Notion
- Thread starter John Forrister
- Start date
No. MS 365 (To Do / Outlook Calendar "for GTD" and OneNote for "Second Brain" works perfectly for me).
jkhloomis1103
Registered
I got myself set up for GTD on Notion and we use it as a company. Its a great PM and documentation tool. A little on the complex (not complicated) side for GTD imo. Recently switched to MS 365 which has much better integration features.
James M
Registered
I'm using Notion - I think its power is in its "blocks" approach, that lets you mix page content, embed videos etc, and – best for implementing GTD – databases.
I've built a full "trusted system" in Notion, modelling out databases for Areas, Projects and Tasks, with links between each.
Then using Notion's database filters, saved them as views for context / energy / time etc. Waiting For and Someday lists, based on Task status.
One of my long-term goals was to build out some of the features in David Allen's slide deck for the ideal GTD system, such as a minesweep tool, and to get the system to highlight to me, for example, if I have any Projects without open tasks, or any Projects older than 12 months. Using the Notion API and a set of scheduled macOS Shortcuts, I've built up automations to achieve this and used Notion's saved database views to present them to me.
I've been a GTD user for about 15+ years (on and off!). Previously I used Cultured Code's Things, which I would still very much recommend. But over time there were features that I wanted for my own system and Notion's flexibility and accessibility of the backend through the API (which is very well documented) has enabled me to build all this. I would be dishonest not to say that tinkering away and building out the functions to interact with the API has been its own fun for me at least!
Happy to share more if anyone would find it helpful. I think the bottom line about Notion, though, is it's not really a GTD tool as others like Things, Omnifocus, Nirvana, Todoist etc.! It's more like a platform on which someone could build out a GTD system, or indeed any kind of personal management / second brain system (as many contributors on YouTube attest!). A guide could certainly help though to get someone set up. If I can be any help at all with that I'm happy to, although again my particular set up relies on Shortcuts on macOS. Potentially these could be built as Python or Rust scripts, but I don't have enough knowledge of those (yet?)!
I've built a full "trusted system" in Notion, modelling out databases for Areas, Projects and Tasks, with links between each.
Then using Notion's database filters, saved them as views for context / energy / time etc. Waiting For and Someday lists, based on Task status.
One of my long-term goals was to build out some of the features in David Allen's slide deck for the ideal GTD system, such as a minesweep tool, and to get the system to highlight to me, for example, if I have any Projects without open tasks, or any Projects older than 12 months. Using the Notion API and a set of scheduled macOS Shortcuts, I've built up automations to achieve this and used Notion's saved database views to present them to me.
I've been a GTD user for about 15+ years (on and off!). Previously I used Cultured Code's Things, which I would still very much recommend. But over time there were features that I wanted for my own system and Notion's flexibility and accessibility of the backend through the API (which is very well documented) has enabled me to build all this. I would be dishonest not to say that tinkering away and building out the functions to interact with the API has been its own fun for me at least!
Happy to share more if anyone would find it helpful. I think the bottom line about Notion, though, is it's not really a GTD tool as others like Things, Omnifocus, Nirvana, Todoist etc.! It's more like a platform on which someone could build out a GTD system, or indeed any kind of personal management / second brain system (as many contributors on YouTube attest!). A guide could certainly help though to get someone set up. If I can be any help at all with that I'm happy to, although again my particular set up relies on Shortcuts on macOS. Potentially these could be built as Python or Rust scripts, but I don't have enough knowledge of those (yet?)!
sellaz32
JamieS
I've been using Notion for many things over the past 2 years, but still using Todoist as my primary GTD go to. I did purchase Thomas Frank's Ultimate Brain template in which he has developed a GTD styled inbox for processing. It is solid, but it is difficult to beat the quick entry (although Notion's iOS app is much faster than it used to be) and recurring tasks of Todoist.
So as I sit here today I am:
So as I sit here today I am:
- Using Notion for project management, higher horizons, and reference data.
- Using Todoist for mind sweep and task management.
Thanks for all the thoughtful answers and questions. Very helpful. And please keep commenting if anyone else has more to add.
SomeCallMeTim
Registered
Thank you for posting and going in to detail! Have you thought of sharing it as a template through Notion's community site? It sounds like you've done a lot of customization but seeing the general structure of it would be great. I am starting to learn Notion and I can see the potential but am not interested in re-inventing the wheel. There are a few templates out there that claim to be GTD but they are pretty much looking at the to-do lists and do not encompass the entire system.
TruthWK
Registered
I have tried for a long time to use Notion as a GTD tool but have moved away from it. Love it for notes but I struggled a lot with the complexity of options for how to implement a system in Notion. They have recently added subtasks and recurring functionality but I have not tried those. My recommendation from past trials, would be to use a single database for everything. This allows the use of their smarter fields like dates and relationships but creating multiple databases becomes cumbersome in Notion. The simpler approach is to avoid DBs altogether and just do pages as lists with pages in them. In the simpler approach you lose the ability to sort though. My issue is that while its flexible, all the work I do in it, you get for free in a simple task manager and when I try to do advanced stuff, I can do it but it always made my system feel too complicated and tough to use when i'm tired.
britdunlop
GTD|Connect
I use Notion and while previously I had built out a "second brain" sort of system, over the last couple of years I realized that wasn't really doing me any favors personally. I've set up a new Notion space and actually purchased a template on GTD that did a great job building the database and templates into Notion. It's been a good system so far and I was actually hoping there would be a set-up guide on Notion when I joined GTD connect.
Hi Brit, thanks for sharing. And I'd love to learn about the template. Do you by chance have a link?
britdunlop
GTD|Connect
Hi John, of course, I'd be happy to share. Here's the template I purchased:
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www.notioneverything.com
The site has other GTD templates, but I can't speak to those as I haven't tried them. I've been using this template consistently for about 8 weeks and overall I like how it's set up, links next actions and projects (or not), though I did delete out a good few properties related to progress tracking, levels/gamifying as that isn't of interest to me.
The two main things that make it 'less than perfect' for me are Notion limitations, not GTD ones. First being the speed of the app, especially in a browser... it's sometimes a bit slow. Second being repeating tasks are really quite annoying to do / not nearly as intuitive as any other tool out there like Todoist, Trello, Asana, etc.
Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.
Getting Things Done (GTD) template | Notion Everything
Bring order to chaos with this notion template designed based on the concept of Getting Things Done (GTD), a productivity system created by David Allen.
www.notioneverything.com
The site has other GTD templates, but I can't speak to those as I haven't tried them. I've been using this template consistently for about 8 weeks and overall I like how it's set up, links next actions and projects (or not), though I did delete out a good few properties related to progress tracking, levels/gamifying as that isn't of interest to me.
The two main things that make it 'less than perfect' for me are Notion limitations, not GTD ones. First being the speed of the app, especially in a browser... it's sometimes a bit slow. Second being repeating tasks are really quite annoying to do / not nearly as intuitive as any other tool out there like Todoist, Trello, Asana, etc.
Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.
Hi John, of course, I'd be happy to share. Here's the template I purchased:
Getting Things Done (GTD) template | Notion Everything
Bring order to chaos with this notion template designed based on the concept of Getting Things Done (GTD), a productivity system created by David Allen.
The site has other GTD templates, but I can't speak to those as I haven't tried them. I've been using this template consistently for about 8 weeks and overall I like how it's set up, links next actions and projects (or not), though I did delete out a good few properties related to progress tracking, levels/gamifying as that isn't of interest to me.
The two main things that make it 'less than perfect' for me are Notion limitations, not GTD ones. First being the speed of the app, especially in a browser... it's sometimes a bit slow. Second being repeating tasks are really quite annoying to do / not nearly as intuitive as any other tool out there like Todoist, Trello, Asana, etc.
Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.
Hi. I was just wondering if you still use it and if everything works? I downloaded this template but it has some issues with counting the numbers of a couple of lists. I was just wondering if you have noticed som bugs. Otherwise it seems to work so it is not a crucial problem.
I worry that Notion is a 'fad', bit like Evernote (or is that too controversial?). It looks wonderful and seems to be very powerful. I also think the powerful nature of the system could lead to the constant tinkering of the system. I know I am very fallible to this. But I also admit I haven't tried it fully. I am trying to hold myself to a promise that for 2023 I focus on my current system and not to change it (again).
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James M
Registered
Notion is often presented as aesthetic and clean (which, from a certain point of view, it is) when I think it's actually quite complicated to start out. One of the issues (as I see it) is that since templates are presented as screenshots, they can look functional or automated, when in fact they are unlikely to be so because there are limitations to Notion automation, except using the API.
There are myriad templates which will purport to offer the ready-made system someone is looking for, but in practice it's often not straightforward to understand how these products work. Certainly there are many "GTD" templates out there which are much like the previous array of software products on GTD that David Allen has referred to. See, for example, Tiago Forte's "PARA" method and templates, which are quite similar to GTD, but not, in fact, GTD.
Notion makes the most sense if you consider it as an small/medium enterprise support app - where there is going to be someone on staff designing and maintaining the system.
Its block-based design makes it extremely flexible and customisable. For GTD, the Notion concept that a database item is itself a page block means that one can build an inter-relating set of Task, Project and Area databases, each with their relevant properties.
At the GTD Summit (was that 2019??), David Allen shared his original vision for a GTD application. What stands out (at least to me, I may be missing bits) is how this system would act as a coach through the 5-stage methodology, the weekly review, etc. And also surface useful data to the user to help them understand what is potentially hidden within their system - e.g. how many projects have no open tasks.
For the adventurous person who is technically-minded but not necessarily a programmer or application developer, I think Notion does create scope to create some of this. I have a functioning system with some of these features using a combination of Notion and Shortcuts on macOS to automate (using LaunchAgents to run these in the background).
I'd be happy to share more about this if anyone is interested. It's not suitable to be a template, as such, but if anyone would like to hear more about the principles I'd be happy to share. Here's a screenshot of a section of my "Today" page with some of the system stats I referred to above (calculated and updated by a Shortcut using the Notion API):
There are myriad templates which will purport to offer the ready-made system someone is looking for, but in practice it's often not straightforward to understand how these products work. Certainly there are many "GTD" templates out there which are much like the previous array of software products on GTD that David Allen has referred to. See, for example, Tiago Forte's "PARA" method and templates, which are quite similar to GTD, but not, in fact, GTD.
Notion makes the most sense if you consider it as an small/medium enterprise support app - where there is going to be someone on staff designing and maintaining the system.
Its block-based design makes it extremely flexible and customisable. For GTD, the Notion concept that a database item is itself a page block means that one can build an inter-relating set of Task, Project and Area databases, each with their relevant properties.
At the GTD Summit (was that 2019??), David Allen shared his original vision for a GTD application. What stands out (at least to me, I may be missing bits) is how this system would act as a coach through the 5-stage methodology, the weekly review, etc. And also surface useful data to the user to help them understand what is potentially hidden within their system - e.g. how many projects have no open tasks.
For the adventurous person who is technically-minded but not necessarily a programmer or application developer, I think Notion does create scope to create some of this. I have a functioning system with some of these features using a combination of Notion and Shortcuts on macOS to automate (using LaunchAgents to run these in the background).
I'd be happy to share more about this if anyone is interested. It's not suitable to be a template, as such, but if anyone would like to hear more about the principles I'd be happy to share. Here's a screenshot of a section of my "Today" page with some of the system stats I referred to above (calculated and updated by a Shortcut using the Notion API):
ArunM
Registered
I have been using notion to set up my GTD system for 2+ years and it has worked well for me.
I do not like to tinker a lot with my GTD system and I got my basic GTD set up in notion in 2 days. The system has evolved over time as my understanding of GTD has developed.
I essentially have 2 databases - projects and tasks that drive my GTD system. The tasks and projects database is linked to each other. I then use different views on these 2 databases. Some screen shots from my set up below.
For recurring tasks I use google calendar and get in into notion system during review. I also use Keep for inbox.
An entry in my Task Database
An entry in my project database
A combination of views and individual pages gives me the bigger picture.
A review template that I use thanks to the GTD podcast
I do not like to tinker a lot with my GTD system and I got my basic GTD set up in notion in 2 days. The system has evolved over time as my understanding of GTD has developed.
I essentially have 2 databases - projects and tasks that drive my GTD system. The tasks and projects database is linked to each other. I then use different views on these 2 databases. Some screen shots from my set up below.
For recurring tasks I use google calendar and get in into notion system during review. I also use Keep for inbox.
An entry in my Task Database
An entry in my project database
A combination of views and individual pages gives me the bigger picture.
A review template that I use thanks to the GTD podcast
Mark Aitken
Registered
I agree, i Found I lost time needlessly to being an ‘architect’ of the system I wanted and I accidentally started creating the perfect system. Creating the perfect syatem is in my mind unattainable, and I instead try to create a ayatem that’s light weight enough to change and nudge in a new shape without it breaking, I think change in our ontology is just part of the organic nature of all of this so I make allowance for that.
Having said that, it was useful to fall into that trap because I learned more about what GTD meant to me and how I had over complicated some of the essence.
As a result, my GTD implementation on Todoist became cleaner, leaner, sharp edged in terms of context And fresh again. My Notion setup remained at the Project notes level and I leveraged the relational database in Notion to surface and resurface useful information related to the project, area, goal, vision, purpose. I am using that to try to ’think’ more at the higher horizon more often than I used to with varying degrees of success.
At the end of the day these are all just really thinking tools. If designing a complex system helps you think your way to a simple one, that’s worth it. I’m in no hurry to finish my thinking, I’m just enjoying the self directed self paced learning that comes along with the practice!