Getting organized with Notion
Disclaimer This article is written and published by a community member; I am not a member of the Notion Labs team and this content is in no way endorsed by or affiliated with their organization, nor does it reflect the views or opinions of the organization or any member thereof. Thank you for taking the time to stop by and check out a community member’s content!
Introduction
People. Things. Places. Ideas. Stuff. There’s so much information that we deal with on a daily basis. Not only is there an interminable amount of information, but then there’s the stuff you have to do with that information — which usually ends up generating more information, or more stuff for you to do with the new information. That explanation might sound as muddled as the actual process of managing everything going on in life.
Enter: note taking and organization applications. There are a variety of apps and tools that help with managing information like notes, schedules, files, etc. These solutions range from the simplest of apps — such as the Notes app included in iOS or the To-do app in Windows 10 — to more robust solutions such as Microsoft’s OneNote, as well as more speciality and niche solutions such as Milanote. There are tons of options, though they range in functionality and compatibility with various platforms.
For example, many people love Bear and it’s Markdown-based formatting, but it is only available on iOS and macOS. Others prefer OneNote for it’s wide compatibility across many platforms (even Linux distributions, if you’re willing to put in a bit of work), but then struggle with many of the glitches and downfalls of Microsoft’s less-than-consistent user experience and functionality.
With just as many options as the information you have to manage, there has to be one that sticks out among the others. I have a notion that there are a few. One of them is…well…Notion!
What is Notion?
Notion advertises itself as the “all-in-one” workspace for your whole team. It provides writing, planning, and organizational utility in a way that can easily be harnessed by either individuals or entire teams and companies. The features are so robust that many organizations ranging from enterprises such as Pixar, IBM, Nike, and Slack to prominent creators and platform providers in various industries such as Spotify, Square, and even content creators such as Linus Media Group. But it’s also used by many students, teachers, writers, podcasters, and many other individuals.
What can Notion do?
Notion is one of those solutions where you get a lot of flexibility to make it do most whatever you’d like it to. But out of the box, there is a wide range of things that it can do to help you keep track of all your notions.
- Organize just about any information you can think of
- Central, powerful search of all your stuff
- Realtime collaboration with other users
- Scalable - start as small as you and grow your workspace with your needs
- Embedded apps such as Google Docs, Figma, Twitter, Github, CodePen, Spotify, and more
- Project and task management
- Multi-database view
- Focus-based notetaking
- Drag and drop organization — or metadata organization
- Rich and varied content support
- Content creation and tracking
- New API functionality to tie in other applications and automate functions
- And so much more…
Why should I use Notion?
The reason to use Notion can vary from person to person, however most people use it because it is an effective and easy solution to organize all kinds of information, and it’s free. One of my favorite reasons to use it is that it is one of the few solutions that I have used where it really feels like it was designed by actual people, for actual people to use.
By and large, it is simple to pick up and start using right away without diving too deep in guides and having to learn. If you want to dive into more advanced stuff, you absolutely can and there is a great website, many community members’ blogs, and a Discord server full of helpful people that make advanced tinkering and organization easy.
Whatever your reason is, there’s nothing to lose by giving Notion a shot and making a go at organizing anything and everything you could want. Get Notion for free here and be sure to comment and let me know what your thoughts on Notion are, or about any other tracking/organization solutions you use!
Organization beginner or aficionado? Feel free to join the Tools for Thought Discord server here!