My Review of Notion

So I’ve been using Notion for a couple of months now. I started using it after watching an Amanda Lee video on YouTube. She just made it seem so cool, I had to try it.

I have a bad habit of trying new software and apps, spending hours moving all my notes and info over to them, then dropping them like a hot coal a few days later. The reasons vary. It didn’t do what I thought it would. It’s redundant. It’s just one more bloody app to check in the morning. It’s not easy to use. Something new and shiny caught my eye. You get the idea.

But I’ve continued to use Notion for long enough now that I think I’m ready to share it with you. (Not a sponsored post.) 

So, if you don’t know what Notion is, it’s a note-taking app. Think of it as a virtual notebook. I tend to use it as a virtual bullet journal. You can keep to-do lists, pictures, documents. if you have a paid account, you can share access to all of those things.

I don’t work with a team, so I don’t have a paid account. And I have to say, I use it almost every day for both my personal and my writing life. 

Here’s what I use it for. 

Social media plans- Pretty self-explanatory. I keep a little chart of ideas for Tweets, pins, Instagram posts and the like. I hate sitting down to plan a day worth of social media and having no ideas. Why do I have all these pithy thoughts until I have my keyboard under my fingers?

Meal prep plans- Whatever makes my brain go blank when I’m trying to write social media does the same damned thing when I’m trying to figure out dinner. Even when I try to write a shopping list, I forget every meal I have ever made. So having a list of meals I make, or that I want to try, is a huge help.

Utility info- Another pretty self-explanatory thing. This is the information I need if I have to deal with any of my utilities.

Savings info- I know everyone suggests having separate savings accounts but I don’t have time for all that nonsense. So my savings account has just one chunk of money. Then I keep track of what money is for what on this Notions page.

Expense trackers- If you’re not tracking how much your bills usually are, you should be. 

Address book- Again, pretty simple. Nothing’s worse than fumbling for the vet’s number because Oliver swallowed something he ought to know not to.

Rolling to-do list- While my daily goals are in my bullet journal, I like to keep a rolling list of things I need to get to. This gets slowly moved to my bj as I can manage these tasks. Nothing gets forgotten, but I’m not looking at a list of things that no one could do in a day.

Contests- I have a bad habit of entering too many contests. I like to have a place to keep track of them. Due dates, word requirements, all the rules, links to pages. It’s super useful to have all of that in just one place.

Project pages- This is especially useful as I get into more forms of storytelling. As I work on AA and other podcasts, there’s just a huge amount of info to keep track of. And Notion is where it all goes. 

Blog post schedule- Finally, I keep track of all my blog posts for here and Haunted MTL. I keep notes, links, info, calendars. 

Now, you might be wondering if I still use a bullet journal. The answer is yes. I use Notion for long-term planning and things that need to stick around as I switch from book to book. My daily and weekly planning are more in the moment. Even my monthly goals to a degree. And of course, there’s also the memory capturing part of a bullet journal that I don’t want to convert to virtual just yet.

The big reason why I started using Notion is that I had things that either changed too often or not often enough. Things like my blog schedule, which might switch on a whim, are a pain to do then redo on paper all the time. Things like what recipes I like to make for dinner don’t change so often that they need refreshed every three to six months when I get a new BJ.

I do appreciate that I can pull Notion up on any device. My tablet has the app, of course. And I can pull up the website on any computer. I like that I can access all of my notes, for both home and writing life, no matter where I am. 

The fact that it’s cute doesn’t hurt. 

Have you tried Notion? Let us know in the comments below. 

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