People who use Notion to plan their whole lives • Hacker News Board

Re: People who use Notion to plan their whole lives

#101

Post by thiago_fm » Tue, Apr 25, 2023, 2:54 PM UTC

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!

Re: People who use Notion to plan their whole lives

#102

Post by thefourthchime » Tue, Apr 25, 2023, 2:56 PM UTC

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.

Re: People who use Notion to plan their whole lives

#103

Post by azinman2 » Tue, Apr 25, 2023, 2:56 PM UTC

thiago_fm wrote: post #101

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…

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.

Re: People who use Notion to plan their whole lives

#104

Post by hammyhavoc » Tue, Apr 25, 2023, 2:57 PM UTC

rvense wrote: post #82

shruggedatlas wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're referring to "The Parable of the Raft", which describes a man who has built a raft and crossed a river with it debating whether to hold on to the raft or not.

That sounds right, thank you for the reference.

It's right, but I actually really like your paraphrased version for this context. It resonated with me.

Re: People who use Notion to plan their whole lives

#105

Post by brycedriesenga » Tue, Apr 25, 2023, 2:57 PM UTC

thanatos519 wrote: post #79

rho4 wrote: post #67

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.

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.

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.

Re: People who use Notion to plan their whole lives

#106

Post by thiago_fm » Tue, Apr 25, 2023, 2:58 PM UTC

lemiffe wrote: post #100

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 drag…

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.

Re: People who use Notion to plan their whole lives

#107

Post by hammyhavoc » Tue, Apr 25, 2023, 2:59 PM UTC

thiago_fm wrote: post #101

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…

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.

Re: People who use Notion to plan their whole lives

#108

Post by sureglymop » Tue, Apr 25, 2023, 2:59 PM UTC

Jackevansevo wrote: post #30

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 generat…

Same here. I then ended up just using pandoc and a small shell script and it's served as a great static site generator letting me focus on writing my markdown.

Re: People who use Notion to plan their whole lives

#109

Post by quacked » Tue, Apr 25, 2023, 2:59 PM UTC

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.

Re: People who use Notion to plan their whole lives

#110

Post by r3trohack3r » Tue, Apr 25, 2023, 3:01 PM UTC

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.