Building a Content Flywheel in Notion

We worked with a client who produces a cryptocurrency podcast and video series across Africa, to develop a content flywheel in Notion.

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Our primary goal of this project was to develop a seamless workflow between the client’s production pipeline and the associated subtasks, that would keep their entire team on track, while working on several projects at once.

For this specific build, we utilized Notion’s databases, database templates, and native database automation.

The workflow;

• Projects are added to the Production database,

• as the project moves through the pipeline, sub-tasks are auto-created in the Tasks database using a Database Automation.

• The client’s team then completes any assigned tasks to complete the project.

Production database

Notion database automation

The Database Automation is triggered by the Production Status, then adds a new page to the Tasks database, using the appropriate template, and lastly adds the relation of the task to the project.

Task Database

There are several sub-tasks per production phase (see above); we’ve organized them into color-coded sections for easy reference in the future. 

As with many content flywheels, several items, such as thumbnails or scripting, need to be completed prior to publishing. So, we built a custom formula to auto-calculate that due date based on the publishing date. 

Inside each task template, we include the original “Days Due Prior”, which can be changed later by entering a new number of days.

Notion Formula: 

if(
    prop("Days Due Prior"), 
    formatDate(dateSubtract(prop("Publish Date"), prop("Days Due Prior"), "days"), "MMMM DD, YYYY"),
    if(
        prop("Days Due After") ,
        formatDate(dateAdd(prop("Publish Date"), prop("Days Due After"), "days"), "MMMM DD, YYYY"),
        formatDate(prop("Publish Date"), "MMMM DD, YYYY")
    )
)

Due to a limitation within native Notion database automation, we added an external Zapier workflow. This updates the actual date property with the date calculated in the formula, so the client’s team are able to utilize a database Calendar view and/or see the items in their Notion Calendar.

The Zap;

1. Trigger: New Database Item (in Tasks)

2. Action: Updates Database Item;

   1. adds the Calc String property to the Due Date property (start date)

And that’s it, a seamless, streamlined content flywheel in Notion.

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Written By: Sara Loretta

👋🏼 Sara Loretta is the Chief Digital Architect & Founder @ _systms™ — she’s also the 10th US Certified Notion Consultant, and 1st Certified Paperform Expert. Through her work and creatorship, Sara is focused on connecting and educating teams on tech, workflows, and all the ways they can optimize their business to scale.