Notion: My Two Cents About The World’s Fastest Growing All-In-One Workspace
A Review
Disclaimer: This review is based on my experience since I have used Notion for several years. I am just sharing my own experience as well as providing resources on how to get started with Notion since for someone new to the software, it may seem overwhelming to know where to turn to. Affiliate links are contained in the article, one of which leads to my Gumroad containing Notion resources & templates while the other link leads to Notion’s front page. I do commission after someone decides to get the Pro Plan, so if you happen to fall in love with Notion after my review, consider supporting me by trying out Notion yourself.
You may or may not have heard of Notion, but if you haven’t, take a quick peek at their YouTube video to get a brief overview of its functions and capabilities.
How I got into Notion:
When I first got the notification that without a proper Office 365 membership, my access to OneNote would be severed, I started looking around for alternative solutions where I could just store notes. When my community suggested Notion, I decided to watch the same video you guys just watched as well as look around YouTube. What really attracted me and sold me was the amount of freedom and customizability that was possible with Notion that I couldn’t find anywhere else.
Thus, my rabbit hole of making my Notion workspace look pretty began. I’ll admit, at first I felt slightly overwhelmed by the tons of videos I was able to find just by typing ‘how to make my notion look aesthetically pleasing’, and chances are you might feel the same as I did. If you are, feel free to check out this FREE list I’ve compiled of all the videos and resources I’ve used to make my Notion look beautiful (and drop a follow on my Gumroad while you’re at it 😉). I also find reading Dave, The Notion Coach’s articles helpful as well when it comes to learning more advanced features in Notion, such as how to hide Notion’s +New Button via CSS.
Now before I get into my testimony, I just want to say that I enjoy making things look nice since it does give me more motivation to use it more and it’s just relaxing for me if that makes sense.
Even then, I tend to get self-critical of myself. Knowing that I’m a bit scatterbrained, when I first started using Notion, I wasn’t sure if making it look nice would even help make my life more “put together”. Fast-forward several years, later, I find myself continually using it for a variety of purposes aside from my original intention of just finding a OneNote alternative. I use it not only to keep track of my notes but also journal entries, reflections, my goals & dreams through various dream boards, content planning on my various social media accounts, as well as my bill & debt expenses. As someone who spends the majority of the day behind a computer screen, I find being able to access Notion anywhere on the web or via the app on my mobile devices extremely helpful to stay on top of the important things in life.
On top of that, Notion regularly pushes out updates based on users’ wants and needs, which has made Notion more useful over the years I’ve used the software.
The feedback that I do have for Notion Developers:
If there could be more comprehensive tutorials on how to use formulas then that would be great. Even after using Notion for several years now, I feel I still have a very weak grasp on how they work.
I also wish that the AI feature would have been kept free (without any usage restrictions) for people who have signed up for the beta and have waited months until they were able to access it. If I’d known that there would be a usage restriction the moment it went from beta to public, I wouldn't have signed up and waited months for me to access the beta.
I also think that the next major integration would lie between Notion and Discord. Discord has over 350 million users using the platform, some using it for school and work, not just for playing video games. Given that Notion is collaborative as well, students and coworkers alike can use it to keep track of each other’s work progress in group projects as well as keep them accountable. Having this feature can reduce the number of tabs open in their browser between Google Docs, Microsoft Word Online, etc so that it’s easier to focus. Currently, it looks like there is a workaround by using Zapier to bridge the two platforms but as of right now, there is no official, direct integration between the two.
Final thoughts:
Given the speed of the amount of updates Notion continually pushes out and how the developers actually listen to users’ feedback, it’s no wonder it has garnered a huge following, mines included. Of course, for anything (and anyone), there’s always room for improvement. If Notion can take the feedback I described above and take actionable steps towards getting those done, I feel it would definitely elevate the Notion experience for a lot of users. Overall, I can see myself using Notion for many more years to come. And if you would like to try Notion out yourself, click here.
How about you guys? Do you use Notion? Are you a fan of using Notion or is this your first time using it? Let me know in the comments!
If you liked this article, please consider buying me some boba :)
