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People who use Notion to plan their whole lives

• rrr83 4y ago
  Well I just use xl or notepad for my todo lists, rest is in my memory which I don't care documenting in some commercial product. Are we getting too much addicted to technology for basic stuff?
• karles 4y ago
  As a Notion-user, this just seems excessive to me. I love Notion because it gives me the ability to make "lightweight" notes/pads fast. I've since learned to utilize the linked database features which makes it easier to organize notes, tasks and projects. At some point however, it feels like it just becomes busy-work to make new boxes to check, new links, relations and what-not. To me the beauty is in the simplicity, cross-platform capabilities and relative ease with which I can create and access simple notes fast. EDIT: I forgot templates. I use 2 or 3 templates for notes and "new projects". I never use more than 5 columns for my projects/notes either. And I don't have any "dashboards" besides my task-list (that I can sort as kanban with four status-indicators - basic stuff).
  • spondylosaurus 4y ago
    Same and same. My most effective Motion pages are the big ugly bullet point lists to quickly jot down to-do tasks or grocery lists or writing ideas or albums I want to listen to; what makes it all work is the ability to offload my brain into an external source as quickly as possible (and retrieve it later when I need it). Some of these really fancy setups look nice, but they strike me as adding too much friction to the whole process.
    • spondylosaurus 4y ago
      Just realized I meant to say *Notion and not Motion... note to self, don't leave HN comments when you're sitting up at 4AM with acid reflux :P
  • winstonprivacy 4y ago
    My secret weapon is a "to do" list in notepad. One list which has everything. No apps, no workflow, no SaaS fees. Works better than anything else I've tried.
    • freedomben 4y ago
      Same, except s/notepad/vim. One big file. Easy to keep in version control (I keep it in my dot files repo), easy to search/grep, Currently has 10 years worth of stuff (well over 10,000 lines) but is still instantaneous to open and search. I've recently started trying out Logseq and there's a chance I may actually switch, but the single-text-file approach has served me very well for a long time.
      • deleted 4y ago
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      • cyberpunk 4y ago
        I was the same, I've been on logseq for a while and I'm pretty much a convert. Syntax highlighting, embed images, todo/now/done -- all a bit more effortless. And it all went into the same git repo as my previous vim based .plan ;) I just wish it had a decent vi mode!
        • cldwalker 4y ago
          Check out https://github.com/vipzhicheng/logseq-plugin-vim-shortcuts https://github.com/vipzhicheng/logseq-plugin-vim-shortcuts
    • tofuahdude 4y ago
      Same, except that I've added Obsidian as a UI on top of it. Check in markdown, have decent visual on top.
    • anongraddebt 4y ago
      Same here for todos (just with pen and paper). I don’t see why I’d need an admin dashboard and a DBMS to effectively prioritize what I need to accomplish in 16 hours.
• deleted 4y ago
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• mtsolitary 4y ago
  Are these people not worried about storing their entire lives in some SaaS company's proprietary format on their cloud servers?
  • HPsquared 4y ago
    I wonder if they offer an option to export the data in some usable format.
    • PradeetPatel 4y ago
      Unless there's a tangible monetary benefit in doing so, I don't see why that would be a good business decision. It is likely that there will be some use cases for power users, however one must justify the development and opportunity costs associated with that.
      • corobo 4y ago
        Seems like they do from a quick googlin' https://www.notion.so/help/export-your-content https://www.notion.so/help/export-your-content https://www.notion.so/help/back-up-your-data https://www.notion.so/help/back-up-your-data > one must justify the development and opportunity costs GDPR
    • idontknowifican 4y ago
      yes, markdown
    • geraltofrivia 4y ago
      It's not the most intuitive export (since there are backlinks, complex hierarchy, databases and all that jazz in Notion pages) but they do return Markdown for every page, CSV for databases (with some information loss), maintain folder structures, and multimedia attachments. A quick search shows me that Notion exports can be used to populate Obsidian [1] (which implies that there's not substantial information loss). [1] - https://forum.obsidian.md/t/notion-2-obsidian-migration-instructions/2728 https://forum.obsidian.md/t/notion-2-obsidian-migration-inst...
• azubinski 4y ago
  "Joshua Bergen is a very productive person. His secret is the workspace app Notion..." sancta simplicitas
  • cynicalsecurity 4y ago
    Just marketing.
• joseph_grobbles 4y ago
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• deleted 4y ago
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• have_faith 4y ago
  I started doing this for a while but quickly switched to Obsidian. Obviously it doesn't have the same features but it serves the same purpose for me at least. The data format is much simpler and portable too, I just store the vault in iCloud and sync it to my phone.
  • anonzzzies 4y ago
    I similarly moved from Notion to Joplin. My data, my server etc. For me the move was triggered by Notion being very slow, but later on, with the amounts of data I had in Notion, I started to worry about privacy etc as well.
    • doubleg72 4y ago
      I am in the process of moving to obsidian from Joplin. I like Joplin but the screen real estate is a bit much on smaller screens.
  • geraltofrivia 4y ago
    Obsidian is great. My notetaking solutions went from - raw text files - raw markdown files - + homemade server rendering the markdown live - Obsidian - Notion I stick with Notion because it really is infinitely configurable. I rarely use 99% of the plugins but I have, in the past, used their API to populate the show the results of my experiments straight from my Python code to a Notion Table. Super convenient. I take regular (every six months or so) hard exports that I save to disk in case the company goes belly up tomorrow. I'm comfortable with it.
  • inferense 4y ago
    did the same but missed tasks and integrations so started working on https://acreom.com https://acreom.com during covid. It's dev centric and data ownership focused, would love to get feedback.
  • qbasic_forever 4y ago
    I just wish obsidian was better at lists, especially on the mobile client. It's really painful moving things around tab levels, reordering items, etc. I can't even manage a grocery list without it devolving into complete chaos and broken markdown. There are extensions that help but extensions on mobile are really bad (just an enormous toolbar to scroll through, no real UI... the whole mobile app feels designed to be used with a keyboard which defeats the point of mobile).
• deleted 4y ago
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• dt3ft 4y ago
  Isn’t this entire article just marketing? Why mention specific app/saas provider?
  • prmoustache 4y ago
    I was about to say that. It is just a badly disguised paid ad.
    • connordoner 4y ago
      Is there any evidence that it's paid? I mean, it does strike me as an ad, but I can't see anything factual to confirm that it's paid.
    • jitl 4y ago
      (I work at Notion) We didn't pay for this or incentivize it, it's an original story from the press.
• zepolen 4y ago
  This entire article reads like an advertisement written by chat gpt.
• Barrin92 4y ago
  >Many users find it’s just as useful for managing their free time.[...] "“You don’t have to change your habits to how rigid software is. The software will change how your mind works,” says Akshay Kothari, Notion’s cofounder and chief operating officer" Stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back at you? "What did you do this weekend?, Well nothing special really, but I got a 3000 line Notion document mapping every step of it". Can we stop attempting to export every workplace fad into personal lives? Just enjoy your free time, focus on free, not on time. Compulsive busywork is not a replacement for spontaneity.
• Eddy_Viscosity2 4y ago
  This just seems like so much work. The obsessive tracking of ever little thing. Does anyone really use this data in any meaningful way other that just admire its detail? What happens if you miss period, does this cause anxiety?
  • 12907835202 4y ago
    I've long dreamed of tracking every little thing. I don't know why but tracking everything I do, what I eat or drink or wear, how many hours I watch TV or sit on Reddit, how often I urinate, my work life balance, literally everything, the of having it all is exciting to me. Beyond the thrill of acquiring and holding it, it would no doubt be more useful than simply admiring it. Compare it to say a sports trophy, that's something you simply admire although of course you have the memories of the journey to win it as well. Data and tracking on the other hand feels practical and usable in the present and the future, as well as something to look back on or "admire". Would you think less of people who put the hours into winning a sports trophy or writing a book (that they presumably never read or use themselves)?
    • davidmurdoch 4y ago
      Do you track how long it takes you to track things?
      • senectus1 4y ago
        this is the point i fail... normally before i start. I think about all the things i'll track, then realise just how disruptive and time consuming that will be and give up.
    • aszantu 4y ago
      have you ever found a relationship between mood and what you eat in a 5 day window?
    • deleted 4y ago
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    • 4y ago
• figassis 4y ago
  I think after using so many of these organization apps, I used plaintext note taking apps, sublime text, trello, more structured note taking apps (evernote, Agenda for Mac, etc), Todo apps (so many of them, incl pomodoro style), then went back to trello and I think I'm staying there.
  • bayindirh 4y ago
    Everybody is different, and Trello is a great application (I use it for longer-term planning with my partner), but after starting to use Pagico, I'm completely sold. Being able to plan things as projects, and putting them to a unified or independent gantt charts is a great way to visualize daily and long term load.
    • darkteflon 4y ago
      Pagico looks interesting, would you mind saying a few more words on what you like about it?
      • bayindirh 4y ago
        Of course. First of all, Pagico is really cross platform. It has clients for macOS, Linux and Windows, plus iOS (I use it on macOS, iOS and Linux). It allows me to group the tasks either in a free floating Inbox, or in their respective projects. I can combine all these projects' tasks in a single view, or see them in their independent contexts. This allows me to see my whole workload (private + professional) and plan my life accordingly, even for future. Every project can have its lists, notes, files and schedule. This allows me to take small notes and track my projects and carry these notes everywhere. Hence, I don't lose my mental state about a project. It also tracks project progress and your working patterns, like which days you're more active on the projects by analyzing your activity on said project. Tasks can be added pretty quickly while planning, even with some NLP support. "Do this. Next tuesday" automatically scheduled, and the date string is automatically stripped. NLP is done locally, on the app. You can export these notes as HTML pages if you want, but I generally move notes to Evernote or the prıoject's public Wiki, if I chose to close the project, but that's not a given. Sometimes I just leave them in. Pagico provides a sync capability through its servers, yet you don't have to use it. It can work nicely over Dropbox for example, but mobile clients won't be able to sync with it. The application is designed very neatly. Actually, it's just a web view with a dedicated/specialized PHP server running as a different process. It's much more lighter than Electron, yet it works very well. The developer is also very responsive to bug reports and feedback. They are developing the thing for a very long time and they know what they're doing. The app is not perfect, of course, but it works very well for what it does. I bought it during pandemic, and it's now my de-facto planning tool. However, I still use Trello for even-longer term planning and Evernote for "eternal" documents. All three works pretty well for me. I spend maybe ~10 minutes every night to plan for the next day, and I'm happy. I also want to note that I don't use many of the collaboration features of the app, and it has much more features than I actively use.
• Jackevansevo 4y ago
  The 23 minute video linked on the "ultimate notion setup for 2023" sounds like a great trap to fall into to not actually get anything done. I get the impression some people spend more time configuring these productivity tools instead of actually being productive. Although I admit I've been guilty the same thing, perfecting my .vimrc instead of actually working on projects. Messing around with static site blog generators when I should actually just be writing content.
  • rchaud 4y ago
    It's also a very good example of why search engines suck today. Everything is stuffed to the gills with right keywords, to get the maximum number of clicks on the affiliate link that is almost certainly embedded in the video description.
  • dmd 4y ago
    Over the last 20 years or so I've tried: index cards, wunderlist, todo.txt, remember the milk, Asana, Any.do, Evernote, Google Notebook, Simplenote, Trello, Workflowy, Google Keep, Bear Notes, org-mode, and probably a dozen others. Three years ago I started using Apple Notes and told my wife "if you see me trying anything else at all, yell at me". I've been pretty happy with it and am much more productive just using something rather than trying to find some magic new tool.
    • jwestbury 4y ago
      The tool you have is usually the most efficient. Sometimes that's not true, but it's especially true if it's a tool you have everywhere.
    • foxandmouse 4y ago
      The latest version of apple notes is great, but drafts has been the pkm tool I’ve been the happiest with.
    • Jorslu 4y ago
      You have described the 2010's for me succinctly. Wow.
• hobo_mark 4y ago
  > Joshua Bergen is a very productive person. But is he? I mean his linkedin is, and I mean this with no malice whatsoever, quite average compared to the effort that goes into maintaining such a system?
  • blantonl 4y ago
    You judge people's productivity based on their LinkedIn? This might be peak /r/LinkedInLunatics
    • deleted 4y ago
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• mabbo 4y ago
  The software that's running my life right now is ToDoist. I have daily chores, I need to remember to do at different times of the day. Other things are every 3 days. Others are on specific days. Others are every k weeks. If I need to remember to do something, it goes on the list with a specific day and time I want to do it by. At the end of every day I review what's left and either do it or postpone it. Cleaning a checklist works for me. Do what works for you.
  • darkteflon 4y ago
    I’ve been a paid Todoist user for years - probably 6 or 7 years I would guess. I like almost everything about it but it drives me crazy that they won’t add blocking/blocked by flags and the ability to assign a task to more than one project - both of which, incidentally, Notion can do. I’ll keep using Todoist for personal stuff but for shared work projects Notion works better for me. It feels like they just fundamentally chose a great set of abstractions. I do wish their mobile UX was better, though.
    • mabbo 4y ago
      I've quite liked their mobile UX actually! On Android, I have an entire screen devoted to the widget. I swipe to the right, read the list, add to it, check things off. I rarely open the actual app.
      • darkteflon 4y ago
        Oh sorry, yes I like Todoist’s mobile UX a lot - it’s very good. I meant that I wished Notion’s mobile UX was better!
  • ZunarJ5 4y ago
    Todoist and Obsidian for me. I linked them with extensions. Obsidian is my notebook and Todoist keeps me on track. People that go this deep into pkms aren't efficient workers. They can be extremely helpful, but this sounds frankly unhealthy and unhelpful.
  • czbond 4y ago
• rho4 4y ago
  I use Trello to organize my life. At the moment I cannot imagine what kind of features an alternative would have to offer for me to consider switching.
  • thanatos519 4y ago
    One thing I'm wishing for in Trello is the ability to add an icon to my Android home screen pointing directly to a specific checklist.
    • brycedriesenga 4y ago
      Hmm -- can you link directly to Trello lists/cards? Wondering if you could leverage a Chrome link on the home screen if that would then throw you over to Trello automatically? Not sure.
      • deleted 4y ago
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      • mxuribe 4y ago
        You can def. link directly to a card (I've been doing that for years)...but to a list, not sure about that one.
  • jldugger 4y ago
    I use Trello for a lot of things. I'm not saying notion is this thing, but customizing the dessign to the workflow works better than One App To Rule Them All. My go to example here is grocery lists. Most "productivity" apps have a checklist feature, but thats super bare bones. I used to use Cinnamon, but its been taken off the store (anylist is a my current meager replacement). What made it _good_ was that instead of "done/not done" state checklists offer was that it modeled an inventory flow. Pantry -> Buy List -> Shopping cart -> Pantry. The shopping process is simple and repeatable. I start with the Pantry list, which describes all the stuff I expect in a well-stocked pantry, and step one is to confirm I have them. Anything I don't have (or need more of) I move to the buy list. Later, at the store, the Buy list is my guide to what goes in the shopping cart. This is very similar to the original intention of Kanban, but: - the UI is much smoother than trello. Just swiping, no drag and drop. And there's an undo button - the metadata is customized to the process, and can decorate the UI with info. Prices forecast your total at the checkout register, grouping by aisle or location makes it easier to grab the right stuff and confirm you've grabbed all the stuff in one go. - after a period of inactivity all items in the cart move back to the pantry automatically Trello, at its core is designed for team project management, with many tasks occurring in parallel. The UI is designed to visualize the amount of work being done and where the bottlenecks live. It's very good at this! It even lets you design custom workflows to model the exact work being done. But there's always going to be a tensions in place working against it -- making apps that work for everything usually end up great at nothing, and its product market fit seems to be agile software development, so thats where its UI and feature set lean towards. So IDK if you switch as much as slowly add to the pile of apps.
• arthurofbabylon 4y ago
  I built minimal.app as the antithesis of over-planning, over-documenting, over-organizing, and over-thinking. The feature that keeps the mind open is the Note Lifetime, whereby notes die when you don’t engage with them [1]. This is in contrast to notion, evernote, et al where writers collect stuff and live in these information silos, trapped by the confines of their tools. Of course many (most?) thoughtful people can pull themselves out of these traps with discipline, but I prefer my tools devoid of these slippery slopes that make discipline a necessity [2]. I use Minimal to “plan my life” just like the characters in this story, except every time I open the app it feels like an empty slate, a blank canvas, so new projects can take new directions and new mindsets are less constrained by prior mindsets. As the designer and builder, my goal is to capture the best of a paper notebook and the best of software. I know I’m not executing perfectly, but this is a fun and exciting guiding principle. [1] – Also the interface is just clean with features hidden away until they are needed. [2] – Just like a well-architected structure makes the resident by default open-minded, comfortable, and joyous, our tools similarly have a “gravity” or default effect on the user. It’s very important to observe these patterns. [Final aside] – Anyone who wants to can get a free membership and unlimited access tk premium features by joining the beta program - do it at minimal.app/#beta if you want to check Minimal out.
  • ErikHuisman 4y ago
    Self cleansing notes. That is a great idea.
  • syntheticnature 4y ago
    Dying notes are a fascinating thought, and relate to some of the cruft aspects I've seen with any sort of task-tracking. That said, in my usual note-taking app, I have things like recipes I might make once in a blue moon, and I'd be very annoyed if I lost my late grandma's lasagna recipe.
    • bee_rider 4y ago
      Based on the site, it looks like it moves them to a “deleted notes” folder rather than actually completely destroying them. I’m not sure if it is locally hosted or a cloud thing. If it is a cloud thing, having noted eventually degrade might be a nice reminder that like any cloud thing it could just up and vanish at some point. That recipe is probably due for long term storage.
• jwie 4y ago
  Turning your life into a checklist is missing the point.
  • koliber 4y ago
    Agreed. Counterpoint: Turning the important things into a checklist so you don't forget about them, and get them done quickly frees up time to live your life.
• NemoNobody 4y ago
  This was a great ad
• ilrwbwrkhv 4y ago
  Workflowy is what I have been using for almost a decade. I think the reason it works so well is because it is simple. Anti features are so powerful in an app like this otherwise you can spend all your time tweaking and coming up with the perfect system.
  • nmca 4y ago
    Also my go-to. Very useful for travel, projects etc. Recursive lists fit my brain well & the search is good enough!
    • ilrwbwrkhv 4y ago
      It also feels like a niche, esoteric app nowadays, so when the hordes go to notion, we can stay over here.
  • mandmandam 4y ago
    I liked Workflowy a lot, but the idea of paying $60 a year for drop down lists inspires a deep, deep revulsion. I wouldn't even pay that for the full app to own for life.
    • ilrwbwrkhv 4y ago
      It's $49 annually. If you use it for everything, it is totally worth it.
      • mandmandam 4y ago
        It's little triangles that fold your list. I know how handy it is. But I think about the simplicity of it, and it offends me to pay so much for the ability to do something which I feel ought to be a standard thing. $49 is nothing to most here. It's doable for me. But there are countries - many - where that's a month's median wage. $49 for a blockbuster game - sure. It's optional, there were hundreds of thousands of hours of work put into it, etc. Little foldy triangles costing the same, and you don't even own the software? Nah.
• Invictus0 4y ago
  I don't use any checklist or notebook or anything. I just know what I need to do and do it.
  • maxbaines 4y ago
    Yes this is what I do also - But reading this thread is perhaps making me wonder if this is an unusual approach? To me its very normal to know what I need to do, and very very rarely do I miss something, a task etc.
• fastball 4y ago
  Shameless plug, but if anyone here enjoys Notion but finds it a bit overwhelming for managing their life, we designed Supernotes[1] to be a bit more settled / less trying to be "the everything app". We just released a new version yesterday that includes some fun features like "view depth" which might appeal to HNers. It's also markdown based, so less lock-in to a proprietary JSON format than Notion (though still not OSS – recommend Logseq if that's what you're looking for). [1] https://supernotes.app/changelog/ https://supernotes.app/changelog/
• jstop107 4y ago
  That’s an advertisement
• guessbest 4y ago
  I think it is ironic that the notes for usage for Notion is in the embedded youtube video called 'the ultimate notion setup for 2023', which seems to me to be text explained in a video.
• lemiffe 4y ago
  Absolutely love Notion for the aspects mentioned in the article; I love how I can cluster everything together (work, life, etc.) From short term planning (templates for my week which I copy every Sunday to start a fresh week - these templates are a 7 day todo list (in columns) with a link to my main calendar, project 'kanban' boards, and a linked "general todo" list for things that don't fit in the week and keep dragging on) After being addicted to scheduling everything in a calendar (for about 5-6 years), and having to drag items I didn't complete to the next day every single day, working with templates (and linked lists / embedded sections) in Notion is really a game changer. I've tried many other to-do tools (like Wunderlist which I loved before it came Microsoft To-Do, which I still gave a chance but had too many bugs). Notion is just a game changer plain and simple, I hope they never break it, this is the only tool I have come to love and trust to keep my entire life in.
  • thiago_fm 4y ago
    Basically from what you've written, you are still addicted to scheduling everything, but now you do it in notion. If you need to constantly drag items you didn't complete to the next day, it means you are either a professional procrastinator, which TODO lists just make it worse, or you are over committing and need to either find a way to delegate, or just don't do it. I bet that if you maintain literally 1 file with TODOS and remove those lines as you complete it and use a Calendar(preferably, only for work), you'll do just fine. All that energy wasted planning, you can use it for action.
    • MisterBastahrd 4y ago
      Or maybe it's the best way for this person to stay on track. You seem awfully judgmental over a relatively basic strategy to complete tasks. Have you ever considered that some people do things because it's the best way for THEM to accomplish tasks? I've got ADHD. I either (a) complete the task immediately, (b) have anxiety over the task and procrastinate, (c) completely forget about the task altogether until its important. I don't create lists for fun. I create them because I accomplish things faster when I have a list of things to knock out. Virtually everyone who has ever gone through something like this has already DONE what you described, and it didn't meet their needs. If you've got time to waste on HN, then you're clearly not as hyper-efficient as you like to think you are.
• thiago_fm 4y ago
  Why use this to plan your life? Just use a Calendar... and write somewhere what you need to do. Or hell, just use your brain, if you can't keep what is important in your head, it probably means it isn't important at all. Your life isn't complex like managing multiple workstreams and projects for a whole organisation of thousands of people, it's supposed to be simple. If you have too many things to keep track of, you are doing something wrong. People like to overcomplicate their lives. Just do it!
  • azinman2 4y ago
    Watch the YouTube video. Yes it’s pretty intense with GTD, but if you see the wide spectrum of her life in notion it’s very impressive. I don’t think I’d ever do it, but I wish I was organized enough to do so.
  • hammyhavoc 4y ago
    I have ADHD, and if I don't write it down, it isn't happening. How that information is presented is a big deal. If you do a basic litmus test of going to a sub-Reddit that specializes in productivity, concepts like GTD, or software like Obsidian, you'll quite frequently find people with ADHD, and folks who suspect they have ADHD, but have no diagnosis, or can't access appropriate medication where they live for one reason or another. Disclaimer: I don't use Notion. I didn't like it.
    • noltncy 4y ago
      Several times I keep finding me switching through apps. When notion became the rage, I went to make an account to find out that I already had an account (with to do lists from months ago). I have made sincere attempts to use it as my primary tool, often spending days on setting it up and sometimes money. I always lose interest and switch to the next fancy thing. Among Notion, amazing Marvin, ticktick, toodledo, things, Microsoft todo, several calendar apps, structured, streaks, Any do, dynalist, OneNote, trello, clickup- I finally (for now) settled on Drfats and OneNote (at work since it comes default and I can move pages around). Drafts- can’t handle images. Also needs about 20$/year. (I have paid for majority of the above listed apps at some point, including notion for their ai. ) But on the plus side, I got into a habit of just dumping everything on my phone directly into drafts, hoping I will dirty and organize it later. So the capture part is kind of good right now. The acting on captured part is still pending. Also recommend an app called zen diary which is a linear flow of text, like a log. I have ADHD, refuse to acknowledge it and I use Apple devices personally and windows at work.
• thefourthchime 4y ago
  I have experimented with Notion and previously used Evernote. However, I simply require basic tools and a platform that functions rapidly and synchronizes across devices. Apple Notes fulfills these needs quite effectively for me. Contrary to Evernote, which progressively slowed down and demanded increased payments, or Notion, which I anticipate may follow a similar path, I don't foresee Apple Notes becoming burdened and focused on revenue generation.
  • mandmandam 4y ago
    If only Apple Notes would just bring in drop down bullets. I'm a little baffled that they still haven't - it would be such a huge quality of life improvement for such a tiny effort.
• quacked 4y ago
  I once read a tweet that said "the most effective people I know just work on the most important thing, and they get way more done than the people I know who obsessively manage their time". Oddly enough, when I thought about it, I realized I could pretty easily think of the most important thing at any given time. I like to stay organized. For random thoughts, brainstorms, arbitrary URLs or bits of information, I use Google Keep and eventually migrate them into OneNote for more permanence. For files, I use an Unsorted folder in OneDrive, and then eventually migrate them into my structured OneDrive for permanence. Organizing and migrating all this built-up information becomes a leisurely meditation on category theory. It's a great way to procrastinate productively. When I actually want to be productive, I entirely ignore my information ecosystem, ask myself "what important thing am I avoiding?" and then work on that.
• r3trohack3r 4y ago
  In the past few months my family has moved to Basecamp and it’s pretty awesome. Sharing a schedule and having it sync to everyone’s calendar app is handy. Also being able to assign tasks and attach metadata is great. The other day I was assigned a task that required getting something from the hardware store. Opened up the task and there were photos and measurements attached. Before Basecamp we used multiple communication channels for this. Also, it seems that our data is open enough for me. I can export Basecamp to disk if I ever want to migrate out.
• philosopher1234 4y ago
  I hate these people. It’s the wrong way to live. Life is not about getting a high score in productivity or financially. I pity the people in their lives who are being optimized like some kind of machine/chore. It sounds so loveless
  • leobabauta 4y ago
    I wonder if you notice the lovelessness in hating them and pitying them.
    • philosopher1234 4y ago
      Tru. Or maybe I hate them because I love them enough o want better. Or maybe I am just cruel and loveless.
• menacingly 4y ago
  Even more than I love Notion, I love how effective the PR I just read was
• protortyp 4y ago
  To me, Obsidian really became the killer app overall. I used Notion and Foam before and while the interface there is much more beautiful, I like having my files locally (synced via Syncthing) and being able to write my own plugins easily. The existing plugin ecosystem with instances like Dataview or Templater makes Obsidian such a great solution for personal and work planning, and as a knowledge base. The only thing that's really missing is a collaborative version of Obsidian to be able to work in teams. I found craft.do that has a very similar feel, but it's quite pricey and, of course, you can't self-host.
  • uptownfunk 4y ago
    It looks good. Couple questions: 1/ how do you support hierarchical organization. The links let you show relationships but how do you get to a hierarchical representation 2/ at some point this knowledge graph must become large and unwieldy, how do you manage that?
    • protortyp 4y ago
      I primarily use folders and the dataview plugin [1] for 1). E.g. when I am managing a course, I have a structure like so: https://www.dropbox.com/s/5mbcuu2pyy7eb3o/folder-structure.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/5mbcuu2pyy7eb3o/folder-structure.p... I usually have a top-level note for a course, here the "Computational Surgineering.md". In there, I use the dataview plugin to simply create a dynamic table of all entries in the meetings subfolder: https://www.dropbox.com/s/wk8jjldlohg6bf3/dataview.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/wk8jjldlohg6bf3/dataview.png?dl=0 Another option I use is nested tags[2], like #cs/meeting for the above use-case. As for 2) I don't really use the global graph that much. It looks quite cool, but I primarily just look at a local graph with a maximum depth of 2-3 to quickly hop around. [1] https://github.com/blacksmithgu/obsidian-dataview https://github.com/blacksmithgu/obsidian-dataview [2] https://help.obsidian.md/Editing+and+formatting/Tags https://help.obsidian.md/Editing+and+formatting/Tags Edit: Formatting is horrible on HN. I posted screenshots instead.
      • uptownfunk 4y ago
• dtihanyi 4y ago
  I found Notion frustrating to use across the different teams I manage because they really want you to do things 'one way'. The endless customization tutorials end up being really surface level once you try them out. I use Taskade now https://www.taskade.com/ https://www.taskade.com/
  • yz_coding 4y ago
    Taskade is easier to use and faster. Notion looks great but I always felt it needs some cognitive load to even get started.
• imtemplain 4y ago
  [dead]
• jrmg 4y ago
  These systems always strike me as a failure of the file system and desktop metaphor. _The computer_ was intended to be the system you stored documents in, with paths to link between them, and any number of applications to do any number of things with them. Extended attributes are available for metadata. There’s not really any reason why things like Dropbox and iCloud couldn’t extend this to the Internet. But it somehow became too unwieldy to really work this way (for me, too - I’m not arguing that it’s a good way to do things with the systems we really have). It’s a shame.
  • swalling 4y ago
    It’s true that the organizational model of the file system and desktop metaphor should be usable for this. There’s another huge gap though: documents in your local machine don’t have easy to use hypertext. Apple Notes app is very nice, but neither it nor TextEdit nor Pages can do what a Notion document can do. The OS needs a HyperCard to make it adopt Web-native tools for thinking.
    • DerCed 4y ago
      Hence, Obsidian.md
      • whats_a_quasar 4y ago
        Yeah, to expand Obsidian is almost exactly what you're describing. It's a wiki-like software that works entirely on markdown and data on the file system. Has similar functionality to Notion but feels more like an IDE
        • swalling 4y ago
          Gotcha. I think I never dug into it because normal people generally don’t want to write in Markdown. The effort in doing that and manually managing cloud sync isn’t worth it. Apple needs to build it with WYSIWYG and have it work out of the box with iCloud.
  • 4y ago
• lazymentors 4y ago
  I honestly use taskade instead of notion. A better user interface and help from their team. https://www.taskade.com/ https://www.taskade.com/
• thenerdhead 4y ago
  Neomania / newness is definitely a thing. How many people use notion to organize their lives only to realize years later not much has changed? How much time is spent obsessing and perfecting your notion workspace that can be spent working on bettering your life? Systems are beneficial in many aspects of life, but there has to come a point where there’s a moderate use of a tool and the action that tool helps foster. Perfectionism is a battle many face and few conquer. Notion makes you feel productive, but how productive are you really?
• mouse_ 4y ago
  https://files.catbox.moe/lrism9.png https://files.catbox.moe/lrism9.png wtf
• throwawayjs 4y ago
  I personally just use my calendar + Notes app + reminder app on my iPhone and that’s been more than enough for me.
• kylecazar 4y ago
  I guess I'm in the minority, but I don't use anything to 'plan' my life besides a calendar.
  • arkitaip 4y ago
    You're probably way better off because of it. Most productivity work is busy work and a failure to better manage anxiety and stress.
  • deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
• Anti-Thony 4y ago
  Can somebody recommend a simple app to do the following: keep a list of tasks and estimations of time required to complete them. When I insert an item between existing tasks, all the dates of subsequent tasks should be automatically updated. That is really all I need, but so far I have not find to right tool for this.
• snissn 4y ago
  yesterday i started using gpt4 as a todo list manager and it's pretty amazing. I can brain dump thoughts and tasks into it and it automatically prioritizes things and will let me be conversational around my tasks... i used a super basic prompt that could be improved, but so far it's really nice: Hi! you are my secretary and todolist manager! I will generally ask you to add things to my todo list, organize the todo list by time and topic and subject, ask you to remind me of my list and also ask you to help priotiize things, soudn good?
  • bckr 4y ago
    Now imagine it has access to unlimited indexable storage as well as your messaging, email, browser…
    • Gbox4 4y ago
      There's some people working on something like that: https://klu.so https://klu.so (not affiliated, just thought it was cool)
• baron321 4y ago
  A tool should be simple with good defaults requiring little to no configuration but offering enough flexibility to get your work done and no more. Anything more or less is just noise. More often than not, your work does not require complex tools with unlimited flexibility and configurability. Notion is an amazing tool but it can get in your way. It was designed to be shaped and transformed by each user in the way they want. That should be a good thing but only a few people actually need that level of control. Even for team-based workflows, I have personally been more productive when using simple tools with good defaults. Whenever there is talk of setting up things and learning curves outside of your actual work, know that it is most probably unnecessary.
• EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK 4y ago
  As of recently, I use telegram for any of that stuff. For example, we setup a "ToDo" private channel where me and my partner edit a text message that contains all the todo items. I have another private channel for myself to keep photos, notes etc. One can send messages scheduled in the future, this serves for reminders. A few news channels, including HN, an RSS bot, and I need nothing more.
• idlephysicist 4y ago
  Maybe I am the weird one but I use a diary / planner what ever you want to call it. I'll never get locked out of it, I don't have to pay a monthly fee. Personally I think that I have enough screen time as it is. Ok yeah the search feature is somewhat lacking but from the sounds of it most of these organise your life SaaS products have the same issue. Sure I could lose it but I'd argue that losing your access to Notion et al. is worse because you know where your data is but you're not allowed in.
  • crossroadsguy 4y ago
    There is nothing weird about it. I have been doing it, and many others I personally know have done it since forever. It seems for boarding school folks, at least around where I am from, diary is really a companion right from the beginning; for me it has been since really young. However I also happily use one or two clean/simple note taking apps and it is on my phone at any given time (paid or free; but strictly non-subscription).
    • idlephysicist 4y ago
      Yeah I've also had a similar experience with a school diary or as we called them homework journals. Though no boarding school experience. I do also use the reminders app on the iPhone if I need a reminder at a specific time.
  • syntheweave 4y ago
    A diary with sticky notes is an excellent feedback loop: Stick in tasks, then write down what happened later.
  • sofixa 4y ago
    You don't have to use a SaaS, you can use a modern "note taking"++ tool like Obsidian (not affiliated, just a huge fan) or Logseq (FOSS). In both cases files are fully local, sync is optional (for Obsidian there's a paid service or you can just use Dropbox/GDrive/Git/etc.), and you get a ton of advanced features like complex search, smart references, etc. For instance I use Obsidian for meeting notes, and with the help of a plugin I link all previous meeting notes on this topic/customer and can at a glance see the history I have with this subject. Furthermore, I also link the associated Jira ticket and the Jira ticket history matching the labels, again for history purposes. I also use the Excalidraw integration to get diagrams that I can embed in my notes. There's also a Kanban plugin, Map view plugin (e.g. if planning a trip), etc. etc. The sky is the limit! Overall, I'd strongly recommend.
• raybb 4y ago
  I have been quite happy with Obsidian + Tasks.org (synced via nextcloud). I don't connect them in any way. I used TickTick for several years and quite liked it (still recommend it) but at some point they started nerfing the free version and I became more concerned about privacy and supportively of open source so tried a few alternatives and found them to be great. I mostly use Todo list to keep track of things I need to follow up on (like volunteer work) and homework. Unfortunately, I still use Notion for a few things like Wikipedia page ideas because I simply don't like the way "databases" feel to edit in Obsidian with the available plugins. Obsidian for me is mostly a daily journal plus a few pages that are like notes about cities I visited or my thoughts on the language learning apps I've experimented with.
• ralfd 4y ago
  … His secret is the workspace app Notion… … the reason Notion has such a devoted fan base is its flexibility… … Notion’s most devoted fans say they’re unlikely to jump ship to any other promising platforms anytime soon… Is Notion so good, or is this product placement PR? See: http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html
  • mrkwse 4y ago
    I'm someone who has used and paid for Notion for several years at this point. What I would say is that it's very versatile. It has almost Atlassian Jira levels of features (and arguably of bloat), and it's possible to reasonably organise a lot of thoughts/knowledge/tasks in a wide range of ways. I think the reason why it's so popular and oft lauded is because the range of capability allows people to really engineer workflows and processes that work for them and that without the prompts of the examples that Notion and its community provide they may not otherwise arrive at. So for me I'd probably say that the product itself is fairly good. It's far from flawless (e.g., it uses Electron), but does a solid job of a wide range of things. The killer differentiator against its competitors, however, is the library of templates and example projects - this initially was produced by Notion itself but then the community really grew, shared its own interpretations, and _productivity content creators_ really latched onto it as a good conduit for communicating workflows, processes, and systems for working/getting tasks done.
    • fogoflove 4y ago
      Notion is a good product, imo. But it's not unique -- there are other products like it out there, most notably Microsoft Loop, which is a clone.
      • eropple 4y ago
        Loop seems a little more like Coda to me than Notion. Similar space, but not a similar "outlook on life".
    • yawnxyz 4y ago
• alhirzel 4y ago
  I use ClickUp[1] in similar ways. I have three spaces: family, personal development, professional development. All of the side projects I have are under personal development, various work commitments (including e.g. rental house management) under professional, and family varies from "scoop the litter box Mon/Wed/Sat" all the way to 10 year goals. I have not (and may not) reach steady-state on the way it's organized, and I may end up splitting some of it off into a dead tree some day, but for now it's accessible, consistent and actionable. [1] https://clickup.com/ https://clickup.com/ I'm surprised I don't hear more about ClickUp on HN. Generous free tier, can share lists with other people, support for automations...
  • qot 4y ago
    I don't recommend ClickUp because of the amount of marketing emails / spam they send you. Every minor version update gets an email in your inbox. Their "unsubscribe" link at the bottom of the emails also doesn't work which is unacceptable.
• bnjms 4y ago
  I need a replacement for MS OneNote for reasons including it feels too rigid. And I know people here have tested most things. The only important feature I need is ability to paste screenshots into it. Then an easy way to mark text for monospaced fonts for text copied from a terminal and back for notes. A quick overview of all of these makes it look like only OneNote does that well and the rest are text only.
  • funOtter 4y ago
    I was in your same situation a few years ago. Switched over to "Joplin" - works great. Copy/paste screenshots works great. All in markdown.
  • bbkane 4y ago
    This was almost exactly my requirements - https://www.bbkane.com/blog/how-i-take-notes/ https://www.bbkane.com/blog/how-i-take-notes/ I landed on https://typora.io/ https://typora.io/ and I've been pretty happy ever since
    • bnjms 4y ago
      Two excellent options I’ve never seen mentioned. But you are right that your requirements match mine exactly. Also for remote troubleshoot where I do not have access to the remote clipboard and need to capture information so I can quickly move on.
• sockaddr 4y ago
  This Notion spam is getting tiresome.
• ryanlime 4y ago
  As someone who has tried a variety of productivity tools: Trello, Jira, Notepad, religious google calendar-ing, Notion, I've only really stuck with two things: notepad and Notion. Notepad just allows me to get simple thoughts down and easily reorganize information. I then adapted that workflow with Notion and have been pretty happy with it so far: tracking daily todos, trip plans, workout routines. What I've enjoyed most about notion is that it lets me do something as simple as my daily routines but also helps me plan/track things for technical side projects as well. I really think the flexibility, which many other tools don't have, is what I'm drawn to here
• ChildOfChaos 4y ago
  I don't get the notion hype, I just don't like it. Even worse, is you go on product hunt and there are nonstop 'product' launches which are just notion templates named 'operating systems' being sold at crazy prices for what they are. I don't get what I am missing. I personally love and use Trello, because it's basically just a bunch of lists that I can drag and drop too, i have a boards named 'spark board, where i keep lists of things I am interested in, it's a list of movies, tv shows, games to play, things to eat, things i might want to buy, even lists for different people and things they mentioned so i have gifts for them when it comes time to buy, whenever i need anything I just go there, search the list and find something, but notion is just annoying to me, I hate the UI and i don't see the point in it.
  • tomrod 4y ago
    This article reads like an ad. Perhaps I live under a tech rock, but I have not heard of notion before today. And I don't like that it is being shilled.
    • waboremo 4y ago
      I envy the person who has been able to avoid Notion advertising in the past ~5 years.
      • tomrod 4y ago
        Rare is it that I am envied. Obsidian I've enjoyed, but find it difficult to become fluent with it.
        • iamthirsty 4y ago
          It is almost unbelievable to me that anyone who's been able to become aware of & use a niche app like Obsidian has never come across Notion. Obsidian is definitely a power-user tool, which one would usually use after considering the other options, with Notion being almost as default as a choice as Evernote once was. Additionally, a lot of apps now are even using it as their support bases. It almost feels unavoidable at this point.
• IceWreck 4y ago
  I am quite obsessed with keeping a personal wiki, like some of these people described in the article. However, I simply cannot imagine doing that in an application that isn't controlled by me or doesn't work completely offline. I dont want my life to be organized around an application that charges a subscription and my workflow is at the whim of a corporation. I went from Zim to Dokuwiki to Bookstack (where I've been for the past 3 years). The former is an offline app and the latter two are self hosted. All three are FOSS. Anyways, I did try Notion once, it was super slow (feels sluggish) and the search was bad. Edit: after reading some other comments, one thing I really appreciate about Bookstack is that its opinionated and batteries included -> no falling into the "waste all your time customizing and perfecting your workflow" trap.
  • freshbakedbread 4y ago
    Notion still does have pretty bad performance, although I believe they’ve recently upgraded the search. It’s quite good at least in my experience.
  • shagie 4y ago
    Have you ever looked at task warrior? https://taskwarrior.org https://taskwarrior.org (and you could host it online yourself (I believe) with inthe.am - https://github.com/coddingtonbear/inthe.am https://github.com/coddingtonbear/inthe.am if you aren't comfortable with the existing version) It's well documented ( https://taskwarrior.org/docs/ https://taskwarrior.org/docs/ ) had enables a number of different workflows and export and import options (I've dabbled with jira imports to task warrior for my own sorting views).
    • dbmikus 4y ago
      I used Taskwarrior before and found it worked pretty well for tasks but not for longer notes or tasks that need a lot of description. I used it for a few years before moving to Org Mode for tasks and Tiddlywiki for my knowledgebase.
  • hu3 4y ago
    Have you tried Joplin? It's markdown, allows copy pasting images, embeding files like PDF with preview, works offline by syncing using apple/google/microsoft/dropbox cloud storage. Has desktop and mobile app. Free and Open Source.
• i5heu 4y ago
  I just use Git and Markdown You know planing your life on some ones else software and hardware is a bad idea.
• syngrog66 4y ago
  yet another thing well-solved by plain text files, and vim
• cobertos 4y ago
  I used to do this, until the slowness, downtime, no offline mode, and API throttling fucked me over. So I left the ecosystem. Unfortunately I havent found anything comparable, though Typora mostly fills the void. I'm working on my own version though now
• BogdanPetre 4y ago
  Notion's strength lies in its ability to combine different types of content in a single, customizable workspace.Trello is a great choice if you want a simple, visual way to manage your tasks and projects. It's particularly well-suited for teams that are focused on task management and want a clear, easy-to-use interface
• paczki 4y ago
  Absolutely love Notion, but that time it went down for a while a few years ago was the last time I've used it. The fact they still don't have an offline version is baffling to me cause I'd love to throw money at them for the product but here we are. Obsidian is my main alternative as it mostly does what I want and does it locally. Not affiliated, I just think it's an incredible tool and the extensions you can get can turn it into something else entirely. For example, Joshua Plunkett turned it into an incredible RPG manager: https://www.patreon.com/posts/67310539 https://www.patreon.com/posts/67310539
• SN76477 4y ago
  I'm one of those people ... but Notion has let me down too many times. I've had to move on.
• Aulig 4y ago
  I like Notion but it's so horribly buggy. Just basic operations like deleting text using backspace or copy pasting break often and you end up deleting the wrong stuff or pasting at the wrong position.
• greenie_beans 4y ago
  i've tried so many different apps like this and i consistently return to my notes app on my macbook. i'm not a fan of the UX or how it feels, but i can write notes all i want and add "keywords" or "tags" that i can search for and go through. todos, dates, important things, brainstorming, drafts, etc. for example, for a book project, i'll write the word "preacher" at the top and then write some words that were in my brain. then i'll have 100 notes with the word "preacher" that i can search for and go through when i need to draft the idea. i can combine tags too, like adding "denny" to "preacher". or for a work project, write the name of the project as the tag, some todos, meeting notes, design docs, resources, etc
  • anongraddebt 4y ago
    Yeah, not sure what label we’d give to a system like this but it works. I basically do the same, but with Raindrop (the bookmark manager). I’ve tried many tools and systems, but what works (for me) is basically a personal data lake where semi-structured/incompletely-labeled stuff can be archived. For todos and calendars, I’ve found less is more to be particularly true. I don’t see how anyone gets solid ROI for non-collaborative personal projects by using feature-filled systems. I’m quite busy, and the minimal cognitive load of pen and paper is difficult to surpass.
• pbueckle 4y ago
  I've been using Notion at my new workplace and was excited at first, but having used it now for many months I came to hate it. They constantly announce new features but are completely neglecting the basics: - Copy and paste is completely broken. Good luck trying to paste a table. - The drag & drop feature is equally annoying, it just never works and doesn't select the things you intend to select or drop them in the place where you want them to be. - The basic table is very limited (e.g. no pictures/formatting inside cells, no ability to reorder/sort - vs a Google Docs/Sheets based table) - It grinds to a halt in long docs and databases over 100 rows. Can't stress this enough. - Timezone support is completely messed up (you can e.g. create a database with a time column and specify the timezone, but the calendar view will always map all events in the timezone you're in, making it useless because events are getting shifted to other days)
  • pyxelr 3y ago
    For me, the key factor for switching from Notion to Obsidian, was its slowness with pages containing a lot of code blocks (e.g. Python). Some pages were even completely crashing the Notion mobile app.
  • corndoge 4y ago
    I use, love and evangelize Notion but yes, all of these are valid criticism, and copy-pasting in particular is so busted.
  • softsound 4y ago
    I remember the days before tables, and I think it's come a long way with lots of great features... That said, I don't see it as a replacement for regular tools like Google sheets and docs etc.
  • renjimen 4y ago
    Even trying to select text is a nightmare. Notion can’t make up its mind between selecting text or selecting the objects that contains the text. I wish there was a markdown mode with a live preview, then I would never use the rest of the Notion interface.
  • bradgessler 4y ago
• capitanazo77 4y ago
  I just love simplicity in markdown files plus linux tools. And for sync: obsidian. And that’s it. It’s just perfect.
• porridgeraisin 4y ago
  Most of my notes are just... Unstructured text and images. So I just put it on WhatsApp in a group with just me. Searchable, any device, offline on mobile, the lots. I screenshot excalidraw diagrams and put them in there as well, if I wanna do that. Personally, rarely do I have the need to store a structured and queryable table/list as part of my notes.
• sakesun 4y ago
  Somebody should build an app that let people enter unorganized text and let AI organize into list of actionalble items and keep remind the user of the plan AI help create. No more planning, just doing.
• grae_QED 4y ago
  I've been using plain text for over 10 years. It's simple to use, easy to modify, has as complex of a tag system as I would like, and will be around until heat death. Why fix what ain't broke.
• jacobrussell 4y ago
  My God the ads on this website. What have we become.
• eliseumds 4y ago
  There's sooo muuuch typing lag it's unusable for me, and I'm on a top-of-the-line MBP. I have already tried different browsers, disabling extensions and the Electron app.
• jasonm23 4y ago
  Also - Obsidian - Logseq And the great grandaddy of all obsessive note taking apps, Emacs Org mode. Before this Engineers kept copious notes in journals.
  • suslik 4y ago
    > Emacs Org mode. And org-roam. Org-roam is trully great and if it dies, I'll die with it.
    • ParetoOptimal 4y ago
      Or you could likely become the maintainer and fix any issues yourself with the least bit of programming experience. It's a relatively thin set of elisp code atop sqlite as of org-roam v2!
      • suslik 4y ago
        Yes, and I even really enjoy writing elisp. But that wouldn't sound nearly as dramatic.
    • ParetoOptimal 4y ago
      As far as org-roam versus Notion, Obsidian, etc... it's very reiliable and predictable. Sometimes it requires more effort to say learn to use table.el to have the poor mans ascii table equivalent of a kanban board that doesn't mess up with long lines... but... it works and keeps working. Plus transparent support for gpg by naming files something.org.gpg or even making all of your org roam files encrypted by default is great. However beware, the sqlite database is still not encrypted. So be okay with that, delete the (easily regeneratable from org source files) database on logout/shutdown, or figure something else out.
• waldarbeiter 4y ago
  I find it interesting that Notion still uses the Somali .so top level domain. I heard from people not able to access Notion inside their company network because their company blocked the .so domain.
• jatinarora26 4y ago
  Great article! I absolutely love Notion and use it to track my tasks and create a second brain for myself. Notion is a beast for personal productivity. However, I think a lot more businesses have started using Notion to manage their products. When I talked to some of these businesses, I came across some common issues with Notion databases which pushed me to build NotionApps (https://www.notionapps.com https://www.notionapps.com), a tool to create apps on top of Notion databases. These are the problems I'm looking to solve: - Better user experience when using Notion databases on mobile - Notion is slow to use with large databases - Missing granular permissions when sharing data with others - Ability to share internal data with external users
• __warlord__ 4y ago
  I just apple notes with the option to add code snippets.
• jxdxbx 4y ago
  I could not imagine using a cloud-based service to plan anything.
• mark_l_watson 4y ago
  I tried Notion about a month ago, and at first it looked very good. I copied over materials for a book I was writing and liked the idea of one environment for research materials and manuscript artifacts. Bottom line: Notion had horrible support for creating a PDF for a book project. This is perhaps simply not their market?
• omega3 4y ago
  Notion is far from ideal but I use it for note taking and knowledge storing. I want clean UI, set of functionalities included out of the box, I don't want to be editing in Markdown, I like how the blocks are modular so that they can be rearranged on the screen, I like Notion automation(buttons) and databases. As long as you're not trying to "plan your whole life" in Notion it's a good product.
• sails 4y ago
  Late to the party but I'm somewhat sure that there are no true "power users" of notion (despite what the article says), because of the lack of a feature to see your upcoming reminders. This is such a basic Todo feature. https://www.reddit.com/r/Notion/comments/12g97j1/how_to_see_a_list_of_all_future_reminders_in/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Notion/comments/12g97j1/how_to_see_...