How to Build & Maintain Sustainable Business Systems in Notion
Jul 25, 2025
Just as you and your business change, adapt, and evolve, your systems will, too—and it’s high time you have ones in place that are actually sustainable for years to come. In this blog post, I’ll be telling you why I’m so passionate about using Notion to manage and organize systems for my business, and teaching you exactly how to build + maintain your own (that will last for the long haul)!
Why Is Notion the Ultimate Tool for Organizing Business Systems?
Uh oh, you’ve asked me a question that I could spend literal hours answering 😜 But I’ll do my best to keep it brief, because we’ve got a WHOLE lot more to cover in this blog post.
Why is Notion the ultimate tool for organizing and managing business systems, you ask? Because man is it so easy to customize to your unique brain, brand, and business—easier than any other project or task management tool out there, for sure.
Notion isn’t one of those programs that you sign up for and immediately realize you can’t quite make it work for your one-of-a-kind brain; nope, it’s uber flexible, incredibly customizable, and ready to meet you where you’re at. Whether you’re a total Notion noob (do people still use that word??) or you’ve used it for years and know every single way to view a database, you can create your Notion systems to fit what you need, when you need it.
Maybe you’re in the very first stages of opening up your small business, and all you need is a place to track your to-do’s. Or maybe you’re years in, and are desperately searching for a way to keep track of your various clients, projects, and deadlines with more complex databases. Either way, Notion allows you to customize every single element in the way that works best for you and YOU alone.
On the more practical side of things, Notion is great for systems because once you’ve plugged in some data (e.g. tasks, dates, or categories), you can manipulate how your data looks, what you see, how it acts. . . without actually losing any of the original data. This flexibility is AMAZING for my ADHD, and is the reason there are so many options for database views in my systems! One day you might need a bird’s eye view, the next you might want to dial in on a specific timeline—and you can easily do all of that within Notion.
Because of Notion’s flexibility, your systems don’t need to be rigid in order to be successful. I even go as far as to say that your systems should actually be fluid, welcoming changes and small fixes whenever + wherever you see fit. It’s like a living, breathing extension of your brain, so it’s totally okay to treat it like that.
Notion can also handle pretty much any process for most business interactions, in some way or form, which is amazing compared to other tools that are more restricted in what they offer. Having one spot to run everything in my business, and only one software to open, makes tasks and processes feel easy, fun, and makes working on my business something I really really enjoy!
If you’re an ADHDer like me, you’re going to loooove Notion even more. Check out my guide to Why Notion is the Ultimate Tool for ADHD next!
The First Step to Creating a Seamless Notion System for Your Business
Before we dive into creating in-depth Notion systems for your business, there’s one crucial thing that you’ll need to do first: start figuring out your processes.
If you’re new to figuring out your workflows and processes as a business owner, you may want to start there before you really go deep into building systems in Notion. It’s a lot easier to transform an existing process with good bones (no matter how simple) into a Notion system once you’re familiar with it, and know how it works within your business—but you can also just find your processes along the way.
Business processes are especially important for ADHD people because where there is a lack of process, there is friction. . . and friction + frustration are the biggest productivity killers, in my experience. I try to avoid those two things in both my personal life and my business as much as I can, and if something does create a lot of friction, I ask myself: “Is it the process I need to adjust, or do I need to offload this task?”
And 9 times out of 10, it’s the process that needs fixing—which is great, because it’s free to do so haha. Having ADHD means I need running my business to be so smooth, I could almost do it on autopilot if I needed to. Whether this is sending invoices, creating proposals, communicating with clients, or creating content, it all needs to be as easy as it can be.
Painless. Smooth. No friction. Because then, when I sit down to work on my business, instead of experiencing frustration, overwhelm, anxiety, and doom, I actually feel joy, excitement, eagerness, and warmth. I’ve seen such a huge transformation in the way I approach my business, and more importantly the way I feel about running it, because my brain knows there isn’t going to be any friction. It will be easy, I know what I need to do, and I know where to find things. I have automated and templated actions that I repeat often.
Everything about running your business (as a person with ADHD especially) needs to feel effortless—and if it doesn’t, that’s when you need to sit down, look at your systems + processes, and re-evaluate. Or decide if you need to be paying someone else to take something off your plate!
Essential Notion Pages & Systems for Business Owners
Ready to find out what my absolute favorite, non-negotiable Notion systems are as an entrepreneur and small business owner? I’ll give you a brief look at my must-haves, and then take you through the exact process I follow to build systems from scratch.
Content Creation + Management
A must for business owners in 2025—if you don’t have a space to manage the content you’re producing, you are going to go out of your mind trying to keep track of it all. This should be a space where you can brainstorm ideas, organize planned content, plan out a schedule, store ideas for the future, categorize and label your ideas, and mark ‘em off once they’ve been executed.
Client Management
The days of trying to manage your clients with 3 different CRM’s and invoicing platforms are over. . . you will save yourself SO much time, energy, and effort by doing most of it in one place. I say “most” because Notion doesn’t quite have some of the key capabilities of many CRM’s out there (native invoicing, contracts, etc.), but you can store all of your client info in one place as well as host client portals, store resources you frequently share with clients, and more.
Task/Time/Project Management
This is the big one that most people come to Notion for in the first place: task, time, and project management. Notion can serve as a second brain for your business, storing every single task, due date, and project that’s currently swirling around in your brain, just waiting to be forgotten 😅 Having a task management system that works for your business is key to ensuring you know what you need to do and when you need to do it, ensuring you never drop the ball on an important task.
Personal Development
Sure, this one isn’t technically business-related, but I’m sure you know that as a business owner, your business and your life are so intertwined that they’re impossible to fully separate. That’s why I love to include a personal development system/tracker in my Notion business HQ, complete with spaces for me to journal, set goals, reflect, and so much more.
How to Build Sustainable Business Systems in Notion
You’ve decided that you want to use Notion to set up systems for your business. . . but how the heck do you actually get started?
I know just how overwhelming it can be when you first log into Notion, and see all the endless options and customizations you can make—it’s exciting but can feel like a lot! So I wanted to break down how I personally go about creating a new system within my own Notion hub.
Step 1: Figure out how you like to work
One of my core beliefs when it comes to Notion is that if you can figure out how you like to work + processes that make sense to you FIRST, it’ll be a whole lot easier to create systems based on that. This is a little bit harder if you’re new and don’t even know what your processes are, which is where a systems expert can come in very handy. Why stay stuck trying to figure it out on your own when you could bring someone on to help build you something custom, or at least consult on processes with you? You can learn about my custom Notion workspaces here if that’s something that interests you :)
And if you aren't sure of a process, you can always build something out anyways, and tweak it once it is built based on how you desire to use it. There is no wrong or right way, and systems sometimes can take practice before they feel good.
Step 2: Create database + views
I always start by creating the databases and all of the views I think I will need
I recommend creating your database as a full page rather than inline. This way you can add colored icons, which makes it way easier later when you’re connecting databases, so you know you’re grabbing the right ones! It especially helps if you’re like me and have literally thousands of databases due to different templates, lol. Play around with the different views you might want to include (calendar, kanban, timeline, etc.) and see what makes the most sense for your brain. Also keep in mind what a future, different version of your brain may want—for example, you know that sometimes you like to see a calendar view and sometimes you prefer a list view, so you should just create both right off the bat!
Pro Tip: Have a way to name your databases that makes sense. I usually do my initials, the current year, and then what the database is. E.g. BB25 Tasks, BB25 Projects, etc.
Step 3: Map out pages
Next, map out the pages you want to include! I’ve already given you some suggestions earlier on in this guide, but this might include a Task Hub, Business Hub, Client Hub, Content Hub, Project Hub, etc.
Step 4: Add database views
Once you’ve got your pages laid out, it’s time to add your database views to the appropriate pages. I usually start this by creating Callouts with headlines, so that I can move them around the page before the databases are in there and make sure I have everything I want. This just helps me get a look at the page before I actually add in the database views I’ve already created, and makes it easier to flex the layout.
Step 5: Customize!
Finally, it’s time to pretty it up! I personally love adding images, GIFs, custom emojis, covers, widgets, changing colors, etc. There are SO many ways to do this, so let yourself play around and just have fun with it for a while! Keep in mind that you might want to adjust it in the future if the novelty wears off—make it easy for yourself to change the colors or swap out images whenever you’d like to.
When Your Notion Systems Need Maintenance
Here’s the thing about creating systems in Notion: they will ALWAYS need to be adjusted.
Just like you and your business evolve over time, your systems should be able to evolve and adapt with you. That’s why I always remind folks that systems do need to be maintained, and you’ll know when it’s time. I’ve found that around the one year mark, things start to get sticky, feel clunky, and are overall just ready for a refresh—so I reconfigure mine about once a year, and when that time comes, I am ALWAYS ready. This keeps me from having to do any major clean-ups, because I can just leave all the stuff I want in the old version, and only migrate over things I am currently using to the new version!
And honestly, this process of moving from my old Notion system to a new one takes me less than 30 minutes. It’s so much easier and faster than people might think—though building an initial system takes me months, but that’s a whole other story haha. So once it’s ready, it’s really quite easy to migrate over. I even re-release my Notion templates every year, and you get lifetime access to the updates when you purchase one version!
So, are you feeling ready to build your own Notion systems now?!
I know it can feel like a LOT, and creating your own systems might just not be something you have time for in this season of your business.
That’s why I’m THRILLED to be offering Custom Notion Workspaces for small teams that are fully, completely tailored to your unique needs. Whether you’re a small business looking to maximize your workflows and keep your projects on task, or you’re in desperate need of a content management system that actually works for your brain, Notion can be such an incredible solution for your business long-term. Learn more about my custom Notion systems here, or book a quick 20-minute call to chat through your options!
Wanna continue down the Notion rabbit hole? Lucky for you, I’ve got just the thing ;)