I have lots of different notes and documents floating around in my tablet, laptop and desktop PC. Rather than printing everything out and filing it away never to be seen again, I try to ‘keep’ important information in a combination of saved emails, wikis, and documents. I store everything ‘in the cloud’ which means that I can access that information when I need it on different devices – but even though I’m reasonably organised – I’ll often spend a bit of time trying to find important stuff.
This problem is common, and is really all about Information Management – a combination of both the tools we use, and the processes we put in place to manage information and data. Which brings me to the purpose of this article – there’s a new kid on the block called Notion that I’ve been using the past few weeks and it’s something I can comfortably recommend for people to try out.
OK, so what exactly is Notion?
Notion is a cloud tool and it works great in the browser or via its native applications for Android and iOS. It’s a hard one to classify as it does a bunch of stuff – it fits somewhere between wiki’s, intranets, SharePoint, Evernote, task and project manager’s, spreadsheet tables, even basic databases …. you’ll see what I mean when you give it a try! I think it has appeal for both individuals and for teams. There’s a free-forever version without too many limitations so it’s easy to have a play around with it to see if it suits your style of work.
I used Evernote for a long time – and I know this is simply personal preference – but I really liked an older version of their interface and when a new version came out, It just didn’t work for me anymore. I have also tried to work with OneNote, but I’ve never really clicked with it – and I think it’s now primarily focused on inputting information for the Surface using a stylus – not really the best for lots of knowledge workers and people still churning out information via a keyboard like me.
How Do I Use Notion?
In the last week, I’ve used Notion in the following way:
- Three lots of notes and research for new blog articles
- A couple of how-to support ‘quick reference’ articles for my business’ knowledgebase
- A bunch of business related info that i know i’m going to need down the track
- A shopping list for stuff I need to buy for the business
- A marketing campaign and a list of things related to it with a basic list of leads, customers etc
In the past, I’d have put all of this stuff in separate documents, or into a wiki (i still use the old version of google sites) – I’m finding Notion quicker and easier to use, and really easy to get information (in a lot of different formats) into.
There’s Some Basic Database Tools Too
Notion is trying to differentiate by adding in some ‘database’ tools. The capacity to store tabulated information and search and manipulate that data – I’m a little bit more sceptical about this functionality and how much it will get used to fulfil real business problems – but it works well for what it is and for fairly simple sets of data.
Conclusion
So quite simply – I think it’s a great solution for individuals and small teams who are trying to get important information into one place, and well worth a try. Notion has a broad scope of functionality and doesn’t make too many rules for how you store information, so you’ll need to try it out to see if it works for your way of doing things – and if you are using it as a team, you’ll need to define what goes in and how you format information so that it doesn’t get out of control.
If you need a hand with any Information Management challenge – at WestVIC Technology we can help you map out the best way for you (or your business) to take control of your email, files, forms, digital assets, databases and website.
About WestVIC Technology
WestVIC Technology (WVT) provides IT Advice, IT Support, and a full range of IT Services for both home and business across Western Regional Victoria. We provide our services to customers in Ballarat, Geelong, Bacchus Marsh, Ballan, Melton, Daylesford, Castlemaine, Maryborough, Ararat, Stawell, Horsham, Hamilton, Warrnambool, Camperdown, Colac and other places and towns across this region.