Out with the old and in with the new. We all know what to do, yet most procrastinate until the clutter gets in the way. This saying applies to your digital workspace as well. The time spent organizing your team's workspace for the year is beneficial. Tackling your team's pain points and frustrations early on will set you apart as a manager, team leader, founder, or anyone who wants to bring a group of people from point A to point B.
It can be overwhelming to start, and here is where we come in with the help of Notion 😉.
1. Create a space for this objective
Create a space where you can freely move, categorize and reconcile all your company knowledge that you want to review. We recommend creating a new "Teamspace" in your Notion sidebar for this and giving it a unique name, such as 🏗️ Construction. Also, make sure to leave the permission open so everyone who needs to contribute can temporarily find this space in their Notion sidebar.
💡 Make sure to delete the default homepage template of the teamspace.
2. Build out your construction zone
Set up a database and give a unique name, such as Backlog. Then create a status property to keep track of your organizational efforts. We recommend creating a lead organizer role (people property) if you want to split the work between team leads, which will speed up this process. And lastly, renaming the property title of the pages inside the database to Space.
This Backlog will be the main database, where you and some of your team leads will organize and categorize your company's knowledge.
🤝 Let’s recap
Create a database and name it → Backlog
Rename the page title property → Space
Create a people property and name it → Lead Organizer
Create a status property
3. Getting to work
Now proceed by linking all the different spaces you intend to review and re-organize. For this step, type “@” followed by the page's title. A pop-up menu will appear so you can search for the page in real time. Press enter when you have found the page that you want.
Another way to do this is by copying and pasting the page you want to add to the **Backlog**. When doing this, a pop-up menu will appear so you can add it to the database.
A good starting point for this is to add all your org chart departments/teams that have spaces in Notion. After this, think about other spaces (or pages) that you and your team leads find essential to review and reorganize. Take your time to do this because this is a crucial phase that will guide this objective. Not all spaces (or pages) in Notion will need to be reorganized. Talk to your team leads and select the spaces that most people have a hard time understanding or working with. If you and the team leads need clarification on which spaces these are, we recommend doing a quick survey and having the whole company fill it out. When working with clients, we use this as a starting point.
✍️ Download our Notion workspace survey questions!
4.Getting your hands dirty
By now, you have the 🏗️ Construction teamspace, the backlog database and have identified the spaces you want to reorganize. The next phase is to start creating these new, improved spaces. Remember to communicate with each affected stakeholder why you are doing this and how they can benefit from the newly organized space. Also, at this phase, we advise getting someone from your company that's knowledgeable about Notion who knows how to filter, duplicate database views, sort etc., to build out the new structure and move it back into the spaces that you want to reorganize. This might take some time, so do this one space at a time.
If any of this sounds a bit daunting, don’t fret, we’ve created a video explaining the steps above, along with some tips & tricks to make this phase smoother👇.
https://www.loom.com/share/9be7360dc5084c6cb50ffcc027c2109c
Video: Tips and tricks on how to re-organize your spaces in Notion.
5. Educating your team members
By this point, all your content should be organized. The next phase is to educate your team members on how to use the space properly and maintain good operational hygiene. We recommend you do the following:
Record an explainer Loom video demonstrating how the newly organized space works, where knowledge is kept, and how to access support if they become lost.
Embed the explainer Loom on the homepage of your newly organized area. At first, keep this above the fold and in clear view. As your team members become more confident with their new space, you may place this within a toggle to hide it from view unless needed.
Invite your employees to the newly organized space, ensuring that the link directs to the page with the explainer loom front and center.
6. Voila!
There you go! Congratulations on efficiently organizing your Notion workspace. We have helped more than 50+ companies reorganize and refine their Notion workspaces. Book a call with us if you still need help reorganizing your Notion workspace.
