Back in July, I kinda geeked out on Notion. It’s a great program that lets you streamline your data and manage tasks and large projects with relative ease. Of course, because I liked talking about Notion and this month we’re talking to-do lists, so this feels like a layup for me. Look, I personally believe that if you have a system for organizing your to-do lists, that’s awesome. If you don’t, allow me to introduce you to the one that I use. I have, in the past, had a to-do list, a place to write all my posts, and a little notebook where I kept all my random thoughts. It used to drive me nuts that I couldn’t have everything in one place where I could coordinate my efforts. Now, with Notion, I do.

Notion: The good stuff

1) Completely customizable – I’ve used a couple of different To-Do list apps before Notion, and my main complaint was that some features wouldn’t work for me. Some features did, some didn’t, and because (at the time) I didn’t really have another option, I learned to work around the difficulties and live with them. Now, however, with Notion, EVERYTHING is customizable. Not only can I figure out

2) Metadata for days – I’m one of those people who actually likes metadata. The reason I like Metadata is that it’s a straightforward way to organize different pieces of information in one place. Depending on how you set up your Metadata in your Notion tables, you can even make it easy to slice and dice different tasks. I also like that you can have multiple pieces of Metadata in one column. This means that if I put something like “pay my phone bill” on my to-do lists, I can assign it “Financial” and “Personal” Metadata. Assigning multiple pieces of Metadata allows me to sort my tasks in more ways. Being able to view tasks that technically belong to two different lists in the same spot is really helpful to me.

3) Can add emojis for easier recognition – I’m a visual learner. I also take my cues from easy-to-see visual icons. Being able to quickly see what is on my to-do list is helpful because it lets me know what my day is going to look like. Am I going to have a day when I’m swamped with bills? Am I going to have to do a lot to support my blog? The list icons let me prep for what kind of task it’s going to be before I even look at it. Not that all of the icons are serious. I have certainly had fun with my list; if I’m out doing something fun, I will put a fun Icon there as well. “Going to the Jays game” has allowed me to put in their logo.

Notion the bad stuff

1) Can be tricky to set up – While I still fully believe that the customization is a really good thing, I do understand that it can seem a little daunting at first. It certainly was for me. I didn’t know exactly where I was supposed to start, and it was a steep learning curve at the beginning. Still, once I was able to spend some time with it (and, admittedly, watch some helpful YouTube videos), I was able to get a handle on both what I wanted and how I wanted my system to work. If you decide to start using Notion, I would highly advise you to mine for any information you can from a variety of creators who have used the product for years. It’s a seriously powerful tool, and if you set it up right, it can genuinely make a difference in your life.

2) Need to put in ALL the details – inputting all the required information can be frustrating, time-consuming, and a pain in the butt. Depending on how searchable or sortable you want your data tables to be, you will need to provide more information to make them work correctly. That said, it can be worth it once you start entering all the details you need to get the most out of it. Let me give you an example: When I think of something that needs to go on my to-do list, I generally have the name of the task, the due date, its status (if it’s done or To-do), and the life sector it pertains to. This could mean the task looks like “Pay phone bill – 2025-10-22 – To-do – Financial.” Once the bill is paid, I would, of course, change the status to “Done,” and it would be off my list. If, however, you add “Pay phone bill” without anything else, you won’t be able to find that task when it needs to be done.

3) If you don’t do stuff, it can be anxiety-inducing – Notion can look like a rather daunting tool if you don’t really dig into it. While I’m certain it can work with minimal time and effort, it’d be like hitching a horse to the front of a Ferrari and then wondering why the car doesn’t go so fast. There are a plethora of templates to get you started organizing your life, and if those don’t work for you, you can always build from scratch. If you dip your toe in, there is simply no way to get a sense of how powerful this tool can be. In the true spirit of “you get out of it what you put into it,” it can be pretty valuable to really dig into what Notion can do for you.

In a statement that will shock exactly no one, I genuinely believe that Notion could benefit everyone. There are as many ways to use Notion as there are people who are using it. Obviously, I’m a fanboy over here, but that doesn’t diminish the program’s ability to do what it does. There are some tools that do some of the things Notion does, and others that do other things Notion does. I believe that having everything in one place is better, more efficient, and frankly just easier to use. I use Notion for my to-do lists, my writing and keeping track of whatever book I happen to be reading at any given time. I love that I can, within one program, plan a project and then execute it without having to jump between 15 different programs to get everything done.

Well kids, that’s me for 2025. I’m taking a little time for myself, but I will certainly be back in 2026 for more. I’m actually working on a project which I hope to launch next year. For now, I wish you all the best for the holidays, a great end of year, and enjoy Organizing Your Digital Life.

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