Notion: Note-taking app
Before I start talking about notion and how wonderful it’s been, let me fill you in.
In the beginning…
I returned to college this past fall after quite a while of being out of school. Now it’s easy to say, going in and even a couple weeks after, that you’re going to stay on top of things actually reading the chapters or study. Let’s be honest, how many of us actually keep up on that without forgetting an assignment or waiting to the last minute just so you can have a little bit of a break in between. The one I’m guilty of is waiting to the last minute with a quiz forgetting to read the material beforehand and fully taking advantage of the open book policy. Before you know it you’re already behind whether that’s physically behind on assignments or even just due to the stress and wondering if you’re forgetting something. To give you an idea where I was at.. I had assignments being stored on OneDrive, Google Docs, locally on my tablet and my laptop. No notes being taken other than the pre-assembled ones where you just fill in the blank from the professor themselves. It was bad.
In my UNIV101 class, there was mention of searchable databases. Other than Google, I wasn’t sure what they meant so I dug into this a bit and found a few different apps. This is where Notion comes in. This app has changed my life in many different ways and I cannot tell enough people about it.
Requirements
There are a couple other options than just notion, but there’s a couple of requirements that need comparison across all of them. When I was, and when you will be, choosing an app, I didn’t want to be switching later on. The main requirements for me are price, platform, and functionality. There are a few blogs out there that go over all of these, so I will keep it brief.
Price
As a student, not working at the time, I came to the conclusion that for my usage, Notion or OneNote would be best suited. OneNote was the first one I noticed everything in it was free. For Notion, there are four packages, Personal(Free), Personal pro(4.00/mo), Team(8.00/mo), and Enterprise(n/a). Comparing to Evernote, which has only three, basic(Free), premium(7.99/mo) and business(14.99/user/month). Notion had won this when you look at what you get for the price, as I found out if you get Personal Pro as a student free as well.
Platform
Anyone that knows me, knows I need some fluidity with technology. Choosing a note-taking app to go with would be no different. I would need this to be available across not just different devices, but also multiple operating systems. I have Windows 10 on my desktop currently, but I have both an android phone and tablet. Notion and OneNote had me covered as they were both available on all platforms. Evernote did not support phone, at the time which wasn’t necessarily a deal breaker, but with that and the price issue, I was starting to take it out of the debate.
Functionality
This is where Notion became the clear winner to me after watching this video. Not only did it have a whole community of users building different templates and tools. Over OneNote and Evernote, it also had the ability to create in app databases and add contributors.
Conclusion
After looking through everything, I have come to the conclusion that Notion would be the best solution for all aspects. Whether switching between devices throughout the day or just more overall functionality, I’m covered.
I’ve been using this for about 4 months now and I have..
- got my class schedule in, with linked databases with contact info for instructors
- been able to compartmentalize the business from personal and school
- If and when I start using this as a project management tool, I look forward to adding contributors.
TL;DR
- Notion is a great tool for organizing and importing class notes
- You can search across everything at once, in case it was covered elsewhere