So Long Notion
So Long Notion
I've given up on Notion. For the uninformed, Notion is a note and database app designed to be a "second brain" for you. It has wonderful tools such as easily customizable pages, a billion different ways to organize and sort your notes through its comprehensive databases, not to mention a beautiful minimalist design style that just looks good. And yet I've been slowly leaving it behind.
In theory, Notion is the ultimate productivity tool. Notion's flexible page design and databases makes organizing a charm, it truly is a novel tool for people who want to customize their life. I used to use it for goal tracking, project planning, and general notes, but a few months ago I made the switch to Obsidian. Obsidian does a lot of things that I wish Notion did, and Notion does a lot of things that I wish Obsidian did, and yet Obsidian (to me) is the superior app for two reasons: offline mode and longevity.
Notion has this issue of being 100% cloud based, which is great in theory since all of your notes are backed up to the cloud and be accessible through the web and desktop apps alike. No matter which computer you use your notes will always been within reach, but with being 100% cloud based there comes the issue of reliability. Notion's site can be slow and clunky at times, and in the worst case: completely down for hours. This is a no go for when you want to get down to business. The perks of Obsidian is that it stores and organizes everything locally on your PC, and if you're paying for the Obsidian Sync package like me, the files are automatically backed up to their cloud servers (you can also backup to any cloud service of you choosing as well such as OneDrive, I also have a plugin that pushes all of my notes to a private GitHub repository too for additional backup). This sort of flexibility is not offered in Notion, plus Obsidian comes with the added bonus of being faster since everything is done locally.
The second reason why I left Notion for Obsidian is for longevity. Notion stores everything in their own proprietary format, which is fine, but Obsidian's selling point is that everything is saved in a .md markdown file, a format that has withstood the test of time. When I used Notion for years to store my project data I was always worried that one day Notion would go under and I'd lose everything I worked so hard on. So, between having a locally stored file and a timeless file format I made the switch to Obsidian an haven't looked back.
There are additional perks for switching to Obsidian, such as the development of community plugins that can do some crazy things. But then again at times I miss some of the features of Notion, such as a default homepage, databases, and kanban boards. Although the Obsidian community has been wonderful at developing plugins to replace these missing features they don't work nearly as well as Notion's do.
When we pick our tools we pick the best tool for the task and in doing so we make a trade off. In the sense of the ongoing Notion versus Obsidian debate, Obsidian just has more features that I'm willing to trade off to make up for Notion's faults. Sure I do use them in tandem sometimes (such as the kanban boards for project planning), but I'm the kind of person who wants to find a tool that fits my brain the best and then maximize my usage until something better comes along. Three years ago it was Notion, and now it's Obsidian.
So long Notion, you were a faithful companion but now it's time for me to use a better tool that fits my mind.
Project Updates
From the Webb
Poetry
Bitter Black Beans - The machines harvest the beans, and the beans help make the machines. A poem.
Flash Fiction
Swing - You can swing as high as you can try, but sometimes it's never high enough.
From the Lab
Our (Strange) Habits - Mark and I have built up some strange productivity habits and routines over the years. From excessive spreadsheets to unique project boards, we discuss some of the more atypical things we do to get stuff done and how why we do them.
Recommendations
YouTube
How The James Webb Telescope Works - Smarter Every Day - This year is a big year in astronomy, after two and a half decades of development, the James Webb Space Telescope is finally ready for launch. Destin Sandlin of Smarter Every Day discusses how the telescope will work with Dr. Mathers, the scientific lead on the project. Really fascinating stuff, especially for astronomy and engineering nerds out there.
Books
The Practice: Shipping Creative Work by Seth Godin - Goals are great, but having a practice is much better. In The Practice, Godin talks about the importance of having a daily practice and why it's more important than a simple goal. Because when you practice something every day the thing you do becomes a part of you. A must read for fellow creatives.
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