What I Like About Notion
Originally Published: May 28, 2021
I, like many other productivity enthusiasts, started my productivity app journey using Evernote. Back in 2010, it was really the only productivity app in town. It was a great app to have through college. I managed my task list and class notes in it, and it's the main reason I was able to stay at all organized. I carried it with me into my first job after college and it was a huge help during my onboarding phase.
Then, Evernote started changing. First, they took away the ability to email to Evernote from the free version and made it a premium feature. Then, they restricted the usage of Evernote to only 2 devices, and unlimited devices too became a premium feature. This really rubbed me the wrong way, and ultimately resulted in me ending my usage of Evernote. I didn't like how they took free features away and put them behind a paywall. I understand the company needs to make money, but they should've done it by introducing new and enticing premium features, not making their free version less useful.
I spent the next several years trying to find a decent replacement for Evernote. I feel like I tried just about every other note taking app under the sun (SimpleNote, Bear Notes, Boost Note, Joplin, Agenda, OneNote, Zoho Notebook, etc). I went analog for awhile with a Bullet Journal, and semi-analog with GoodNotes on my iPad (which I actually still use for handwritten notes because it's awesome). I even tried using Visual Studio Code with a system of Markdown files that I pushed up to a Git repository.
Then a few months ago I came across Notion, and finally my search for an Evernote replacement came to an end. Notion is an all-in-one productivity powerhouse. Not only is it a great note taking app, but it also does project management and task management, therefore replacing my need for apps such as Trello or Zenkit. There are so many good things for me to say about this app, but here are just a few of my favorite features.
Flexibility
Notion allows you to set up your own organizational structures, which can be a bit intimidating at first. Things can get complicated very quickly if you're not careful. However, this flexibility is great for someone like me who likes to tweak their organizational structure on a regular basis. I just recently revamped how I was organizing my notes section, and it didn't take me very long to do so. The trick is to start simple and grow the organizational structure over time. The simpler your organization, the easier it is to scale that solution up when you add more data.
Markdown Support
In my post regarding how I built this site, I talked about my love of Markdown. Notion not only allows me to write in Markdown (and automatically converts it to rich text), it also allows me to export my data in Markdown. This is a huge reason for me using Notion because I'm able to easily get my data out of it should I decide to move to another app in the future. Apps like Evernote export their data in a proprietary format, so you have to convert that data into another format in order to use it anywhere else. Luckily, apps like Notion support importing Evernote's data format, so there are ways to move to other apps should you choose to do so.
Backlinking
Being able to connect related notes together via links is the basis behind my organizational structure in Notion. I plan to write a more in depth post regarding how I organize Notion in the future, but the general idea is I create pages that serve as tags, and link all notes that pertain to that tag via backlinks. Then when I go to that tag page, I can see all the links to the related notes. This allows me to relate notes together no matter where they are in the hierarchy, and also allows me to move things around while preserving the links.
Web Clipper
One of the features I used the most in Evernote was the web clipper. I loved being able to save information from anywhere on the internet directly into my personal knowledge base. I was pleased to see Notion also had a web clipper, which was a feature missing from just about every other note taking app I tried. Notion's web clipper is still fairly new, so it isn't as robust as Evernote's, but it serves my needs well enough.
Project Management
As I did with note taking apps, I went through a bit of a journey trying to find my preferred project management app as well. I mostly bounced between Trello, Zenkit, and Airtable. I was happy to find Notion had the ability to create Kanban boards because it meant one less app to have to juggle. I like how the cards in Notion Kanban boards are actually pages, so when I'm moving cards through the board I have set up for the blog, I'm able to write and revise the drafts of the posts on the cards / pages themselves. I don't have to integrate another service. I'm also able to link notes to them from other places within my Notion workspace.
These are just a few of the things I love about Notion. If you're looking for a great app to use for personal knowledge and project management, give Notion a try. It's entirely free for personal use, so there's no risk in giving it a spin.