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Ask HN: How do you use Notion?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you use Notion?

#31

Post by monroewalker »

A few ways I use Notion: - An "event log" page. This is my go-to for capturing information when I'm not sure where else to categorize it. I put lots of things there such as * large purchases, * new accounts, * summaries of appointments or calls with vehicle service, Vets, utility providers, doctors, * model numbers for TVs, monitors, or other appliances that I might want to reference later, etc. I initially tried finding the perfect place for every piece of information I wanted to keep track of, but that failed for a number of reasons. It takes more effort to decide where some information belongs and creating that location if it doesn't exist, there's usually multiple equally sensible ways to structure the location of the information, and when trying to find the information again, I have to remember where I decided to keep it or just do a global search which seems to defeat the point of structuring the information in the first place.

- A "dump" page for thoughts, current work, plans, TODOs, etc. for personal projects. Again, tried initially to be more structured with how I tracked work for personal projects, but ultimately found it too effortful and difficult to use later. Now I just have a growing page where I drop an `@now` and whatever the latest thing is I'm working on or thinking about for a given project.

- Structured notes for upcoming trips or pending decisions.

Re: Ask HN: How do you use Notion?

#32

Post by tymerry »

cupofpython wrote: post #23
tymerry wrote: post #8

I have never used it for business cases, but I am in notion for at least an hour a day for personal uses. I use it for a daily planner, personal wiki, and ticker(getting things done) I am naturally unorganized, so I overcompensate. I don't think much of what I do is outside of Notion's primary use case, but maybe it is??? Daily planner - Every morning I do gratitude, "single most important task", and quick retro on t…

does it actually help to confine all of this into a single app? outloud personal reflection: I much prefer using simpler tools dedicated to specific tasks (todo, calendar, notes, pictures, websites, etc) > I chuck random things into this so I can pull them out of my active memory and come back to them later. I feel like maybe this is the heart of it, having a personal cache to make a temporary mess in until you have…

What is the pain you are looking to alleviate? YMMV with notion. I think your personal reflections are probably the most important part of this because personal productivity and organization are so personal.

Single app has worked better for me. I am at 4 months of journaling and planning every day (I have used notion for a few years). When I was using desecrate apps I would go 1-3 weeks before system would fall apart.

For me the main pros are: Ability to move and copy elements from tickler to daily plan so easily. Ability to link todo's to documentation. Ability to take notes in a way that works with how I think, and ability to take handle incoming thoughts as fast as they need to be documented.

Main cons are: only "date time" construct in databases, I would prefer a "time" construct. Offline. Data portability.

> I feel like maybe this is the heart of it, having a personal cache to make a temporary mess in until you have time to clean it up later. I could see that being useful - though id want to move everything out of that place and not organize things within it

Cal Newport has a `working_memory.txt` file on every one of his desktops that he chucks random information into and then processes it at the end of the day. Maybe a system like that could be more your jam.

I might one day work up the courage to use [https://bangle.io/](https://bangle.io/) + github. Feels like owning my data + a bit more flexibility could be nice, but that seems like a lot of work.

Re: Ask HN: How do you use Notion?

#33

Post by cupofpython »

tymerry wrote: post #32
cupofpython wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

does it actually help to confine all of this into a single app? outloud personal reflection: I much prefer using simpler tools dedicated to specific tasks (todo, calendar, notes, pictures, websites, etc) > I chuck random things into this so I can pull them out of my active memory and come back to them later. I feel like maybe this is the heart of it, having a personal cache to make a temporary mess in until you have…

What is the pain you are looking to alleviate? YMMV with notion. I think your personal reflections are probably the most important part of this because personal productivity and organization are so personal. Single app has worked better for me. I am at 4 months of journaling and planning every day (I have used notion for a few years). When I was using desecrate apps I would go 1-3 weeks before system would fall apart…

Ill have to check out Cal's implementation because thats relatively close to what Im doing now.

I have a WORKSPACE folder I dump multiple .txt files into and then go through them later to organize. Ill post a path in the .txt if its related to a specific file or just a shortcut to the file instead of a .txt

It's kind of like a to-do, but I also have a todo list for more traditional checklist items that I am pretty good about checking.

>Data portability.

anything without this is a non-starter for me personally. I need to be able to import and export with the tools I use. the only exception I make for that is my todo list, because well I dont really care about the history. everything i put in it is meant to be deleted after i do the thing

Re: Ask HN: How do you use Notion?

#35

Post by ajonit »

CarrieLab wrote: post #27
ajonit wrote: post #21

It's a great tool. I use it for almost everything - Bookmarking. Notion downloads the complete article not just links to it. - Idea dump. - Notes dump for any new learnings. - Health records. - Simple inventory Management. ... Idea is to have a single app for all references. Works great across Desktop and iOS. What I want? 1 click backup/restore. Given that a lot of my data goes in it, and companies these days have a…

How do you use it to bookmark?

Notion has built in web clippers for iOS/Android and a chrome extension for desktop.

1 click to save any article from any device.

Re: Ask HN: How do you use Notion?

#36

Post by plouc »

At my small company we use it as an internal wiki, project management tool, writing tool, and more importantly we use it to maintain a couple of complex enough databases of content that we publish to the web through the API.

Re: Ask HN: How do you use Notion?

#38

Post by aristofun »

Txt files (sometimes markdown) on dropbox work much better for my personal planning and knowledge base than all those fancy blows&wistles.

Because the limitation of the format forces you to really prioritize, focus and throw away all unimportant garbage.

This gives me amazing peace of mind and clarity.

Re: Ask HN: How do you use Notion?

#40

Post by teekay »

I love Notion and use it for both work and personal purposes.

It's definitely a matter of personal taste though. For me, it just works: the fluidity of the interface, adding new pages and sub-pages, the auto-saving that's completely out of my face, the auto-linking, the easy-to-remember macros...

For business, most of my clients are still using Confluence, and that's the exact opposite: clunky and getting in my way constantly. Again, a matter of personal taste but that counts for a lot when I am the done paying for the subscription! I would not pay for Confluence in a million years!

Now, what's the Notion equivalent to JIRA - any tips?

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