Feeling overwhelmed by scattered notes, never-ending to-do lists, and disjointed team communication? You’re not alone. And you might just find your answer in a tool called Notion. But what is Notion? What can you do with it, and is Notion for beginners?
What is Notion?
Notion is a software you can use and tweak to be your task manager, productivity system, or catch-all program. No more scattered bookmarks or unnecessary browser tabs needed!
Depending on where you look for a definition, you get some different answers. Firstly, if you have never heard of Notion, Wikipedia offers a good explanation. They say that Notion is:
a productivity and note-taking web application
The article also mentions that, apart from being a collaboration platform, Notion is:
a workspace for notetaking, knowledge and data management as well as a project and task manager
If you look at Notion’s website, they claim to be:
The AI workspace that works for you. One place where teams find every answer, automate the busywork, and get projects done.
If you want more in-depth information on how Notion works, go straight to the source. It’s worth knowing that Notion is using blocks. These blocks are similar to elements if you’re into web design.
You can use Notion with Microsoft Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, and from your browser. There is currently no desktop version of Notion for Linux. However, you can find some decent apps if you don’t want to use the web version. One of them is Notion Desktop, which you can download here.
Blocks
Notion’s website explains blocks this way:
Every page you create in Notion will be composed of many “blocks,” in the same way a LEGO castle is composed of many LEGO bricks
This explains the concept well. Every page and its contents are blocks. Writing text? That’s a text block. Creating a table or inserting an image? Same thing here. There are many different types of blocks that you can use. They range from texts, headings, different kinds of lists, images, tables, as well as embedded content, such as video, just to mention a few. Blocks can be changed from one type to another, or you can rearrange them as needed.
When you create pages, you can mix and match different blocks inside those pages.
And Templates
Templates are something you can use in Notion. This makes it easy to start using the software. A template is a Notion setup that someone has made available for you to use. There are both free and paid templates. Additionally, you can build, share, and sell your templates if you create a setup that can be of use to someone else. Browse the Notion page, and add the template you like to your workspace. After that, you can customize it to your own needs.
If you wish to work with databases but don’t know how to create them yourself, there is probably a good template to get you started.
Need a simple template to keep track of your project and the moving pieces? There’s a template to help you. Creating a team wiki? There is a template for that too! No matter what you plan to use Notion for, I can guarantee there’s a template for it.
Short History of Notion
Notion, like many other products, was the solution to a problem. In 2013, the co-founders Ivan Zhao and Simon Last wanted to create a more efficient and flexible way to organize their work. There is a comic on Notion’s website that describes how and why Notion was created.
According to this article on Medium, Notion started as a side project. The team developing and launching the product was small, but this way, the feedback and interest from users were easier to gauge.
The simplicity of Notion was part of its success. The platform could, and can, be adapted to personal and professional use. Early users told others of the product, and the company had a referral program that made it easy to introduce new users to the platform. Notion introduced a marketplace for integrations, which in turn made the platform interesting for developers and businesses alike.
Today, Notion has millions of users worldwide from all kinds of industries and is a household name in the SaaS industry. Notion makes it easy for teams to collaborate. This is a strength for teams who work remotely and in different shifts.
The team behind Notion has acquired some interesting things lately, in their effort to make Notion your one and only productivity tool. We now have Notion Calendar and Notion Mail. There’s, of course, Notion AI, which was launched in February 2023. I made a short tutorial for creating pin descriptions using Notion AI earlier.
How to Get Started
To start, you need to create a Notion account. You can either use an account you already have on Google, Apple, or Microsoft. You can also sign up using your email and a password. Creating an account for Notion is free, and you can upgrade to paid options later.
There are, of course, some limitations to the free plan, but I haven’t run into any problems so far. If you’re just getting started or work by yourself, the free plan will do just fine.
Once you’ve signed up, you log on to your Notion workspace. This is where the magic happens. Fair warning, the blank canvas you start with can be a bit intimidating at first. Depending on what you plan to do with Notion, you can start on your workspace and just create a first page. That can be the setup you need to start.
Another way, as mentioned above, is to add a template to your workspace. Using a template takes care of the setup for you, but you may want to customize bits and pieces to suit your needs.
Examples of Use
What can you do with Notion? Let it be a part of your day-to-day planning. You can find plenty of examples online for this. You can also customize and build pages and templates to suit your specific needs.
Below are some examples of use I’ve seen:
- As a second brain – store your information, keep yourself organized!
- Life OS – keep your life together using a template in Notion
- Habit tracker – build better habits, keep track of what works and what needs tweaking
- Project management system – keep track of all the pieces, from brainstorming to product launch! Use Kanban boards or Gantt charts.
- Brainstorming – on your own or in a team!
- Creating your own wiki
- Planning your days – day by day or for setting goals!
- Create standardized material used for onboarding/training staff
Can You use Integrations With Notion?
Yes! If you use other software, you can often use an integration with Notion. Some examples could be syncing databases from Jira or tasks from Asana into a Notion database.
If you like using automations, Notion has integrations with Zapier, Make, and Tray.io
Other supported integrations are GitHub, Google Drive, Slack, Miro, Slapdash, and Trello, just to name a few. For a complete overview, visit the integration gallery page.
Why Notion “Just Clicks” for Me?
When I started using Notion, I was choosing between Notion and ClickUp. Even though I like the idea of ClickUp, for some reason, it was a software that didn’t click (pardon the pun).
Notion has a learning curve, but if you stick to a simple setup, it’s easy to get started. You don’t need to create the most elaborate database from the start; you can build pages and stick to this as you go. What I like about Notion is that it’s easy to integrate links and pages and link them inside Notion.
You can build and use different views in Notion for different types of tasks that you need to do or that you need to be reminded of. I use it to build and plan my blog posts, and I use a simple template for this. The view I use most is the Kanban board. This way, I can see what posts I have and which ones are in the planning stage, in progress, in review, or are published.
What Are the Pros and Cons of Notion?
While Notion tries to be an application for productivity, planning, and so much more, can it pull it off? Here are some pros and cons I’ve found so far.
Pros
- Customization
- Frequent updates – at least of the Windows version (which I’ve used the most)
- Many desktop apps for Windows or macOS – no more tempting tabs!
- Easy to set up – getting started is simple!
- Easy to integrate with other software
- Basic database automations, primarily Slack notifications, are supported on the free plan
Cons
- You need to have an internet connection to work and have your data synced
- No native Linux app – you can use the web version or an unsupported version.
- Be wary! It’s easy to get stuck tweaking your workspace instead of getting to the important things that need to get done!
- Limited number of blocks on the free plan
- Limited AI use with the free plan
A Word About the Free Plan of Notion
Many of the cons I’ve seen have to do with the free plan. And it makes sense that you can try out features, but you need a paid plan to use them fully. That being said, the limit of blocks on a workspace is a bit strange.
As a solo-user on the free plan, you have unlimited blocks. However, if there are two or more owners of the workspace, the limit is 1000 blocks per workspace. Deleting blocks or emptying the trash will not reduce the block count. This is explained in more detail on Notion’s website and in the section about blocks.
Other limits on the free plan are:
- Limited use of Notion AI. You get twenty responses, after this, you need to upgrade to a paid plan. Understandable, but a bit of a shame since you can’t test the AI fully with this.
- Upload limit: 5MB per file
- 7-day page history – you can restore previous page versions from the last week
- 5 guest collaborators – fine for smaller projects, limiting for larger teams
- No Notion AI Connectors
- No AI Meeting Notes
- No web publishing
- Basic SEO features are available
Final Words
So, is Notion the right tool for you? Ultimately, the decision comes down to your specific needs and how you plan to use it. To decide if Notion is a good fit or not, there are many things to consider.
Do you work solo or collaborate with a team? Do you need to integrate data from other sources? If you plan to use Notion, this will help you choose the correct plan for you and your team. Considering these points will help you effectively evaluate Notion and identify any features essential to your workflow that might be missing.
Keep it simple – build things as you go. You don’t need to have the perfect dashboard; you need to get started! Don’t try to build the perfect system from day one. Begin with a basic page, explore templates, and gradually build out your workspace as you discover what truly helps you stay organized and productive.
What are you hoping to achieve with a tool like Notion? Share your biggest productivity challenge in the comments below!