How I Use Notion to Manage My Design Studio
The first time I tried Notion was a few years ago, back in 2019. I started seeing it mentioned by some of the American designers I follow, got curious, and gave it a try. And after half an hour, I bailed because I neither liked it nor understood it.
But the thing is, I kept seeing it pop up everywhere, and I kept seeing people with similar tastes to mine raving about it, so I decided to spend a little time learning how to use it. I spent more hours than I care to admit watching YouTube videos (in English) about how other people used Notion, and there came a moment when the whole system just “clicked” in my head—it was like seeing a whole new dimension… like seeing something in 3D that I’d only ever seen in 2D before.
It’s been a real eye-opener for me, and now I’m a proud member of the Notion fan club. But I know it can be tough at first, so I want to share a bit about my experience and how I’ve been using it over the past two years to manage my design studio.
This post contains affiliate links to Notion.
Table of Contents
What is Notion?
In general, Notion is a tool for organizing and managing information. It combines a text editor, database management, and file integration (such as PDFs and images) all within a single app. It also offers a wide range of integrations with other platforms, allowing you to embed external content (from Asana tasks to Google Drive files).
All of this makes it a very robust system—and, above all, a flexible one—thanks to a unique feature: it operates using content blocks.
What is Notion used for, and what sets it apart from other management and productivity platforms?
Imagine that Notion is a LEGO set: you have a variety of pieces at your disposal—in different colors, sizes, and shapes—and by using these blocks and your imagination, you can build whatever you want. If you and I were given access to the same LEGO set, what you build would be different from what I build.
And the same goes for Notion: using its content blocks, anyone can build a system that best suits their needs—as simple or as complex as they want. That’s the magic of Notion, but it’s also what makes it a little hard to grasp at first.
I’m going to give you a look at my systems—from invoices, accounting, and client projects to my own projects and content calendar—to help you see how you could use them too if you run a studio and work with clients.
Client Project Management
CRM: Lead and Customer Management
I have a CRM in Notion (Customer relationship management) to manage potential clients. This allows me to see at a glance what stage of the contact and negotiation process each potential client is in, and to keep a record of all the contacts I receive. Here I record additional information such as: industry, budget, follow-up reminders, whether the project was contracted or not, etc.
This is a semi-automated process: I have my contact form on my website integrated with Notion so that every time a potential client submits a contact form, a card is created in Notion with all the relevant information.
And from there, I can track all requests based on their current stage. I even have a template within each client’s file that automatically generates the script I usually follow during the initial call, so that’s one less thing I have to worry about.
This way, I can track each request, its current stage, whether and when I need to follow up, call notes, the quote, and so on. Tracking the contact through the CRM stages is manual, but the effort involved is minimal.
Some people even present their quotes to clients on a page in Notion, but that’s not how I do it. While that works perfectly well, I prefer to send a PDF or (as I’ve been doing lately) a link to a page on my website.
Client Projects Portal
Once a client approves the quote, I begin the onboarding process, which includes creating the project portal and sharing it with the client.
The portal includes:
Project phases, including tasks and responsible parties.
Among the tasks that require content submission from the client are "workbooks" designed for the client to fill in all the necessary information (ranging from the initial discovery questionnaire to the submission of website copy )
Inspiration gallery (websites, fonts, photographs, etc.).
Payment schedule with associated invoices.
You can leave comments within Notion, which allows us to keep all project communication centralized in one place and organized by task. You can also upload files (such as PDFs) that the client can download to their computer or view directly in Notion.
And, since I like to automate as much as possible, the portal is a template that I customize just a little bit for each project, but it takes me no more than 10 minutes to create and share it.
Project Time and Profitability Tracking
Tracking the time you spend on each project is essential for understanding the profitability of your services. The system I've set up in Notion allows me to track overall profitability for each project, as well as by work phase—both for individual projects and across all my projects.
This has helped me identify which stages I tend to spend more time on than I should (research and strategy, design and prototyping, development, offboarding, etc.), and with this information, I can make adjustments and improvements to my work processes to increase the profitability of my services.
If this sounds a bit far-fetched to you, trust me—sometimes you might be in for a surprise. Thanks to this system, I realized a while back that my custom web design projects weren’t turning a profit (in fact, they were losing me money), and I was able to adjust my pricing and workflow to address the issue.
And if you don't know anything about this stuff, I highly recommend Lunes School's pricing masterclass: it's very easy to follow, and you'll come away with a clear understanding of how to accurately calculate your prices and profitability.
Process checklists
I have several checklists in Notion, but specifically for my design services, I have one that outlines the general workflow of my projects and all their stages: from the initial contact to the project’s completion. I’ve been improving and refining this checklist over the years, because in a visual identity or web design project, there are a lot of tasks and details that can be overlooked—and that’s when problems arise.
Having this list on hand—with links to templates and resources for each task—and keeping it handy for every project ensures that I don't leave any loose ends.
Management and monitoring of internal projects
To me, internal projects are all those things we have to do in a business to keep it running and afloat, but that aren't client projects. Think of things like: website redesigns, email lists, Instagram, product launches, creating a template or a course, etc.
And when it comes to project management, I've tried several different approaches: some people organize absolutely everything as a project, with specific goals and detailed tasks for each item, and in this way they create a highly detailed daily work schedule.
This method is great, and it works really well for some people, but it doesn't work for me personally: I'm the kind of person who works better with a mindset geared toward short sprints rather than a long-distance race, and having such a detailed schedule for the coming months really overwhelms me.
But again, this is a very personal matter, and the beauty of Notion is that you can create the system that best suits you and your preferences.
So, after a lot of trial and error, I realized that what works best for me is planning in monthly sprints (with quarterly goals), and that’s how I’ve set up my workflow and task management system. I tend to get a bit (or rather a lot) distracted, so this approach lets me focus on very specific tasks for short periods of time.
This system helps me figure out what I should focus on this month, and what can wait because it’s already scheduled for next month. And of course, for each project, I create and adjust tasks on the calendar. When I create them, Notion generates a monthly view and a weekly view for me, which is how I prefer to organize my tasks.
This system gives me enough structure to stay focused on what I need to do, but also enough flexibility to adjust things if necessary. Plus, the internal project management system is linked to client projects and the content creation system, because ultimately all three are part of the business and need to work together every month.
Content Calendar: A System for Creating and Scheduling Posts
I have a system in place for generating, creating, and planning content ideas for my various channels (blog, newsletter, and Instagram), based on the marketing goals I set for each year and quarter.
Everything is integrated in such a way that I can write a single piece of content that I can use, with minor modifications, for my blog, newsletter, and Instagram—the channels I currently use.
In addition, I use the same system to organize the publication schedule for each piece and each channel.
Invoice Management and General Accounting
I keep my most detailed and granular accounting records in spreadsheets, but I use Notion to keep track of my day-to-day expenses and income, especially when it comes to my business.
The great thing about having this ledger set up the way I have is that I can see, all in one place, all the invoices I have outstanding—which ones are coming up, overdue, or already paid—and I can generate reports showing actual monthly revenue as well as revenue forecasts for the coming months. I can also view a monthly balance sheet and see whether past months have been in the black or in the red, as well as the projected balance for the coming months based on expected revenue from projects already booked.
This system operates somewhat independently from the others, but it integrates with the client portal for each project to display the corresponding invoices for each one.
As I mentioned, I handle the day-to-day details of my accounting elsewhere, but this system in Notion gives me a very useful and convenient overview for my daily work.
Resource libraries
One of the things I like most about Notion is the Chrome extension that lets you take screenshots of web pages (it’s also available for Safari and Firefox). I use it all the time to save links to websites I like, fonts, articles that interest me, and so on.
All these screenshots, along with their links, are stored in a library where I can also add tags, filters, comments, and whatever else comes to mind.
So, in the end, I have a fairly large knowledge base within Notion with various resource libraries:
Web design inspiration (with filters by platform, style, industry, etc.).
Fonts.
General graphic design.
Plugins and design tools.
Code snippets I use in my projects.
Backups of my clients' project code (I also have local copies of these, but I can access them quickly in Notion).
Courses that interest me (filtered by price, topic, level of interest, etc.)
In general, all libraries have filters that help me organize information and make searching easier. For example, let’s say I’m looking for inspiration for an online store in the natural cosmetics sector: all I have to do is go to my web inspiration library and filter by type (e-commerce) and by sector (cosmetics), and I get an overview of everything I’ve saved on this topic. Or maybe I’m looking for something more specific in terms of style: in that case, I filter by “minimalist style” or “scroll animations.”
Conclusion
As you can see, we can use Notion for all sorts of things, and it can really be a very useful tool for managing a design studio if we take the time to learn it and tailor it to our needs. It’s not for nothing that they call it a “second brain”—basically, you can upload and store anything you need in it. I’m not going to tell you it’s something you can do overnight, but in my opinion, it’s definitely worth it.
Ultimately, Notion helps you automate, organize, and manage all the information and projects related to your business.
When you run your business on your own (as I do), it helps you stay organized and keep your sanity. And when the time finally comes to hire a virtual assistant or someone else for your team, everything will be so organized and structured that it will be very easy for them to understand and use your workflow.
If you liked what I've shared here or if you have any questions, message me on Instagram —I'd love to hear from you and help you out.
