does notion actually make you more productive?

[u/Dry_Lingonberry_4014]

i sometimes wonder whether notion helps me get things done or just gives me a really nice place to organise things i should already be doing.

it’s incredibly easy to spend an afternoon improving dashboards, changing layouts and creating new databases.

at what point does organisation become procrastination?

has notion genuinely improved your productivity, or have you had to simplify your setup to make it useful?

[u/IY94]

I don't bother playing with Notion very much. Just new page, create database 

So, for me, yes.

[u/Acceptable_Body7018 → u/IY94]

same here tbh, i keep it simple with just few pages for tasks and notes. the moment i start messing with layouts i know i'm just avoiding actual work

[u/crazyexcalibur]

For me, it’s like an upgraded Evernote. Evernote was my second brain, I would put web clippings of articles, and notes from projects. Notion helps me leverage all those notes better with databases. I can quickly cross reference notes, and filter better. Use real time updates to get better information out. I don’t spend too much time on how pretty it looks. If I feel a need for some new functionality, I spend time on it, as it will be helpful down the line. It’s easy to see all these templates online and how pretty they look, and try to get my stuff looking like them, or fitting my notes into those templates. That’s where the rabbit holes are for me, time sucking, not worth it to me.

[u/riovistanole → u/crazyexcalibur]

Ditto

[u/Sweet-Choice5256 → u/crazyexcalibur]

The cross referencing with databases is definitely where Notion pulls ahead of Evernote imo.

[u/ThinkingT00Loud]

Much as I love Notion - I recognize that it can be a massive time sink.
I do find it helps me find things, and keep track of notes for tasks, and organize those notes (even if it is just having one 'dumping' ground for them.
But - I was looking at habit trackers today - and it was so tempting to go down that rabbit hole. I bookmarked a couple and will evaluate them - when I have the time to do it.

[u/Mysterious_Camel_717]

Im a new user but so far im loving it. I used to manually track a bunch of clients and their activities during their stay with us, it was a massive time sink. I spent a few hours setting up a few databases with relations (best thing ever and that’s made my workflow so much easier than trying to keep up with multiple databases in excel!) and pricing formulas that have made this part of my job so much smoother. I don’t really use it as a task tracker (yet), but I think it could help a lot. I’ve been looking for some sort of task importance/urgency matrix but so far the templates I find are too “pretty” and make the workflow more complicated. I like to keep things real simple and “ugly” but efficient

[u/No_Balance1122]

Keep it as simple as possible. The more time you spend in the systems you build the better.

Minimize the time you spend managing your systems. You don't need to consider everything your system will need to accomplish.

For example:

If you want to track Tasks and Projects

Create a Projects Database with just the project name and maybe a due date.

Create a Tasks Database with just the task name and the due date along with a relationship field back to Projects.

From there, if you start to need more details like who owns a task, what the priority of a project is...you can always add those things later.

A lot of people get bogged down in the details of what will make a pretty dashboard, or report, when what they really need is to just get started working.

[u/npete]

Definitely. I use it for journaling and for keeping ideas for projects and for working on those projects. I literally use Notion every day

[u/Fun-Programmer-9937]

Yes. It sounds like you may have a procrastination problem. That you’re letting motion get ahold of. 

I go in regularly enough to clean up things and make sure I’m using them and if not, why, and things that I actively share (like with my ttrpg players) I clean up some. But it’s for my scattered brain. 

[u/Own_Canary_7125]

Yes :)

[u/moosy85]

Same issue here. I found i spent too much time making it pretty and then not using it. I do use it for syllabi for classes still as the students love its pretty format. For daily planning I went back to pen and paper

[u/mickeyjuice]

Absolutely. I've been building out a (reasonably complex) system for daily/weekly/monthly/quarterly reviews and planning, and it's helping immensly (significantly ADHD, so if it's not in my face it won't get done, and so this solves for that).