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How I use Notion to manage everything

notionthings.com

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Re: How I use Notion to manage everything

#51

Post by seanw444 »

gnuj3 wrote: post #45
seanw444 wrote: post #37

I'm going to leave the obligatory "Org-mode better" comment that inevitably pops up on these posts. I used to enjoy Notion. But it's closed-source, tiered and feature-limited, needs internet, and runs like a sloth. If what you need is a collaborative environment, Notion obviously wins. If you need a first-class mobile app, Notion wins. If you don't check either of those boxes, Org-mode is awesome. Genuinely one of th…

Org mode isnt something an average user can manage no matter how many times comments like that are written

Sure, approachability isn't its strong suit. Anyone arguing against that is lying. I'm mostly referring to the HN crowd reading this article.

Re: How I use Notion to manage everything

#52

Post by jitl »

gnuj3 wrote: post #31
galoisscobi wrote: post #8

I love the idea of notion but could never get myself to use it due to their privacy policy.

Is it any different from all closed sourced services?

(I work at Notion)

It's not; I actually think the policy is better than the average cloud service but I'm biased. We really don't sell your personal information, although we do require explicit opt out to avoid telemetry we use to track application performance, error rates, and effective use of features.

Re: How I use Notion to manage everything

#53

Post by mcky »

I’ve been spending a lot of time recently thinking about a similar home for managing “everything”. I find a tool like notion is just too generalised and I’m missing the UX of purpose made tools though, but I still want some kind of ownership and control over my own data

The dream is to have interop between services, but I control the data and can easily make my own views onto it / tools to manage it. I think this is what the MIT solid project is all about, but I'm a bit lost with the RDF and pods stuff.

I often begin tracking something in a text file, then notion or a spreadsheet, but eventually run into issues with the flow and UX, where custom made apps win out, e.g. Todoist has a better task management UX than notion, my habit tracker sends me timely reminders and has a better UX again, and all the other services which are basically CRUD apps with some extra UI/integrations (bookmarking, Goodreads)

I’m currently trying to make Obsidian my storage layer for all these things, since notion is completely closed source & non extensible. The current set of tools I'm working on are - A sync engine to pull 3rd party api data into my obsidian vault - A SQLite vtable/Postgres fdw to expose it as sql so other apps can interop - A notion/obsidian "quick add" app for on the go, like the "intake" part of the OP

If anyone else has a similar itch to scratch, or experience in the area I'd love to hear more (email in profile)

Re: How I use Notion to manage everything

#54

Post by gnuj3 »

seanw444 wrote: post #51
gnuj3 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Org mode isnt something an average user can manage no matter how many times comments like that are written

Sure, approachability isn't its strong suit. Anyone arguing against that is lying. I'm mostly referring to the HN crowd reading this article.

But thats why you cant compare a ready product to use like Notion to org-mode. I’m somewhat an advanced user and I cant be bothered fucking with org-mode. Obsidian is just perfect for my needs.

Re: How I use Notion to manage everything

#55

Post by mcky »

jamesgill wrote: post #11

I just cannot imagine investing this amount of effort into managing my life's details. I feel an energy drain just reading it. But, maybe much younger people think this is how to live a good life. More simply: I'm pretty sick of productivity porn, and the empty promises it makes.

I think some people (like myself) just like some order to things, or at least the feeling of it.

Fiddling with my notion calendar of how many gym sessions/runs I made/missed is easier than actually going to the gym of course, but I like to think it helps me stay on track in a “what gets measured gets managed” kind of way.

But maybe when I’m older and more wise I’ll see it for the fallacy it is

Re: How I use Notion to manage everything

#56

Post by ackatz »

jitl wrote: post #50
ackatz wrote: post #42

I like Notion but every time I come back and try it I find it very clunky and that key feature is missing. For example, I wanted to make a recurring notification on Mondays. Nope – not possible. A lot of other apps have these features and are free... so it just seems odd given the rest of the features.

You can do this now; although you need to use a database: https://www.notion.so/releases/2022-11-08

Ahhh that is good to know -- thank you

Re: How I use Notion to manage everything

#57

Post by clnq »

gnuj3 wrote: post #32
jamesgill wrote: post #11

I just cannot imagine investing this amount of effort into managing my life's details. I feel an energy drain just reading it. But, maybe much younger people think this is how to live a good life. More simply: I'm pretty sick of productivity porn, and the empty promises it makes.

I feel exactly the same. How the hell people have time foe all this? It’s procrastinating in a fashionable way to make yourself feel like you’re productive.

I think there’s immediate gratification in this. You feel like you’re making progress towards your goals by planning them out, even if you don’t actually progress. You just add a superfluous step of documentation and complete it. A small industry has formed around this feeling.

I think one can achieve a lot in life with much more rudimentary planning tools, like pen and paper. I am yet to find a situation where that doesn’t get the job done for me personally.

Re: How I use Notion to manage everything

#58

Post by clnq »

rchaud wrote: post #36
jamesgill wrote: post #11

I just cannot imagine investing this amount of effort into managing my life's details. I feel an energy drain just reading it. But, maybe much younger people think this is how to live a good life. More simply: I'm pretty sick of productivity porn, and the empty promises it makes.

Often times these templates are made by students, who aren't in the workforce but want the trappings of professionalism. For some that is exactly the kind of productivity porn you mention. It's addictive, I can't lie. I would love to have a perfectly designed, neat workflow that captures all my tasks and quantifies my productivity with precision. The reality of work is that I already have to apply these principles to…

Ah yes… Jira and Confluence at home. All that’s missing is a micromanaging product owner.

Re: How I use Notion to manage everything

#59

Post by jitl »

iamben wrote: post #5
Semaphor wrote: post #2

I guess I might as well ask here. I tried notion 1-2 years [0] ago, and the features were great. I'd even have considered paying for it. But the performance was atrocious. It made Gmail seem fast. Have things Improved on that front? [0] I've always been bad at remembering how much time passed, but COVID really didn't help … So those numbers might be off. Edit: Thanks everyone, sounds like I'll at least give it anothe…

We use it daily. It's way, way better than it used to be, but there's still times it feels a little sluggish. I'd definitely recommend giving it another go though.

What feels sluggish? Load speed, and/or something else?

Re: How I use Notion to manage everything

#60

Post by jitl »

meken wrote: post #26
Semaphor wrote: post #2

I guess I might as well ask here. I tried notion 1-2 years [0] ago, and the features were great. I'd even have considered paying for it. But the performance was atrocious. It made Gmail seem fast. Have things Improved on that front? [0] I've always been bad at remembering how much time passed, but COVID really didn't help … So those numbers might be off. Edit: Thanks everyone, sounds like I'll at least give it anothe…

I use it daily for kanban and as a scratch pad and the performance is horrible. I’m on a 2015 mac

What feels sluggish? Load speed, and/or something else?
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