Product Review for Notion

Why I use Notion

Objects in Notion stay in Notion until acted on by an outside force.

Documentation is huge.

If there is one thing I have learned over the course of the last two months, while participating in this awesome program, Praxis, it is that documentation is highly underrated.

Before starting Praxis, I thought of documentation as an insignificant option.

I imagined it to be a luxury, an unnecessary action with no real benefits.
I couldn’t have been more wrong. But why?

Documentation is the key to your future.

Without documentation, there is no evidence that it existed. How many times have you learned something awesome, only to forget it minutes later? How many instances have you gained a valuable skill or experience, ones worth sharing with the world, only to let it fade from your memory? How many instances have you began a revolutionizing project, only to drop it to the wayside, days later, after forgetting what you had done, or your plan for it?
If you are like me, then the answer to these questions is, “Simply too many.”

This is where Notion changed my life.

Bold statement — I know. However, hear me out, and you will see my point of view.

Notion’s Key Features

Notions key features, or more specifically, the characteristics of Notion that I have the most use for are: Pages, Boards, Tables, Templates, and Import.

Pages

Notion’s pages are just what you would expect from a note taking/documentation app: simple and intuitive.

They are the base for the foundation from which to build your note taking skills. If you are looking to take notes, you begin with a page, chose a note taking scheme, my favorites are numbers and toggle lists, and then go from there. They are extremely versatile and can be turned into any, and all of the other features of the app.

If you're wondering why everything appears dark on my screenshots, it is because I am a huge advocate of the “night” or “dark” mode, which Notion offers. I find it to be much easier on the eyes.

Boards

Yes, that’s right, Notion offers their own productivity management system. Their boards are one of my favorite setups, and since using them I have all but forgotten about Trello.

Now, don’t get me wrong, Trello is a great service, and their boards are a little prettier, what with their rounded edges and pretty colors. However, they are not able to be integrated into different pages and are an entirely separate system. So, for the sake of uniformity and functionality, I have forgone the colorful landscape of Trello for the effectiveness of Notion. These boards function just like every other board, with lists and cards. They are easily moved from list to list, with a variety of different sorting tools.

Tables

Notions tables have, by far, been my favorite. They are extremely customizable and easy to use. I built this one around one of their suggested templates and use it almost daily. Inside of each item I am able to add notes, and link all sorts of information.

The most useful feature here is the sorting option. It is extremely custumizable and can be set to do almost anything. I am able to search through the whole table via any category, with a variety of different layouts for the search result.

Not shown in this screenshot are the area’s where I add my notes, as well as links to websites, which I use when drafting blogs, or refreshing myself on the subject.

Templates

Like every great service, Notion makes it extremely easy to get started with various templates. Down the left side of the screen, they have different categories which you can choose from, and then use one of there hundred templates.

Many of these templates have been created with every possible usage in mind, oftentimes including features that you did not yet know you needed for your projects, or pages.

Along with providing these amazing templates, Notion’s teams provide comprehensive directions and prompts to help expedite the process of learning them. Most are intuitive, but as we all know, you can never be too helpful — of course there is the option to remove all hints if you are not interested in them, or find them unnecessary.

Import

If all of this looks amazing and you want to get started, Notions import tool has you covered!

As can be seen, the tool is extremely easy to use — targeting the products that their users are most likely to come from.

In Conclusion

Through the usage of these tools I have been able to track my learning and growth throughout a plethora of fields. These tools have allowed me to document my processes and journeys through every aspect of life. And all from one platform.