Notion is a great project management tool. It is not just useful in planning your research, you can also use it to write articles about your research. Here are two ways that you can manage a family history blog using Notion.
You can use Notion to:
- store a list of your family history blog post ideas
- write the draft posts
- gather images
- plan and draft social media posts
- track progress
- store copies of the final blog post and links to social media posts.
The foundational databases provide the project management structure for all types of projects, including writing projects. You do not need to construct any additional databases. If you have not already set them up, instructions are provided here.
The four foundational databases are: Projects, Research Questions, Tasks and Notes.
Option 1: Website is the Project
Create a project for your website in the Projects Database.
You could use the Research Questions Database to list each blog post and link them to Tasks and Notes. However, I it may be less confusing if you create a Note for each blog post in the Notes Database and link them to the website Project.
I find it useful to use the title of the blog post as the title of the Note. The title of the Note can be amended as work progresses.
Family history blog post tasks
Create Tasks for each blog post for any actions that you want to track.
You could just have one Task – ‘write [title] blog post’. Or you could break the process down into multiple tasks, such as:
- Research for [title] blog post
- Prepare draft [title] blog post
- Finalise [title] blog post
- Create social media posts for [title] blog post.
Keep each Task title unique, as this will help you track progress in your linked databases. I do this by putting part of the blog post title in the task names (see [title] above).
Make sure that you link each Task to the Note for the relevant blog post. That will allow you to filter or sort your linked databases to show Tasks for a particular post.
Tracking progress on blog posts
If you choose to just have one Task for each blog post, consider adding a To Do checklist on the Notes pages to help you keep track of your work.
The Tasks Database is already set up with tools to mark individual tasks as completed. However, you also need a way to mark off a blog post as completed.
Add a checkbox property column to your Notes database, called Archived or Completed. Use it mark off a blog post Note after it has been published. You will not lose the archived Notes. They remain in your Notes database.
Create a linked view of your Notes database on the page for your website project. Instructions are provided in Plan your family history with Notion. Add a second tab with a copy of the database. On the first tab, add a filter so that it shows Notes that have not been archived. On the second tab, add a filter so that it shows Notes that have been archived, i.e. published blog posts.
Option 2: Each family history blog post is a Project
Another option is to create a new Project for each blog post. I personally prefer this option, but both work fine.
If you choose this option, you can use the Type property column in the Projects Database to identify all of the Projects that are blog posts. Just add another type, such as Blog post.
Then create Notes and Tasks for each blog post, similar to Option 1.
You will still need to add a checkbox to mark off completed posts, but for this option you would add it to your Projects Database instead of your Notes Database. I also added a Status property column to my Projects Database (see image below).
Only one task is listed per project in this example, but you could have many.
More tips
Consider creating a template for your blog post Notes pages, to help you create quality blog posts. This could include headings such as topic, draft titles, opening paragraph, list of images, internal and external links.
Consider adding a checkbox property column to your Notes database and/or your Tasks database to identify Notes and/or Tasks that are related to blog posts. This will help you filter for all blog Notes and Tasks. You could also use a different icon on Notes and Tasks that are blog related.
Use a keywords property column in your Notes Database or Projects Database to record the subjects of each post. This will allow you to filter for posts on each subject and view how many blog posts you have written (or have planned) on a particular subject.
After you publish your blog post, add the URL to the Notes page for that post. You could also add a property column to your Projects Database (for Option 2) or your Notes Database (for Option 1) to store the link.
Back to the Notion main page on my website for more articles.
