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My Creative Workflow with Notion

2020-07-07 · Long video (solo, talking head or whiteboard) · Ali · recording, 16:08 · watch on YouTube

Topic: YouTube, writing online and creators · mode: Demonstration and walkthrough · tags: Sponsor segment present

In a video sponsored by Notion, Ali walks through the Notion workflow behind his videos: a Kanban board that moves every idea from "no status" to published, a sponsored-video schedule linked to the videos database, and a new-video template, adapted from Thomas Frank's, that prompts the title, thumbnail, story structure and a hook.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Why a defined creative workflow; his ideas before Notion; the three features he uses

  • ★★ Asked how he runs a YouTube channel, a podcast and businesses beside working full-time as a doctor, Ali says that besides productivity it takes a defined creative workflow for churning out videos, podcasts, blog posts and newsletters. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ Before Notion, which he has used for over a year, Ali kept video ideas on his phone, in Evernote or in a paper notebook, and often forgot ideas he had in the shower or while driving. — 00:00:29 · Evernote, Notion
  • ★★ Since he started using Notion and built a workflow for his videos, Ali says, he can make two or three videos a week. — 00:00:29 · Notion
  • ★★ The three Notion features Ali uses most are Kanban boards, templates and linked databases, which he says also help with project management, school work and essays. — 00:00:29 · Notion

00:01:15 — The Kanban board: from idea to published video, and why they never start from scratch

  • ★★★ Every video idea Ali has goes straight into a Notion Kanban board, his idea refinery, where it moves from "no status" or "idea" through writing, script review, ready to film, filmed, with the editor and ready for publication to published. — 00:01:15 · Notion
  • ★★ Ali's Notion board holds 49 videos with no status and 47 ideas, just under 100 video ideas collected over time. — 00:01:15 · Notion
  • ★★ Members of Ali's team write scripts for his videos; Ali then reviews each script and changes the language so it sounds more like how he speaks on camera. — 00:01:44
  • ★★ When he sits down to film, Ali picks a video from the board's "ready to film" column; once filmed, he uploads the footage through Google Drive to his editor. — 00:02:13 · Google Drive
  • ★★★ With a board of ideas, Ali and his team never start a video from scratch; like writers with a good note-taking process, they never need to start from a blank page, which is no fun at all. — 00:03:04

00:03:34 — Linked databases: the sponsored video schedule and the videos database

  • ★★ Ali uses the same Trello-style Kanban board in Notion for his blog posts and email newsletters as for his videos. — 00:03:34 · Notion
  • ★★ Ali thinks having this workflow has supercharged his own and his team's ability to make videos every week. — 00:03:34
  • ★★ Ali's channel releases a sponsored video most Tuesdays or Wednesdays; these are the only videos with a deadline, so the team tracks a sponsored video schedule, planned in mid-2020 up to about September. — 00:03:34
  • ★ Ali's video on his Notion creative workflow, released on 7 July 2020, is sponsored by Notion. — 00:04:17 · Notion
  • ★★ In Notion databases can be linked to each other: Ali's sponsored video schedule is linked to his videos database, so a status changed on a video updates in the schedule. — 00:04:17 · Notion
  • ★★ A calendar view of Ali's Notion videos database shows which upcoming videos are sponsored and which are not, which helps him manage deadlines. — 00:05:05 · Notion

00:05:35 — The new video template, taken from Thomas Frank, and apps as tools for thought

  • ★★ Ali's Notion video template is taken from his friend Thomas Frank's video on the Notion setup he uses to make videos; Ali found Frank's too complicated for his team and simplified it with his own elements. — 00:05:35 · Thomas Frank, Notion
  • ★★ Ali shares his Notion new video template, linked in the description, for viewers to copy into their own workspace. — 00:06:04 · Notion
  • ★★ Ali likes discovering new apps and workflows because the right one for you and your task becomes almost a tool for thought, encouraging you to think in ways you would not have before. — 00:06:45
  • ★★★ To the argument that apps make no difference and pen and paper would do as well, Ali answers that an app's design encourages a way of thinking, and Notion lets you encourage yourself to think the way you want. — 00:07:14 · Notion
  • ★★ Ali's Notion new video template has sections for the title and thumbnail, notes, the story and story structures, the video's details and a publishing checklist. — 00:07:14 · Notion
  • ★★ For a few weeks in mid-2020 Ali has been streaming on Twitch a few times a week for a few hours: study-with-me streams and streams of him making videos in Notion. — 00:07:43 · Twitch, Notion

00:07:58 — His Twitch streams

00:08:26 — Writing the script of this video with the template: fields, title and thumbnail, story structures, the four parts, the publishing checklist

  • ★★ Ali's video template asks for the video's intention, one of three sorts: discoverable, community or sales; his Notion video is discoverable, made so that people discover the channel through it. — 00:09:14 · Notion
  • ★ Ali's sponsored video schedule for July 2020 includes videos for CuriosityStream and for Brilliant, the Brilliant one on 28 July. — 00:10:00 · CuriosityStream, Brilliant
  • ★★ Christian edits Ali's video on his Notion creative workflow. — 00:10:00 · Christian, Notion
  • ★★ Linking each video to the sponsored video schedule lets Ali see at once where the schedule has gaps and which video idea to put into a sponsor's slot. — 00:10:00
  • ★★ Ali's video template asks for the title and thumbnail first, which makes him actively brainstorm both, something he did not really do before. — 00:10:42
  • ★★ Ali's video template includes a seven-part story structure in which he highlighted points four and seven, the parts people commonly neglect in stories and, he says, arguably the most important. (hedged) — 00:11:42
  • ★★ Asking himself the story questions forces Ali to think of each video in story mode, instead of a list such as "five ways I use Notion", which is what he used to make. — 00:12:06 · Notion
  • ★★ A second template of Ali's, based on a Video Creators course he calls very good, lays out two story structures: the three-act structure (the character wants something, faces conflict, overcomes or is overcome) and the hero's journey. — 00:12:27
  • ★★ Ali finds the three-act structure unsuited to his Notion video, which is not a journey video, and maps it onto the hero's journey instead: a bad process before Notion, a full-time job needing a system, help from Thomas Frank's video. (hedged) — 00:12:56 · Notion, Thomas Frank
  • ★★★ Ali's videos have four parts: the hook, the intro, the value and the custom playlist; the hook is about 10 seconds that make someone discovering the channel want to watch the rest, before any "welcome back to the channel". — 00:13:57
  • ★★★ Ali says a video's title and thumbnail set an expectation: the viewer clicks expecting some value, and he aims to deliver that value within the hook so they keep watching. — 00:14:34
  • ★★ Thinking of a video in the template's four parts gives Ali a structure in a few minutes, one he can use for every single video. — 00:14:59
  • ★ Ali's template ends with an uploading and publishing checklist: the description, the sponsor's call to action, tags and caption files made with the caption service Rev. — 00:14:59

00:15:29 — Twitch, the templates in the description and his Notion playlist

Threads in this video

  • refine · How do you come up with ideas for content? — With a board of ideas, Ali and his team never start a video from scratch; like writers with a good note-taking process, they never need to start from a blank page, which is no fun at all. (00:03:04)
  • restate · Which productivity apps should you use? — To the argument that apps make no difference and pen and paper would do as well, Ali answers that an app's design encourages a way of thinking, and Notion lets you encourage yourself to think the way you want. (00:07:14)
  • refine · How do you grow a YouTube channel? — Ali says a video's title and thumbnail set an expectation: the viewer clicks expecting some value, and he aims to deliver that value within the hook so they keep watching. (00:14:34)
  • refine · How do you find time for projects alongside a full-time job? — Asked how he runs a YouTube channel, a podcast and businesses beside working full-time as a doctor, Ali says that besides productivity it takes a defined creative workflow for churning out videos, podcasts, blog posts and newsletters. (00:00:00)

Mentioned

Central: Notion · refinery

Also: People: Christian · Thomas Frank

Organizations: Brilliant · CuriosityStream · Rev · Twitch · Video Creators

Concepts: hero's journey · three-act structure · tools for thought

Products: Evernote · Google Drive · Trello

Also centred on refinery: How I use Notion as a Resonance Calendar

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