.

The last part of the freelancer dashboard is for content creation.

4. Content Creation

The linked views of the Content Calendar make it easy to capture new content ideas, reference old content, and continue drafting and updating your social calendar.

You can see and quickly access the upcoming content. The Social Calendar displays a calendar for promoting your content on social media platforms. You can also check your published items as well as all your content for a quick reference.

A word about the Mobile Dashboard

Although Notion is quite mobile-friendly, I found that such a dense dashboard can be hard to manage on mobile. That’s why I created a dedicated Mobile Dashboard for my Ultimate Freelancer Hub.

I recommend you create a Notion widget on your home screen and add my dashboard to this widget so that you can quickly track your habits, see your tasks, and create new items with a button.

The Ultimate Freelancer Hub: Summary

You’ve seen the benefits of the systems approach to freelancing and how Notion can help you get more clients, create content, stay productive, focus on the important, and do the damn work.

Nothing is set in stone; you can get creative with those databases.

It’s important, however, that you don’t overwhelm yourself in the beginning by building a system that you couldn’t sustain. As a type one personality, I always fall into the trap of getting everything perfect before I get down to real work.

Don’t do this. Instead, begin with a single freelancing database in Notion and slowly grow your system as you gain confidence in your process. Alternatively, you can get the Ultimate Freelancer Hub, my plug & play Notion system that won’t overwhelm you with dozens of databases, aimless tracking capabilities, or dummy graphics. Focus on the essence and neglect the rest.

Good luck!

Cover photo by Xavier von Erlach on Unsplash