Why I Keep Shoving Notion Down Everyone’s Throat (And Why You Should Try It). The true and false disclosed for your enjoyment and benefit.

Post by Peter Hanley coachhanley.com

You’ve probably noticed I mention Notion in almost every article I write. It’s in my AI mastermind setup, my content workflows, my affiliate link examples—hell, I probably mentioned it in my grocery list if you could see it.

I’m aware I sound like a broken record. Or worse, like someone who’s way too invested in their affiliate commissions. But here’s the thing: I genuinely can’t shut up about Notion because it solved a problem that was quietly destroying my productivity for years, and I didn’t even realize it was a problem until it was gone.

Let me explain.

The Problem I Didn’t Know I Had

Before Notion, my digital life was chaos disguised as organization. I had:

• Google Docs for writing
• Trello for project management
• Evernote for random notes and ideas
• A spreadsheet for my content calendar
• Another spreadsheet for tracking affiliate performance
• Apple Notes for quick captures on my phone
• Bookmarks scattered across three browsers
• A physical notebook because “sometimes I just think better on paper”

I thought this was fine. I thought this was just how you work when you’re running multiple projects. Every productivity expert online had their own system using seventeen different apps, so surely this was normal, right?

Wrong. The problem wasn’t that I was disorganized—I was actually pretty disciplined about using each tool. The problem was the friction between them.

Every time I needed to reference something while working on something else, I had to context switch. Writing a blog post in Google Docs and need to check my content calendar? Switch to the spreadsheet. Need to reference notes from last week’s mastermind session? Switch to Evernote. Want to see which affiliate programs performed best last month? Back to another spreadsheet.

I was spending probably 30-45 minutes per day just switching between apps, searching for things, and mentally reorienting myself. That’s 3.5 to 5 hours per week. That’s 180 to 260 hours per year just… switching tabs.

What Notion Actually Is (Without the Marketing BS)

Notion is basically a blank canvas where you can build whatever information system you need. It’s a word processor, a database, a project manager, a note-taking app, and a wiki all in one place. But that description makes it sound more complicated than it is.

Think of it like this: instead of having separate apps for separate tasks, you have one workspace where everything lives and connects to everything else. You’re not switching contexts—you’re just scrolling or clicking to a different page in the same environment.

The magic isn’t in any one feature. It’s in the fact that your blog draft, your content calendar, your research notes, and your task list can all exist in the same place AND reference each other.

How I Actually Use It (Real Examples)

Let me show you what this looks like in practice, because abstract explanations don’t help anyone.

My Content System: I have a database of every article idea, draft, and published piece. Each entry has:

• The current status (idea, outline, draft, published)
• The target keyword
• Which affiliate programs it mentions
• The target publication date
• Tags for which niche it fits into
• The actual draft or published text

When I’m planning my week, I can filter this database to show only “Ready to Write” articles. When I’m looking for opportunities to naturally mention an affiliate product, I can filter by “Needs More Affiliate Links.” When I want to see my publishing history, I switch to calendar view.

It’s all the same database—just different views depending on what I need in that moment.

My AI Mastermind Setup: Remember those five personas I created? Each one has its own page with:

• The complete prompt
• My notes on what types of questions work best
• A linked database of all the challenges I’ve presented to them
• Patterns I’ve noticed in their advice over time

When I’m running a Friday mastermind session, I open one workspace and everything I need is right there. I’m not hunting through different apps for saved prompts or past sessions.

My Research System: When I’m researching a topic, I create a page for that topic and dump everything into it—links, quotes, screenshots, my own thoughts, relevant data. It’s all searchable later, and I can link that research page directly to the articles it informed.

This means when I’m writing about “best email platforms for solopreneurs,” I can link directly to my research page where I tested five different platforms, saved my comparison notes, and documented my findings. The research isn’t lost in some other app—it’s connected to the content it supports.

The Features That Actually Matter

Notion has a million features, but 90% of my usage comes down to three things:

Databases that aren’t spreadsheets. You can create a table of information (like my content calendar), but then view that same data as a kanban board, a calendar, a gallery, or a timeline. The data stays the same; you just look at it differently depending on what you need.

Pages inside pages inside pages. Everything can contain everything else. A project can have sub-projects. A note can contain a full database. A database entry can contain an entire wiki of information. This nesting ability means you can organize information the way your brain actually works, not the way some app developer decided it should work.

Linking and relations. You can link any page to any other page. You can create relationships between databases (like “this article mentions these three affiliate programs” or “this project requires these five resources”). Your information becomes a connected web instead of isolated silos.

What It Won’t Do (Managing Expectations)

Notion isn’t perfect, and I don’t want to oversell it. Here’s what it’s NOT great at:

Real-time collaboration. If you’re working with a team that needs to simultaneously edit the same document, Google Docs is still better. Notion works for teams, but the collaboration isn’t quite as smooth.

Mobile app performance. The mobile app exists and works, but it’s slower and clunkier than the desktop version. I use it for reference and quick notes, but I don’t do heavy work on my phone.

Offline access. You can work offline, but it’s not seamless. If you’re frequently in places without internet, Notion might frustrate you.

Super complex databases. If you’re trying to build something that rivals Airtable’s capabilities, Notion will hit limitations. It’s powerful for most solopreneurs but not for complex data operations.

Why I Push It So Hard

Here’s the real reason I can’t shut up about Notion: it gave me back mental energy I didn’t know I was losing.

When all your information lives in one connected system, your brain stops holding the mental map of where everything is. You stop thinking “wait, where did I save that?” or “which app was I using when I wrote that down?” You just search or navigate to it.

The reduction in cognitive load is subtle but significant. I’m not smarter or more productive in terms of raw output, but I’m way less exhausted at the end of a work session. The friction is gone.

And for someone running multiple blogs, testing AI workflows, tracking affiliate performance, and trying to build a sustainable online business? That reduction in friction compounds. Every hour I’m not spending searching for information or switching between apps is an hour I can spend creating or strategizing.

How It Could Help You Specifically

Given what you’re building—affiliate blogs, AI content creation, multiple sites to manage—Notion could be your command center.

Content management: Track ideas, drafts, and published posts across all your sites in one database. Filter by site, by status, by performance.

Affiliate tracking: Keep a master database of every affiliate program, commission rates, tracking links, and which articles mention them. When you need to update a link or see which programs are working, it’s all in one place.

AI prompt library: Store all your working prompts, organized by purpose. Your mastermind personas, your content generation prompts, your research prompts—all searchable and accessible.

Research repository: When you’re exploring new affiliate programs or niches, dump your research into Notion. It stays organized and connected to the content it informs.

Performance tracking: Create dashboards that show your key metrics—traffic, conversions, revenue—across all your properties. Link specific performance data to the articles driving it.

Instead of juggling five different sites across multiple tools, you’d have one workspace where you can see everything, manage everything, and find anything in seconds.

Should You Actually Try It?

Here’s my honest take: if your current system works and you’re happy with it, don’t switch. Tool-hopping is a productivity killer, and Notion has a learning curve.

But if you’re feeling that low-level friction I described—constantly switching apps, searching for information, losing track of where things are—then yeah, give it a shot. The free version is genuinely useful (I used it for months before upgrading), and you can test whether the “everything in one place” approach actually helps you.

Start small. Don’t try to migrate your entire digital life in one weekend. Pick one use case—maybe your content calendar or your AI prompts—and build that in Notion. See if it feels better than your current solution. If it does, gradually expand.

And if you try it and hate it? No big deal. At least you’ll know, and you can stop listening to me rave about it in every article.

Though honestly, I’m probably not going to stop either way. Some things are just worth raving about.

I found Notion when working with the brand new Wealthy Affiliate AI training module