Notion is flexible, integrated, and expansive.
It falls into the category of software called personal knowledge management (PKM) – often used for collaboration, project management, and storage. Everything added to Notion is searchable and can be referenced anywhere.
Frameworks are key to effective collaborative since Notion is such an open canvas. Instead of being locked into a single framework, each team member tailor their experience based on their work-styles.
Like a kitchen, office, or garden, it thrives when we apply frameworks.
Notion Gardening is a framework influenced by Getting Things Done (GTD), Building a Second Brand (BASB), Notion Mastery, and OpSys, to name just a few.
This document explains Maple’s framework for using Notion, which borrows ideas from many of the above. As you build skills, clarify preferences, and develop fluency in the commands and functions of Notion, you might also discover the gaps begin to close between creative flow, technical functions, and knowledge access.
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The workings of an organization – specifically how knowledge and communication are managed, can be compared to a garden with roots interweaving – flowers, fruits, and seeds surfacing in different patterns for our team to tend to.
A healthy, growing, and supporting workspace has the following traits.
It’s accessible. Each team member can customize their preferences, creating spaces that are as simple or complex as they want.It makes things visible. We are aware of what is in-progress, blocked, and done. We have processes in place to ensure things don’t slip through the cracks.It’s integrated. It’s easy to find notes, pull in context, and move ideas forward. We can use a search to pull up resources that support our projects.In our workspace, projects are tended.
In this integrated workspace, leadership is less about “making things work” and more about nurturing, tending, and supporting.
Like plants, our projects go through stages of growth from seedlings to flowering to fruiting. They require the right conditions to grow, and they also need the right nutrients (information) to provide the best fruits (outcomes).
The gardening metaphors help clarify these activities further, and show how different elements of our project management theory uphold our values of workplace health.