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Even if you are only remotely interested in productivity and organization tools, you have almost certainly seen a particular tool’s name and logo keep popping up in your timeline or in your video recommendations — Notion.
With its meteoric rise in popularity over the last few years, Notion has certainly become one of the most talked about apps on social media lately and has gathered a sizable and very passionate community of users.
This guide will get you up to speed on the fundamentals of this trending software, so that you know what it is, how it works, what it is used for and if it is worth your time to give it a try.
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What Notion Is Often Described As
First of all, Notion is a web application that runs in the browser and can therefore be used on most computers and smartphones. Desktop apps for Windows and Mac and mobile apps for iOS and Android are also available.
Across the internet and social media you will find Notion being described in various ways and as many different things, such as:
- a productivity tool,
- a note-taking app,
- a knowledge base,
- a project management software,
- a workflow management system,
- a software to organize your life.
On Notion’s website the company describes the tool as “the connected workspace where better, faster work happens” and that “brings your wiki, docs, and projects together”.
All of this sounds great, but what does it actually mean and why do different people describe Notion in such different ways? It’s because Notion can be used as any one or all of these things and even more beyond that.
Notion — The All-in-One Workspace App
At its core, Notion is a software that enables its users to build their own custom workspaces. It serves as a central platform to capture data and information and is equipped with various functions to structure, organize, connect, and visualize that information in meaningful ways.
This allows individuals and collaborating teams of any size to use Notion as a central source of truth, where — if set up correctly — important information doesn’t slowly disappear into the void of an obscure folder structure.
One of Notion’s biggest selling points as an all-in-one workspace app is that it allows its users to consolidate tools and to cut costs. That is a big deal in a world where there is a different subscription-based app for everything. Especially, when you are running a business.
To get a better understanding of what it looks like to work with Notion and what enables its high level of flexibility and customization, we have to take a look at its architecture.
How Notion Works
If I had to summarize the architecture of Notion in short, it would be this:
- Information is placed within movable blocks,
- blocks make up pages,
- pages are organized in databases,
- and database views make the information accessible.
Let’s take a look at each of these levels one by one.
Build with Blocks
In Notion everything is built with blocks. When you add text to a page, it sits within a text block. When you add an image, it sits within an image block. When you add a table, it sits within a table block.
There are many different block types and you can add and embed almost any kind of content in Notion. On top of that, the block architecture makes everything easily movable and you can simply drag and drop any block around. This makes the creation of a useful layout very intuitive.
Jake Teton-Landis, one of Notion’s earliest software engineers, compares Notion’s blocks to LEGO in his article about the data model behind Notion:
They’re the LEGOs we use to build and model information. And when put together, blocks are like LEGO sets, creating something much greater than the sum of their parts.
Blocks are really what makes Notion so flexible and customizable, because you can use them to build something that fits exactly the needs and requirements of your use case. Just like you can build almost anything you want using LEGOs.
To make it clear that blocks can be used for much more than simple document creation, here is a short list to show you just some of the available block types:
- Basic blocks for text, headings, tables, lists, quotes, and dividers
- Inline blocks to mention people, refer to other pages, or to add dates and reminders
- Media blocks to embed images, videos, audio files, PDF files, bookmarks, and file uploads
- Embed blocks to embed content, information, and data from a wide range of third-party websites and tools, including Google Drive, Dropbox, Twitter, Google Maps, Figma, and GitHub
- Advanced blocks for tables of content, math equations, button automations, and synced blocks
- AI blocks that can help you to texts, summaries, and lists of action items
All block types can be put right next to each other on a Notion page.
Create Versatile Pages
At first glance, you might think that Notion is just another document editor. But given the possibilities of the underlying block architecture, it can really be used for a lot more than that. That’s why Notion calls the canvas you work on a page, rather than a document.
Remember that Notion uses blocks for everything? That is also true for pages, as they are just another block type.
By adding page blocks to another page, you create subpages to separate and organize your information in a meaningful way. Exactly like you are creating subfolders on your computer to store information in a way that let’s you find what you need quickly.