Peter Perpich

Achieving Alignment: How I Use Notion to Track Projects and Stay True to My Goals

Hi, I’m Peter Perpich, a mission-driven, goal-oriented software engineer with a broad range of goals across various categories and stakeholders. One challenge I faced was finding an effective way to manage multiple projects while maintaining a balance of time and energy to make progress in all areas of my life.

The solution I developed is a comprehensive system for managing all my goals, intentions, projects, and tasks using Notion. For someone like me who enjoys tracking progress, this system has been an invaluable and stress-saving tool.

In this post, I will walk you through my Notion system in detail, how I put it together, and share some best practices that help keep me on track.

The Problem

Managing multiple projects and goals simultaneously can be overwhelming. I found myself struggling to keep track of everything and ensure that my daily tasks aligned with my higher-level goals and missions. Without a clear system, it was easy to lose sight of what was most important and waste time and energy on less critical tasks.

The Solution: My Notion System

I turned to Notion, a versatile tool that allows for customization and comprehensive organization. Notion provided the flexibility I needed to create a system that could handle the complexity of my various goals and projects. Here’s how I set it up and how it works for me.

Setting Up Your Notion System

1. Creating Your Why and Missions

The foundation of my system is my core missions and 'why' statements. These are the guiding principles that drive everything I do. Here’s how I defined them:

  • Family: To prioritize the well-being and growth of my family, nurturing a loving and supportive environment, fostering meaningful connections, and being a role model as a devoted husband and father, demonstrating love, respect, and the pursuit of personal excellence.

  • Professional & Creative Endeavors: To excel as a software engineer and creative professional by continually learning and embracing new technologies, creating impactful and inspiring content, and contributing to projects that promote innovation and positive change. I aim to bridge the gap between technology and creativity, fostering a culture of innovation and collaboration that benefits the greater good of our society and the universe.

  • Health and Fitness: To pursue general athleticism with passion and dedication, pushing my limits and inspiring others to embrace a healthy and active lifestyle, while promoting the connection between physical well-being and mental resilience.

  • Environmental/Spiritual Contribution: To lead by example in adopting sustainable practices, advocating for environmental conservation, and nurturing spiritual well-being through mindfulness and community engagement. My goal is to inspire others to appreciate the interconnectedness of all life and to take actionable steps towards preserving our planet and enriching their own spiritual journeys.

2. Goals

With my core missions in place, I structure my top short to mid-term goals and objectives that align with my missions. For example:

  • Family Goal: Ensure kids are getting an enriched summer break where they progress, learn new things, and prepare for the next grade while maintaining their health.

  • Professional & Creative Endeavors: Finish the breathwork app by the end of Summer.

  • Health and Fitness: Increase flexibility and mobility by the end of Summer.

3. Projects

Under each goal, I create more specific projects that will help me manage my time and steps required to achieve my goals. For example:

  • Project Family Education: Build out a lesson plan for the kids and a schedule.

  • Project Career Growth: Take one course on a new technology.

  • Project Health and Fitness: Set a consistent schedule to exercise and track my progress.

4. Tasks

Notion allows me to quickly add and organize tasks. Here is my process:

  • Add tasks and associate them with projects.

  • Prioritize tasks using the following categories:

    • Important and Urgent

    • Important but not Urgent

    • Urgent but not Important

    • Not Important and not Urgent

  • Time blocks: Add time blocks in my calendar for each task or project depending on what makes sense that day.

  • Databases: Use Notion's databases to categorize tasks by project, priority, and deadlines. This feature is great because it allows for different views of the data.

Diagram of the database structure

Technical Instructions

1. Set up your Notion workspace.

  • Vist https://www.notion.so and create an account.

  • Add the projects and tasks template. Instructions This will save some time from manually creating the databases yourself. Each property can be modified after.

  • Create the Top Level goals database with these properties:

    • Goal: Title of the goal.

    • Mission: The mission that this goal aligns with.

    This should be very high level and really be only a few goals. I use my life long goals based on my values for this database. Tutorial on creating a Notion database

  • Create a Short to Mid Term goals database with these properties:

    • Goal: The goal that this project aligns with. This is a relation to the Top Level goals database.

    • Name: Name of the goal.

    • Mission Statement: The mission that this goal aligns with.

    • Projects: A relation to the projects database.

    • Status: Paused, Not Started, In Progress, Done.

    • Short Term Objective: The short term objective that aligns with this goal.

    • Long Term Objective Statement: The long term objective that aligns with this goal.

    • Deadline: The deadline for this goal.

    • Top Level Goal: A relation to the Top Level goals database. This is for interesting views.

  • Update the Projects database with this propertie:

    • Short to Midterm Goal: This is a relation to the short to mid term goals database.

    • Stakeholder: I use this to keep track of which groups will benefit from me working on the project.

    • Top Level Goal: This is rollup property that is a relation to the short to mid term goals database. This allows you to see the top level goal in the projects database.

  • Add this property to the tasks database

    • Stakeholder: This is a rollup to the projects database. This allows you to see which stakeholders will benefit from you completing the task.

Staying Aligned

This system helps me stay focused and aligned with my goals. Here are some tips for maintaining and regularly updating your Notion setup:

  • Regular Reviews: Set aside time most days to review progress, plan for the next day, and create time blocks in your calendar.

  • Flexibility: Be open to tweaking your system as needed to better suit your evolving needs. This system works for me today, but it may not tomorrow. I may need to add more properties or delete ones that I don’t really need.

  • Consistency: Consistently use and update your Notion system to keep it effective.

Conclusion

Having an organized system for task management is crucial for staying on track and achieving your goals. Notion has been a game-changer for me, helping me maintain alignment across all areas of my life. I encourage you to try setting up your own system and see the benefits for yourself! Happy coding!

"Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out." – Robert Collier