I went back to Notion after a month. Here’s what I learned.

My productivity stack has evolved through many iterations. I’ve tried and regularly used Microsoft To-Do, ClickUp, Apple Notes, OneNote, GoodNotes, Trello, and Notion throughout much of my professional career as a developer. Oh, and JIRA gets an honorable mention too…yay, service tickets…

Currently, my productivity stack looks like this:

• Apple Notes

• Notion

Yes, I am back on the Notion train. About a month ago, I decided to cut ties with Notion. In the spirit of simplicity, I wanted to see if I could get down to using just one productivity app, and I chose Apple Notes. It was a welcome change that taught me a lot about myself, my shiny-object syndrome, and how to work with it. You see, when I was initially using Notion, I was more or less obsessed with designing the ultimate productivity suite…

…but I wasn’t actually using it.

Dashboards were left unmaintained, with documents and untitled databases everywhere. The UI of my “Dashboard” page gave me anxiety because it wasn’t organized well.

So, I got rid of it, and I’m glad I did. Switching to Apple Notes allowed me to think less about configuration and more about actually using my productivity app for, well, productivity. I did some basic organization with folders for different aspects of my life, but this was much less involved than my previous attempts with Notion.

So, why did I go back?

I needed a better solution for project tracking in development.

As a developer, breaking down app or website development into digestible pieces is crucial to my workflow. I’m currently working on a startup and a client project, both of which are feature-rich. While Apple Notes allows for checklists and simple tables, it just wasn’t enough for my needs.

Notion has integrations with Figma, GitHub, Zoom, and more, which make it easy to track projects, meetings, and tasks. I can create a task in my project database and generate an ID to use in pull requests on a GitHub repo, allowing me to track the status of a feature. This is especially useful for the client project I’m working on with another developer.

Going back to Notion after using Apple Notes has been a positive change. Apple Notes taught me how to edit myself and not get too caught up in configuration. My new Notion dashboard is simple. I’ve set up a “backend” with automation and database table relations, which allows me to make quick edits or additions to my project task lists, client directory, lead tracking, and more. I’m spending significantly less time changing statuses or doing data entry and more time actually working on projects. My next step is to integrate the Notion API with my company website so that leads are automatically pushed to my lead database.

Apple Notes isn’t going anywhere, though. I still use it for client calls, note-taking, brainstorming, and planning. But I’ve found that compartmentalizing business/entrepreneurial projects with Notion and managing the rest of my life with Apple Notes is the perfect mix of form and function.

Notion is finally working for me as a “second brain” for my business instead of an all-around life-tracking app as I was using it before. It feels good to be back.

If you’d like to learn more about Notion, I highly recommend checking out Simon from Better Creating. His content is fantastic.

Stay Productive, Stay Caffeinated.

Paps.

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