I'm sick and tired of everyone clamoring over Notion, as if it is the KING of all knowledge management tools.
It isn't.
Mind you this is coming from someone who has been using Notion for the better half of a decade. Its slow, buggy, and laggy when it comes to databases now. The company's focus has shifted from individuals to corporate, and that lead to a decline in viability for regular people.
Not to mention it seems that everyone has drank the kool-aid of the tool, when there are many many other viable options out there. For some people probably extremely better. Let's dig into this.
My History with Notion
I've been using the tool I think since 2018, 2019 at the latest, and even when I moved to other tools. I found myself still having some databases still in Notion, as it would be too much for me to move them out.
One thing I noticed with knowledge management tools, is that it always takes me two tries to really get into a tool. When I first tried Obsidian, or Notion, I hated them. Like I was actually mad at Notion for how un-friendly it was to new users. I think that may have only gotten worse now that they focused so much on collaborative features. I digress.
However after my initial try I gave it another go, as nothing else seemed to work. I tried dozens of project and task management tools at that time. I wanted to plan out my content effectively, if not far better than most people. So that I could create 10X more content than others.
Thus the first version of my PolyInContent Ecosystem was developed. What I call my database for my omnichannel content production.
I also had a need for my self-education endeavor the Modular Degree, which housed hundreds of items, and would continue to expand.
Both of these became my INPUT and OUTPUT portions of my overall holistic PIOS. My own methodology for knowledge management. That I initially created IN Notion, but then moved to other tools.
Other Tools I've used since then
While I've tried dozens of PKM tools at this point, there have a been a few that I moved most of my work into. Time and time again. The path goes:
Sheets/Airtable > Notion > Obsidian > Capacities > Acreom.
Real quick here are my templates for those who are curious.
Notion is like Lego
It is great because if you have something in mind that you wanted to build as your life OS. Then more than likely you could create it in Notion. Now there are so many templates out there, that you don't really need to. As you could just download August Bradley's or Thomas Frank's.
I remember growing up I would play with Lego, and try to build the best starship I could. Using mostly lego-starwars parts, but among other things too. Taking a bit of everything if I needed to, even bionicle.
My point is since I kept trying to build out the best version I could. Anytime I would get new pieces, or if I had a new idea. I would then destroy my creation, even when sometimes it was really good already. In order to build a new one.
People often do the exact same in Notion. The major difference is, that this dashboard you are cannibalizing's for your next version. IS your life, it is the organization for all that you are doing.
When you are in transition between versions, it cripples your ability to be productive. Sure you could make a separate dashboard to experiment with, but I don't think most people do that. Plus the point remains that you are still wasting time on a newer version. Instead of just making use of the one that currently works.
Too much freedom, not enough constraints
While I think for me I was also in the midst of creating an awesome methodology in the PolyInnovation Operating System, thus I had a reason to keep remaking my dashboard. I did waste a lot of time, which could have kept me back from my major goals for a long while. I don't want that happening to you.
Just this past week I was trying to clear out old databases in Notion, and the performance was abysmal. The count all feature kept glitching out, and making me think I was losing data. It would freeze when I was scrolling in the database, keeping me from using the feature until it loaded in. Not to mention it took seconds for some menus to even pop up after clicking.
The performance of the app is no longer up to standard, and it is falling to the same route that Google Chrome went. It used to be clean and minimal, and now it is bloated and there are issues with privacy.