Notion – a digital productivity application that provides easy-to-use features in task management, organization, and more.Notion is rated in the top 20 in task management software, document management software, remote work software, and collaboration software for 2020. Its clean and functional platform has attracted more than one million users in two years.
What features does Notion have?
From study trackers to personal journaling, Notion has a huge variety of templates. The app is highly customizable with its pages, task lists, kanban boards, and dashboards.One of the most commonly used features is the task list, which is a replacement for apps like Todoist. Notion provides an easy way to tick tasks off your list, just like you would on a planner. The digital version lets you move around and rearrange the items as needed. I keep a task list for every day of the week at the bottom of my central dashboard, rearranging them when necessary or changing them to different days. Once ticked off, the line grays out.
One of the best features is the ability to create new pages and each one of those pages can have their own subtopics. I have more than 15 pages that help me manage all aspects of my life, including freelancing, Urban Asian, my website, and school. Within those pages, oftentimes, I create more subpages to keep organized. It sounds complicated, but it basically mimics pieces of paper inside folders. Within my freelancing pages, for example, I have a long list filled with possible pitches, embedded links at the bottom with resources, and a subpage with editorial contacts in an Airtable-style spreadsheet. Meanwhile, my Urban Asian board is a simple kanban board to track the status of several articles. Being able to combine a variety of formats without leaving the platform is a huge advantage – most other apps I've used give me one or two of these layout types, but not all of them.
Drop-down lists and kanban boards are often used in Notion spreads as well. Users can also change statuses on various subtasks to be able to track things at a glance. Notion also allows users to embed links, create Airtable-like bases, add quotes, lists, files, and images.
User Experience
Notion really aces UX design, using white space to provide a clean and fresh look. The emojis used on each page are aesthetically pleasing and functional for identifying categories of information.When you first land on the Notion workspace page, the interface is completely blank – a fresh space to create a beautiful dashboard. Its Lego-like structure allows users to build up their dashboard how they see fit; many have taken the opportunity to design their own layouts and teach others how to do the same.
Notion Drawbacks
Notion has a built-in calendar option, but it can't be integrated with Google or Apple Calendar. This is frustrating if most invites to meetings or time-blocking are done through another service like Google Calendar. The pain will be particularly acute for organizations, which probably already have a calendar that's integrated with their email suite. There is also no offline mode for desktop usage.
Other tools have powerful software integrations and are more thoroughly developed in certain sectors, such as notes, bases, or calendars. Although some might find Airtable, Evernote, and Google Calendar as better organizational tools for some of these functions, Notion provides a centralized workspace that works well enough in all of these areas that I don't notice the loss of features. Even without a full suite of features, Notion's other virtues pay off.
Notion uses a freemium model for pricing. While their free plan works well for individuals with unlimited pages and blocks, businesses can opt for a paid pricing plan of $8 per member per month. The paid plans provide a more collaborative workspace with unlimited team members.
Is Notion the right solution for you?
Notion has a growing customer base with business needs and workflows that are too unique for existing solutions. They choose the software solution because it allows them to create tools as simple or as complex as they need it to be. Furthermore, Notion project management provides teams the visibility when changes happen. They get real-time status updates using a single platform with all the tools each team member needs to keep projects on track.These are highly recommended for college students and others also.