Why I’m using the Notion App and How I use the notion app for my life

Hi There my Dudes and Dudettes, it has been a while.

But rest assured, I’m back with a new hobby and a new personal interest.
And yes, it’s in a space that’s true to my heart: Self-Help and Productivity.

A few weeks ago, I came across the Notion App. A tool for Mac ad iPhone I found out about by looking at this youtube video: I became a fan of Ali Abdaal in recent moths hence I stumbled on the Notion App through him.

So what is Notion?

Disclaimer: I have no link or connection to the Notion App or to the Notion Company and I was not paid to write this. These are just my opinions. 

I’m not going to quote any of the copy from the notion website since I think that is boring and generic. So I’m just going to try to answer the above question myself since I’ve been working with Notion kind of non-stop when I’m not working on my business (Yes, I know I’m a Productivity Geek, but I’m a proud one:).

For me, Notion is an all-in-one personal CRM/Dashboard/Planner/Note-taking app/build it yourself hub/multi-disciplinary tool to organize your life.
I know it’s vague but I hope that explains it good enough.

It is a tool which is free (up to a limit) that lets you build and customize pages with content, lists, databases, tables, calendars, and all kind of other features.
It lets you build whatever you want, how you want it.
And finally, the app uses a decent amount of simple to use features that are quick to learn.

I know this is still very vague but rest assured, watch the video from Ali, and you’ll get a sense of what Notion can do. Ali (the guy in the video) is a Doctor and uses it as a medical database and tool for his medical studies.

So how has the notion app impacted my life?

First I want to tell you straight away which tools I’m not using anymore after two weeks of using the Notion app:

1) I quit using Evernote Premium. Yes yes, I know how dare I do so while being a fan after 7+ years of note-taking on Evernote? Well, the Notion team made the transition from Evernote so easy with their auto-import feature after downloading the app in the app store that I just had my entire Evernote app content within Notion in less than 2 minutes. It was so easy that I really can’t understand that Evernote would allow such a feature but I guess they can’t shield those kinds of practices in their public API’s.
But to be honest I don’t really care what Evernote thinks about it.
I liked it and all my stuff was imported within a blink of an eye, so I was a happy camper.

2) Secondly, I also quit using Todoist Premium (for those of you who don’t know Todoist, it’s a ToDo List building tool). I was able to build a much more efficient ToDo list system in Notion within a single week of playing around in Notion. I will show my system for todo’s in a later post so bear with me on that system and its perks.

Money money honey, yes there is a big financial aspect to all of this. I went from two premium accounts to closing both of them down and opening a single premium account at Notion. So, all in all, I went from two expensive premium accounts subscriptions to one single premium subscription which saves me a whole bunch per year.
So the financial logic was also very sound.

So, for me, these above-mentioned points are huge when it comes to impact. For me, it’s just awesome that I can cancel to two apps and just stick with a single new one. I have the functionalities of both apps in a single app and not only that, it has even way more features and finally it’s very customizable.

So how do I use the Notion App in my daily life?

Please remember that I’ve only been using Notion for around two weeks now so I’m not yet using it for everything on this list.
That is why I have carved up the list in two sections: 1) How I’m using Notion right now, and 2) How I’m planning on using Notion in the future.
Yes, the app has so many functionalities and customization abilities that for me the possibilities are just as far as your personal interest and imagination reaches.
Just the tool for me.

In the future, I’ll make a single post for every purpose that is described below so please be patient for that, I’m working on it.

How I’m using Notion right now?

1. I use it as a Daily Personal Hub (I hope you understand what I mean by this)
   1. I open it every morning and it tells me what to do today.
   2. In my daily hub, it shows my top three goals and my focus for the week,
   3. My todo’s for the week
   4. It has a task archive
   5. And many more.
   6. Its the page that I open each morning and that primes me to focus on the right things and it shows me what needs to be done. Simple as that.
2. I use it as a Note-taking app
   1. Like I said before, it has all the functionalities from Evernote that I need and it does even more. So I just like it better IMAO.
   2. Later I’ll go into depth on how I take notes because I have a simple system that might look very deep and not simple at all, but there is some elegance to the madness. More on that later.
3. I use it as a journal
   1. This is self-explanatory. I journal every night in bed before I sleep.
4. I use it as a daily log for activities and habits
   1. I log if I ate healthy if I meditated if I had a stressful day.
   2. I just like to log everything to analyze what affects me as a human and what affects my ability to perform. It has some aspects of the quantified self but I’m not that religious about it. I just like to log things and analyze things. Like I said before, I’m a nerd.
5. I store links to articles, websites and things I want to read on Notion
   1. This is also very basic, apps like pocket do this for you. So I also could throw away that app, which was great. Already cancelled three accounts.
6. I plan my life in Notion
   1. I use the GTD (Getting Things Done) system for planning out my vision and long-term/short-term goals in life. If you don’t know it, check it out, because it has been working for me.
7. I use it to store information in lists
   1. Think of books I still want to read
   2. Cities I want to travel to
   3. Restaurants I like in Amsterdam (where I live)
   4. etc.
   5. The app has some amazing list building feature that let you use relations and some basic Excel-like functions to program tables however you want to.
8. I use it as a decision-making tool
   1. It’s true but I found a template someone else made that lets you walk through an important decision you have to make, and I’m telling you. It works like a charm. The page that she built is amazing. You just walk along with the steps on the page and you just fill in the information based on pre-set questions. It helps me to stay very objective in viewing an important decision.

How I’m planning on using Notion in the future?

I’m hoping to be able to build and design custom pages for the following wishes:

•  As a tool to organize my side projects
•  As a tool to organize my finances
•  As a tool to organize and automate my calendar
•  As a tool to organize my writing/blogging
•  As a tool to organize my physical health/food/weight/fitness etc
•  As a tool to organize my mental health
• And much much more.

Summing it all up…

Do you understand why I call it an all-in-one personal CRM/Dashboard/Planner/Note-taking app/build it yourself hub/multi-disciplinary tool??

It’s because it’s just that. And I did not even describe all the features that it has.
So I’m not even doing it justice by calling it that…

But hey, I’ve been using it for two weeks and I’m hooked. I was able to delete multiple other apps for a single app. That is just a huge plus for me.
I was able to save money, which is always great.

And besides that, the possibilities are endless. To be honest, it’s not really the features, it’s more the customization abilities that Notion lets you do.
You can build anything and everything.

Do you have a productivity system that you like? Maybe a system that you learned about from a book like Atomic Habits from James Clear, for instance? Notion can help you out with implementing that system in your daily life. Just write out the system and build a Notion page around it. It will even cement the system you want to create even better in your memory since you’ve built a beautiful Notion Page around it.

That’s what I love about this tool. It just makes your life so much more structured in one single place. It’s the extra efficiency in your life that makes a lot of difference.

Final judgement: I give this tool a solid 8.5 / 10. 

I’ll keep on exploring Notion for you guys and I’ll report on my findings soon.

Hastalavista mon amigo’s