I plan a lot of content — reviews, how-tos, and trend pieces — and over time I built a practical workflow that combines Notion as my single source of truth for ideas and editorial calendars with ChatGPT as a creative and execution engine. This system saves me hours each week, keeps the pipeline full, and makes it easy to hand off drafts or task lists to a collaborator. Below I’ll walk you through the exact setup I use, the automations I rely on, and share the prompts and Notion structure that make weekly content planning feel effortless.
Why Notion + ChatGPT?
Notion is great at organizing: relational databases, kanban boards, and a place to store assets and notes. ChatGPT is great at ideation, drafting, and transforming brief inputs into usable outputs. Together they let me go from a loose idea to an actionable plan and draft in under an hour for a typical weekly post.
Key benefits I care about:
Centralized content repository in Notion (ideas, statuses, assets).Fast ideation and drafts from ChatGPT with contextual prompts.Automated weekly planning emails or to-do lists so I don’t have to think about what’s next.My Notion structure (single source of truth)
I use a small set of databases that interlink. Keep it simple: Ideas, Editorial Calendar, Tasks, and Assets.
Ideas — a running list of raw ideas. Properties: Tags, Priority, Estimated Length, Source, Notes, Status (Backlog / Shortlist / Assigned).Editorial Calendar — a view of scheduled posts. Properties: Publish Date, Status (Planned / Writing / Editing / Published), Author, Word Count Target, Brief Link (relation to Ideas), Asset Links.Tasks — small actionable items. Properties: Related Post, Due Date, Assignee, Status.Assets — images, test results, files, vendor links. Properties: Type, Linked Post.What makes this work is the relation fields. Each Idea is linked to the Calendar when it’s scheduled, and Tasks pull from the Editorial Calendar so I can see what needs doing for each post.
Weekly automation overview
At the start of every week (I pick Monday morning), I want two things automatically:
A short list of 3–5 candidate ideas from my Ideas database that match priority tags and are not recently published.A draft brief and a first-draft outline (200–400 words) for the top candidate, ready in Notion.I achieve that using a combination of tools: Notion API, an automation platform (I use Make — formerly Integromat — and sometimes Zapier), and OpenAI’s API (ChatGPT). You can also do this locally with the new Notion AI or with the official ChatGPT integration, but having API control gives the most flexibility.
Step-by-step setup
Below is a practical sequence you can follow.
1. Prepare Notion: Ensure your Ideas database has useful filters (e.g., exclude items with Status = Published or Assigned in last 30 days). Create a template in the Editorial Calendar called “Auto-Planning Draft” that contains a section for Brief, Outline, H2s, and a Tasks checklist.2. Create an automation trigger: In Make or Zapier set a weekly scheduler (Monday 08:00). The automation will:a. Query Notion for Ideas matching filters (e.g., tag contains “feature” or priority = high) and pull 5 rows.b. Send the top metadata to OpenAI with a prompt to rank and propose the best 3 for the week, with short reasoning.3. Use ChatGPT to create the brief and outline: For the chosen top idea, call the OpenAI API with a robust prompt that includes the Idea’s notes, desired angle, target audience, and word count. Ask for:- A 2–3 sentence editorial brief- A detailed outline with H2s and 2–3 bullet points per section- Suggested SEO title and 5 tags4. Push results back to Notion: The automation creates a new entry in the Editorial Calendar using the “Auto-Planning Draft” template and populates the Brief and Outline fields with ChatGPT’s output. It also generates Tasks (e.g., “Write intro”, “Add benchmark test results”) linked to the new post.5. Notify the team (optional): Send a Slack message or email with the new plan and link to the Notion page. I use a compact summary: title suggestion, publish date, and a link so I can jump straight to writing.Prompts I use (copyable)
Good prompts are the backbone. I keep a “Prompt Library” in Notion for reuse. Here are two starters I use weekly.
Ranking prompt for candidates: “You are an editorial assistant. Given the following five idea titles and short notes, rank them from best to worst for publication this week on a tech review site focused on consumer gadgets and pros. Consider news relevance, testing readiness, and audience interest. For each, provide one sentence justification and a suggested publish urgency (High / Medium / Low).”Brief & outline prompt: “You are a senior tech editor. Create a concise editorial brief and a detailed article outline for the following idea. Include a 2–3 sentence brief, an SEO-friendly title, 5 suggested tags, and an outline with H2s and 2–4 bullet points per H2. Target audience: tech enthusiasts and pros. Tone: hands-on, practical. Estimated word count: 1,200. Idea and notes: [PASTE_NOTION_NOTES].”Practical tips and guardrails
Don’t over-automate. Use automation for repetitive tasks (ranking, outlines, task creation) but keep the creative decisions human-led.Version your templates. Keep an “Auto-Planning Draft v1” template and update it after a few weeks based on what drafts need.Use reminders. Notion’s native reminders or your calendar app help ensure planned items get worked on.Track outcome metrics. Add properties like Time Spent, Traffic, and Engagement to the Editorial Calendar so you can train your prompts based on what performs best.Quick comparison of common automation pathways
| Path | Pros | Cons |
|---|
| Make + OpenAI + Notion API | Flexible, fine control, cost-efficient at scale | Requires setup and maintenance |
| Zapier + OpenAI + Notion | User-friendly, lots of built-in integrations | Can be pricier for high volumes |
| Notion AI / ChatGPT plugin | Fast to set up, seamless in Notion | Less customizable; may not support all automation flows |
This workflow has become my weekly ritual: Monday morning the system hands me a well-scoped brief and outline in Notion, and I use a focused two-hour sprint to write the first draft. The combination of structured organization and AI-assisted drafting cuts the friction between idea and execution. If you want, I can share sample Notion templates or the exact Make scenario I use — tell me what automation tool you prefer and I’ll adapt the steps.
