Use the Apps that Work For You

Originally Published: May 14, 2021

When I originally wrote this post, I was using Notion for project and personal knowledge management. I've since switched over to using Obsidian for those things, but I still think Notion is an amazing app. As I state below, it's all about finding the app that works best for you.

I started using a phenomenal app called Notion a few months back for managing my personal projects and notes. I've really enjoyed it a lot. It’s meant to be an all in one productivity app, so it has the ability to take digital notes, manage projects with kanban boards, create databases / spreadsheets, and manage task lists. It’s super flexible and allows you to structure your information any way you want. I can create my own hierarchies of pages and databases, and link my notes together to create my own personal knowledge base / wiki.

As I was first starting to learn how to use the app, I looked up a few tutorials and tips on how to get started. I tend to avoid the videos where people show off their setups because they can be overwhelming to a beginner. During my search for tutorials, I encountered several videos where people were frustrated that others were trying to use Notion for everything. They argued that because Notion is trying to provide so many features it wasn’t as good at any of those features as other more focused apps, such as Evernote for notes, Trello for Kanban, and so on.

Now, I understand there are apps out there with specific focuses, and they probably do some things better than Notion. However, I take issue with someone telling you not to use a tool just because another tool might do it better for them. Just because Evernote works great for one person doesn’t mean it’ll be the same for another. I personally don’t like Evernote, so I’m not going to use it myself, but that doesn’t mean someone else can’t use it. I believe in using the tools that allow you to work the way you want. For me, I like the minimalist approach to app usage, so if I have an app like Notion that gives me digital note taking, databases, and project management, then I’m going to use that one app for those things. I don’t want to have to manage more apps than is necessary.

So, if you like the way Notion does digital note taking, go ahead and use it for that. Personal productivity is meant to be personal after all, so use the tools that make you the most productive.