Ask HN: How do you use Notion?

[optemization]

I'm seeing people use it for hundreds of different things both for business and personal use cases. It's not good at everything but I find myself hacking and twisting instead of using multiple apps, so curious if this is a similar for y'all.

[tymerry]

I have never used it for business cases, but I am in notion for at least an hour a day for personal uses. I use it for a daily planner, personal wiki, and ticker(getting things done) I am naturally unorganized, so I overcompensate. I don't think much of what I do is outside of Notion's primary use case, but maybe it is???

Daily planner

- Every morning I do gratitude, "single most important task", and quick retro on the previous day.

- Schedule out my day giving every 15-minute block of time a goal. While being burnt out I would beat myself up for "not knowing what I am doing with my life". Having a schedule allows me to say "I should be doing x, I don't have to, but that is what I planned to do with this time" it calms some of that negative self-talk.

- Space for me to document random thoughts so they don't use active memory/thought process

Personal Wiki

- I have struggled with too many tabs open, or too many bookmarks in the past. To keep that at bay I have been trying this personal wiki approach for about a year.

- I have a few top-level pages for major categories of my life like bikes, household maintenance, fitness, computers, and programming. then I populate it with different types of content like pages, notes, and databases. These are things like car maintenance schedules, checklists for cleaning, and links/formulas I need to pay quarterly taxes.

Ticker file

- Single database with a few attributes. One attribute is the "review date" that I filter by.

- I chuck random things into this so I can pull them out of my active memory and come back to them later.

[cupofpython]

does it actually help to confine all of this into a single app?

outloud personal reflection:

I much prefer using simpler tools dedicated to specific tasks (todo, calendar, notes, pictures, websites, etc)

> I chuck random things into this so I can pull them out of my active memory and come back to them later.

I feel like maybe this is the heart of it, having a personal cache to make a temporary mess in until you have time to clean it up later. I could see that being useful - though id want to move everything out of that place and not organize things within it

[tymerry]

What is the pain you are looking to alleviate? YMMV with notion. I think your personal reflections are probably the most important part of this because personal productivity and organization are so personal.

Single app has worked better for me. I am at 4 months of journaling and planning every day (I have used notion for a few years). When I was using desecrate apps I would go 1-3 weeks before system would fall apart.

For me the main pros are: Ability to move and copy elements from tickler to daily plan so easily. Ability to link todo's to documentation. Ability to take notes in a way that works with how I think, and ability to take handle incoming thoughts as fast as they need to be documented.

Main cons are: only "date time" construct in databases, I would prefer a "time" construct. Offline. Data portability.

> I feel like maybe this is the heart of it, having a personal cache to make a temporary mess in until you have time to clean it up later. I could see that being useful - though id want to move everything out of that place and not organize things within it

Cal Newport has a `working_memory.txt` file on every one of his desktops that he chucks random information into and then processes it at the end of the day. Maybe a system like that could be more your jam.

I might one day work up the courage to use [https://bangle.io/](https://bangle.io/) + github. Feels like owning my data + a bit more flexibility could be nice, but that seems like a lot of work.

[cupofpython]

Ill have to check out Cal's implementation because thats relatively close to what Im doing now.

I have a WORKSPACE folder I dump multiple .txt files into and then go through them later to organize. Ill post a path in the .txt if its related to a specific file or just a shortcut to the file instead of a .txt

It's kind of like a to-do, but I also have a todo list for more traditional checklist items that I am pretty good about checking.

>Data portability.

anything without this is a non-starter for me personally. I need to be able to import and export with the tools I use. the only exception I make for that is my todo list, because well I dont really care about the history. everything i put in it is meant to be deleted after i do the thing

[pigtailgirl]

-- having consulted to many startups who use either Notion or Google Drive - I strongly feel that business who run on a well organized google drive are considerably more productive than those who are running in notion - Two general reasons I see - Notion itself isn't particularly snappy for everyone - especially team members on weaker internet connections - plus - it encourages strange rabbit holes of information in hacked together structures - hard to put my finger on that last one, but having been in multiple companies notions - they seem generally more difficult to navigate / find useful information quickly in --

[systemvoltage]

> google drive

I've been using Google Drive for years (at work). I still don't know where my files are and what the UI is doing. It is like a black hole of files that are shown in various ways. Google Drive IMO is one of the worst products out there. I hate it with a passion. I can pretty much say, in the list of 100 apps that I use, it ranks at the very bottom. Last.

[pigtailgirl]

-- sounds like my local hard drive ;=) - jokes aside - it can be a huge pain - but it requires only two things to be successful - you're extremely disciplined about using folder structures - you're extremely disciplined about using the "my drive" function - Company Folder Name (add to my drive) Sub folders > Marketing (don't add to my drive because I don't work in marketing) > Personas > Persona Iteration > a/b testing.doc | Sub Folders > Engineering (add to my drive, I work in engineering) > Release Planning > shipit.doc - etc - you can use notion this way - however in my experience most orgs don't --

[systemvoltage]

They get shared at work and there is like a giant labyrinth of files. I have no idea who owns what, whose folder structure I am looking at, what files are mine and which ones aren't.

Good lord. What a piece of shit. I'm sorry to vent here, but I wish I was not forced to use this thing.

In Dropbox, the file structure is prominent UI feature. In Google Drive, I feel like I just don't have the brains to use it. I am not smart enough. I don't have what it takes. I accept complete defeat and I surrender.

[anon2020dot00]

I think links are helpful to navigate in Google Drive. The normal navigation via Folders and clicking is slow and so I prefer to just use links as well as reducing the number of folders to a minimum.

[pigtailgirl]

-- maybe an issue of organization within your organizations - not the tool? :=) --

[vgel]

sure maybe (not gp), but i think it's a contraindication to your original statement -- i think organizations that use google drive instead of notion or a wiki tend to be disorganized and have information siloed away to people who create docs.

if an organization happens to be very organized on gdrive because they put in the heroic level of effort (if it's not just being constantly done as glue work by 1-2 people at the expense of recognized/rewarded work), that just shows the competence of the organization that would be true regardless of using gdrive / notion / a wiki / clay tablets.

[esel2k]

I recently started a new job where notion is the company wiki. Think of it like a confluence or sharepoint page. The ones how painfull it is to create a clean and beautiful sharepoint is, will love it. Compared to confluence I liked the snappyness but overall it is not really such a big gain, in my view. Storing and finding documents is good for presenting them to go read an article, I however prefer the good old folders on gdrive or onedrive - might be taste. So I use OneDrive as summary and explanation of our team and whats ongoing but store the docs on onedrive.

For personal organizations and notes I have stick with OneNote for years and still find it superb especially to search notes and screenshots. Just missing a better todo list and planning.

[BoorishBears]

Notion is the new Rainmeter.

It gets a lot of talk because people invest tons and tons of time in elaborate aesthetically pleasing set ups which can be very satisfying. But then the messy nature of "every day life" slowly erodes the ability of said setup to (cleanly) contain the information, and eventually a lot of people give up on it.

Notion used in that way is essentially trying to make a database for your mind. Except programmers know that writing a schema for a well defined business case is hard. Writing a schema for your knowledge of the natural world is somewhere between an endless task and an impossible task, yet that's what Notion will require of you to take on that role..

-

If you want to get actual value out of it, keep it simple. But if you keep it simple, imo you're better off using something like Evernote, which drops the whole "database of your mind" pretense and just focuses on letting you write.

[ajonit]

It's a great tool. I use it for almost everything

- Bookmarking. Notion downloads the complete article not just links to it.

- Idea dump.

- Notes dump for any new learnings.

- Health records.

- Simple inventory Management. ...

Idea is to have a single app for all references. Works great across Desktop and iOS.

What I want?

1 click backup/restore.

Given that a lot of my data goes in it, and companies these days have a poor record of kicking-out users (and not telling them why) for the slightest of mistake. I would like to have some automated way to back-it-up on a daily basis.

[vgel]

There is a data export to .zip option buried in settings. I haven't automated it, though.

[CarrieLab]

How do you use it to bookmark?

[ajonit]

Notion has built in web clippers for iOS/Android and a chrome extension for desktop.

1 click to save any article from any device.

[CarrieLab]

Ah thank you!

[aristofun]

Txt files (sometimes markdown) on dropbox work much better for my personal planning and knowledge base than all those fancy blows&wistles.

Because the limitation of the format forces you to really prioritize, focus and throw away all unimportant garbage.

This gives me amazing peace of mind and clarity.

[monroewalker]

A few ways I use Notion: - An "event log" page. This is my go-to for capturing information when I'm not sure where else to categorize it. I put lots of things there such as * large purchases, * new accounts, * summaries of appointments or calls with vehicle service, Vets, utility providers, doctors, * model numbers for TVs, monitors, or other appliances that I might want to reference later, etc. I initially tried finding the perfect place for every piece of information I wanted to keep track of, but that failed for a number of reasons. It takes more effort to decide where some information belongs and creating that location if it doesn't exist, there's usually multiple equally sensible ways to structure the location of the information, and when trying to find the information again, I have to remember where I decided to keep it or just do a global search which seems to defeat the point of structuring the information in the first place.

- A "dump" page for thoughts, current work, plans, TODOs, etc. for personal projects. Again, tried initially to be more structured with how I tracked work for personal projects, but ultimately found it too effortful and difficult to use later. Now I just have a growing page where I drop an `@now` and whatever the latest thing is I'm working on or thinking about for a given project.

- Structured notes for upcoming trips or pending decisions.

[arduinomancer]

Have used it for many years as a personal wiki/database

I pull out the app all the time to answer various questions

For example:

* What kind of oil does my car take again? When was the last oil change?

* How much did I weigh in 2015

* What's the square footage of my apartment?

* What was my start/end date of job X?

Lots of random details like that I may need to reference later

I use the tables a lot for anything that changes over time

Stuff like this is pretty unstructured so I like having arbitrary hierarchies to keep it organized

[vgel]

I have a big personal workspace I use for everything, but I really like it for writing fiction (sci-fi short stories, specifically). I can pop open a new page, start jotting down snippets of scenes or ideas without any order or cohesion, drag them around to reorder them, start fleshing one bit out, move it into a subpage and turn the original page into a project folder as the story grows, it's quite nice and organic compared to trying to manage things in a traditional filesystem based word processor or worse, Google Docs.

I don't use any community templates, though. Are there any people have found particularly useful? My Notion pages are generally just text and I'm happy with the default styling so I haven't felt the need to go out and search for anything specific.

[jstx1]

I have some pages and I type stuff in the pages. Later I sometimes read the things that I've typed. The pages contain lists, text, links and kanban boards. That's about it, I don't need anything more complicated. I've also never used other people's templates.

[teekay]

I love Notion and use it for both work and personal purposes.

It's definitely a matter of personal taste though. For me, it just works: the fluidity of the interface, adding new pages and sub-pages, the auto-saving that's completely out of my face, the auto-linking, the easy-to-remember macros...

For business, most of my clients are still using Confluence, and that's the exact opposite: clunky and getting in my way constantly. Again, a matter of personal taste but that counts for a lot when I am the done paying for the subscription! I would not pay for Confluence in a million years!

Now, what's the Notion equivalent to JIRA - any tips?

[jreynoldsdev]

I always find myself coming back to it, both for work and personal life. I'm doing the whole "build in public" thing for my SaaS and use the public notion page to warehouse all of our updates and information.

I've found https://getoutline.com to be a pretty solid contender, although with slightly less functionality.

[rufius]

Not well and mostly disappointingly. It’s a nice enough UI but I don’t find it substantially better than OneNote - at least not enough to replace that use case.

I finally am getting my head wrapped around Tinderbox and it clicked. It’s a better tool for thinking for me. No sharing beyond sharing a file but that’s fine. I don’t tend to like collaborative software for that sorta thing.

[kody]

I stopped using Notion of a few months ago due to the leaky abstraction of their blocks model. Back to plaintext (via Obsidian) for me.

[hastes]

Just started using, feels amazing and really snappy to use (I've seen many complaints in the other direction). Started organizing all my projects and persona things into kanbans, added some tables for subscriptions and other things I rarely keep track of. Loving it so far, especially how many features are for free.

[sinamim]

I used notion for personal projects and note-taking for a while, but recently I switched to standardnotes [https://standardnotes.com/]. In my opinion, it's better for personal use (and of course, it's open source)

[tchock23]

Depending on your use cases you may want to check out Clover (cloverapp.com).

They’re a YC alum making something a little more ‘streamlined’ than Notion. Doesn’t have as many blocks, but the ones it does have work well.

(No affiliation, just a happy user that moved over from Notion because it got a little too ‘bloated’ for my taste).

[plouc]

At my small company we use it as an internal wiki, project management tool, writing tool, and more importantly we use it to maintain a couple of complex enough databases of content that we publish to the web through the API.

[methusala8]

Initially used it for weekly reviews and for gathering notes. Then went into the rabbit hole of using the templates created by others.

Gave it up and use multiple apps now. Main ones being Dendron, Complice and workflowy.

[ponyous]

Company docs (onboarding guides, developer wiki, guides for maintenance, decision log...), scrum board, ticket prioritization/estimation list, idea archive, ...

Endless. It serves as our source of truth.

[april_22]

For my personal use case, it's mainly a database for books, articles, learnings and a bunch of random information.

I find it loads too long for me to use it as a to do list or diary.

[badhombres]

I don't. I can't commit to constantly using it. Probably a personality flaw.

[dominotw]

notion intimidates me with all the hype

[throw457]

Used it for a while and after 2-3 months I gave up. It reminded me of those awful Filemaker workspaces in the early 2000s.