Notion is a tool for teams and companies that want a better way to manage knowledge, projects, documents, and collaboration. Individuals can also use the product for notes and organizing their lives. Building your personal productivity system (google calendar + notion + todoist) There is no perfect productivity or project planning software. While this is may seem shocking given my obsession with Notion, it's true. Notion lacks in many aspects, including a good calendar with email or text notifications.
Notion callsitself an all-in-one workspace for notes and documents, wikis, tasks andprojects, and spreadsheets and databases. Although I still prefer Todoist as mytask manager (I wish Todoist and Notion could integrate!), Notion has become myproject management software tool.
- Integrate Notion and Todoist the way you want. Stay on top of your task list by automatically creating, updating and organizing them in Todoist. Connect Notion and Todoist.
- Notion vs Todoist; Notion vs Todoist. Notion by Notion Labs Todoist by Doist Visit Website. Awards: Starting Price: $5.00/month/user. Best For: Notion is a tool for teams and companies that want a better way to manage knowledge, projects, documents, and collaboration.
I’ll admit: the learning curve on Notion was a bit rough atfirst. It took a while to understand how the databases work, how pages fit inwith databases, navigating the workspace, and collaborating with others. Idoubt I am using Notion to its full potential right now. But right now, it’sworking perfectly fine for what I want it to do.
Remember Notion is aiming to be an all-in-one workspace, and the other resources mentioned are specialist resources. Todoist, for example, is a perfect list manager, with Notion replicating some basic features of task management, this is only to compare the snapshot of Notion to these tools to see if.
Below, I will detail four ways I am using Notion: tracking publications, my thesis students’ progress, summer goals, and notes about the courses I teach. (Click on the links to go straight to that section.)
This is the simplest way I am using Notion is through tracking my publication pipeline. I found a template on Notion and adapted it to my needs. After reading a recent blog post by Chelsea Hetherington, I added tracking the journal, publication date, PDF, and journal URL. I imagine this will be useful for sharing publications when people ask me for the PDF or location of an article. Use this template to track your publication timeline by clicking the “duplicate” button on the top right of the page here.
Below are the two views I currently use for my publication timeline. The first is the table view, in which I can easily see my role, status, and publication information.
The second is the timeline view, in which I see it based on what status the publication is in. Note that under “Properties” I could choose to add showing my role of the publication if I so choose.
I adapted the same timeline template above for trackingtheses across the main stages of the thesis (ideas, proposal, data collection, dataanalysis/reporting, finalizing). Names are crossed out for privacy.
Each thesis student has their own page so I can track themalong the timeline. On this page, we can add comments to each other, add a wikior notes, link to other pages, and so much more.
The bottom link is the most important. This links to anotherpage that is a more detailed tracker of their thesis. I have a template basedon the general timeline to get students finished by graduation within the twoyear program. I let the student track and add things to this timeline and keepus updated. For example, this student ended up creating a table to organizetheir thesis literature, which was added to the template. Usethe template for this thesis tracker by clicking the “duplicate” button on thetop right of the page.
After taking a workshop by Cathy Mazak on staying on top ofsummer writing for academics, I sat down with my list of projects for thesummer, developed all the tasks needed to accomplish those goals, and created arough timeline of when each task should get done. Usethe template for this goals tracker by clicking the “duplicate” button on thetop right of the page.
I have many views I use for this tracker. I like to View Allwhen I’m adding new tasks.
I like to view by Status to hone in on what I am currentlyworking on this week. I plan this out every Sunday to ensure I’m always movingprojects forward.
I like to view by Due Date to get a general sense of what I’veaccomplished each month and make sure no month is too heavy.
Lastly, I like to also look by Project to see the list oftasks for each project. Notice I can change the properties shown as well as thesort and filter. If I only want to see tasks that aren’t “Done” or for a singleproject, I can use the Filter feature. If I want to sort by due date or taskstatus, I can use the Sort feature.
Lastly, there is a calendar view that I could use, butI haven’t found that useful because I prefer to add these tasks to my to-dolist on Todoist and track the individual tasks there instead. So I usually onlylook at this once a week.
Lastly, I have been using Notion to keep notes on all therevisions and notes I make about my courses throughout the semester and as I’mprepping. I had not yet found a satisfactory way to track these notes andthoughts until now! Whenever I have a thought, I can just post it here, addwhich class(es) the note refers to, add a URL if necessary, and even add morecomments and notes by converting the note to a page (the third and fourth itemshave a page icon on the left, which indicates there are comments inside as apage). I can then check off if I’ve reviewed the content already for when I’mdoing course revisions. As you can see, I’ve already reviewed all the materialfor PSYC 570 which I’m teaching over the summer (a course on interpersonaleffectiveness which I’m incredibly excited about!). Usethe template for this course notes tracker by clicking the “duplicate” buttonon the top right of the page.
If you find these templates useful or have questions, let me know in the comments below!
For this demonstration, we’ve shortlisted Evernote, Trello and Todoist as the applications we’ll put head to head against Notion. We will simply compare how Notion challenges it, with some wins and losses to consider.
Remember Notion is aiming to be an all-in-one workspace, and the other resources mentioned are specialist resources. Todoist, for example, is a perfect list manager, with Notion replicating some basic features of task management, this is only to compare the snapshot of Notion to these tools to see if they compare.
Let’s highlight the following tools:
Evernote
Trello
Todoist
Starting with the elephant in the room.
Evernote vs Notion
Let’s start with the oldest, it’s only fair.
Evernote has been the world’s most popular note-taker for 10 years now. With Notion in 2019 aiming to take a chunk out of the Evernote platform. Notion looks the most focused on becoming an Evernote replacement this year. Before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s take a look at what makes this comparison in more detail.
A win - Evernote Clipper: One thing to kick things off is the Evernote Web Clipper for Chrome. The Evernote Web Clipper wins. Compared to Notion’s newly released Web Clipper, it doesn’t have much of a fight. You are limited to adding links and storing them in a database in Notion’s Web Clipper, whilst in Evernote’s Clipper you can snap up text, PDFs and much more - also adding tags, reminders and getting a share link ASAP. Early days for the Notion Web Clipper, but Evernote’s clipper redeems top spot! Microsoft dynamics ax serial number.
A loss - Clunky Designs: The lack of platform consistency means Evernote’s Mac, iOS, Android and Windows versions all look different and still a little outdated. Compared this to Notion’s minimalist approach, Notion takes home the win. Evernote have stated they are focusing on getting things all consistent in 2019 - so we should see a streamlined Evernote coming this year, with no feature changes.
A win - Deep Function: Evernote takes home the bacon (sorry PETA) with their attention to detail on features. They’ve been the leader in note-taking for a fair while and you can see that with scanning OCR, hand-writing searching, advanced notebook searching, exporting abilities, merging notes, sorting abilities. There’s no doubt that Evernote still takes home the trophy with this, with Notion lacking behind with some basic functionality.
A loss - Inventing Future: Back in 2014/15, Evernote took their foot off the gas, and focused on building their business proposition, which for many personal users was a loss. The loyalty began to fall and many Evernote users felt sad that their use wasn’t as recognised. It’s fair to say Evernote has not been inventing the future ever since 2014, apps like Notion, Coda and Airtable have leapfrogged them in concepts making Evernote more vulnerable to being a legacy tool, like Steve Dotto puts it, in the space it once dominated.
Trello vs Notion
Next up, the one Trello to rule them all!
This project management solution has been a favourite amongst start-ups looking to use the popular Kanban methodology to get things done. With over 10m users worldwide, Trello has build itself as a house hold name, in many cases helping people to decorate their house and even plan major projects from parties to launches.
Here’s where Trello wins and loses:
A win - For Everyone: The one thing I see with Trello is its mass appeal. Trello is one of the most widely used tools, with very little explanation needed. Trello can be used by all types of teams, professionals and even in casual use, it reminds me to the versatility of Evernote in the beginning, with start-ups using it to plan their goals and retired individuals planning home decor redesigns, the abilities are literally endless and it’s so easy to get on with.
A loss - Too Fixed: It’s hard to point flaws in Trello, but one of the cracks that might appear in the future is Trello’s lack of alternative views. Trello is designed and focused on Kanban, and they do this well. But in the future, the space is open up to optional views, designs and even more. Will Trello fall behind due to their fixed state of Kanban? Too early to say but this fixed view could be Trello’s downfall.
A win - Free Resource: Trello is one of the most free tools out there, yes, you do have limits with the power-up additions, but there are no limits to how much you can post and use inside of Trello - leaving it to be potentially free ongoing if you don’t use those business tools, or have no need for customised backgrounds or stickers.
Todoist vs Notion
And finally, the king of to-do list apps, Todoist is here!
This is probably the least likely comparison, Notion doesn’t market itself at all as a task management tool, but does have some features that resemble Todoist and potentially will continue to add them.
Let’s explore this comparison to Notion
A win - List Management: The one thing to note is that Todoist is an amazing list manager and it doesn’t try to be anything else. When it comes to comparing it against Notion, I’m so hesitant. Whilst you can create lists and build to-do lists in Notion, it doesn’t come close. Todoist continues to invest in making task management easy to get started with and I think people considering it against Notion for a task manager shouldn’t jump the gun, just yet.
A loss - Static Views: One of the biggest losses is that Todoist lacks the viewing options of Notion. In Notion, you can change your database to view gallery, list, table and board view, even calendar view - here’s our Notion database guide - but with Todoist, you have list view and that’s all. Todoist have announced that Boards are coming 2019, with a focus on giving you more layout options too, this will spice things up with long-time Todoist users looking to view their upcoming tasks with more intent.
A win - Context: Notion has reminders, it has the ability to add tags inside tables, but it doesn’t have something GTD prides itself on, and that’s context. Context helps people to add labels, associations and even create filters with a task and it makes Todoist so wonderful when looking to get more from the application. With this lacking in Notion, it’s not worth considering.
Todoist Free Vs Paid
From looking at all three of these softwares in comparison to Notion, I’d recommend people do their research into what features are the most suitable and whether Notion meets those needs. Whilst Notion can be used as a Trello, Todoist and Evernote replacement, it isn’t going to fulfil all the needs you and with these applications.
Todoist Integration Office 365
From my own opinions, it replaces Trello - due to the board nature and databases - but not fully Evernote and Todoist right now. To fully replace Evernote it does need a little more focus on note-taking, and with Todoist it needs a LOT more.
Notion Vs Todoist
Let’s see what 2019 brings, let us know if you have any Notion-related questions, take the Beginner’s course and do check out our long list of Notion videos on YouTube too. Our email: francesco (at) keepproductive (dot com).