How to build a Simple 2025 Author Planner in Notion
(Plus a downloadable template so you don't have to 😉)
WRITERS
If, like me, you didn’t hit the ground running on Jan 1st with your goals and plans nailed to the wall, this post is for you.
I started 2025 with the express wish for less PUSH energy. With two books written and published last year - plus becoming an ambassador for my favourite tool (Notion) - I felt like the whole year was about pushing through.
Now don’t get me wrong, that energy has it’s place (like when you’re trying to wrangle a sh**ty first draft into something that readers might actually want to read) but this year I want a softer energy, more ease and allowing, holding my goals lightly and letting them bloom rather than forcing them like rhubarb.
So I took my time with my goals, choosing a word for the year first to set the tone - I chose NOURISH which feels perfect in lots of ways - and journaling through my thoughts before finally adding writing, personal and home/family goals that make me smile.
Then once I had my goals set, I wanted to make a plan. Not a pushy plan, but a plan nevertheless.
And what planner did I use? Notion (Wait, what?)
I love a notebook as much as the next writer (I literally have boxes of them), but for planning I’m digital all the way. Notebooks for journaling, Notion for planning. And for organising ALL my writing and book stuff, but more of that in another post.
What’s Notion?
Imagine Google docs, Google Sheets, Evernote and Monday had a baby. Not all red-faced and balling it’s head off, but cute and quiet and sleeps-through-the-night. That’s Notion.
To mix my metaphors. it’s like the Swiss Army knife of productivity tools—a little bit of everything. I think of it as my personal digital HQ where I can plan, organise and create pretty much anything.
Plus with downloadable templates for every need, I don’t even need to build anything from scratch myself if I don’t want to. (Incidentally, I’ve made a whole set of Notion templates for authors - with a simple writing space, book website, character library and more.)
If you haven’t used Notion before, you can try it out using my ambassador link. Everything I built in this video you can do on the free plan. In fact I use the free plan for pretty much everything I do in Notion.
(Would it help if I made a Notion walkthough video? Let me know.)
Anyway, on to the title of this post…
How to build a Simple 2025 Author Planner in Notion
I’ve made a video to walk you through how to build the exact annual planning system I use. It’s not just for writers, it’s for anyone who wants to get a bit more organised, and you can customise it for whatever your goals are.
It starts with a section to review 2024 and any key metrics you want to remember, then onto your vision for the year ahead, quarterly and monthly goals and a weekly and monthly review to track your progress and delete any goals that you didn’t meet pivot if you need to. Let me know if you find it useful.
Plus, in a homage to
and one of her recent videos in her fabulous Creative Joy Club (which you should join btw), I’ve shared some of my favourite past paper planners at the beginning 😊New here?
✨Find out what Chapters & Checklists is about
✨Check out the Authors Resource Hub and Behind the Debut podcast
✨ Download my Notion Simple Author Templates