Notion is an incredibly powerful tool with an extensive set of capabilities. Inspired by internet recommendations, I went down a rabbit hole a while back, setting up databases, templates, and different ways to organize my information.
After all, a well-organized database is a great sign of a well-organized life. Well, that couldn’t be farther from the truth.
I spent more time maintaining this overly convoluted setup than using it to be productive. All I needed was a spot to put down tasks, make a quick list, or save something for later. Not a full-fledged productivity suite.
So, I simplified.
I started using Google Keep. It’s a simpler app with limited functionality. But that’s exactly why it works for me. I can open it with one tap, or use the widget, add a quick note, and move along with my work.
Notes sync across devices, and it has just enough organization features. But more importantly, it removes my productivity paralysis. Here’s how.
Google Keep gets out of the way of your work
I don’t need a productivity system for simple tasks
Notion has a specific way of doing things. Even if you want to add a new entry to a table, it takes three to four clicks to get to the point where you can add a new entry.
Google Keep is the opposite. I use Google Keep as my first stop for anything I need to remember, whether it’s article ideas, shopping list entries, or things I find interesting. But unlike Notion, it doesn’t need a specific schema to be useful.
When an idea comes to me while I’m working, a single tap in Google Keep is all it takes to create a new entry. I don’t need to create a new project, think of workspaces, databases, or individual properties. Just a title, and whatever I’m thinking of.
That’s the entire workflow.
You might think that it’s obvious and you wouldn’t be wrong. As it turns out, in a bid to chase hyper-productivity, an overproduced setup can be just as detrimental.
That was me with Notion. A simple checklist was a database visible in three places and a graph view to see if I was productive. Real-world productivity doesn’t work like that.
In Google Keep, I keep a checklist of things to do and check items off as I complete them instead of maintaining a task management system for small jobs. If the task doesn’t need a checklist, there’s always a standard note.
If a task is time-bound, I can use reminders. If I take a medicine at a certain time, or send an email on a certain date, all I do is tap the overflow menu and use the reminders option. This syncs across all my devices, which is a bonus.
Notion supports reminders, but it’s never worked for me, making Keep’s implementation better for me.
Unlike Notion, Keep works better as a catch-all solution for your productivity-related tasks. When it’s time to pull up information, I rely on its blazing-fast search to find the task, to-do, or reminder item I saved.
Google Keep offers just enough organization features
Pins, labels, and color-coded notes help you find notes
Compared to Notion, the biggest difference is that I no longer try to organize everything. Or at least, not to the degree I did in Notion.
Google Keep offers labels, color-coded notes, and pinned notes. Of these, I use pinned notes the most. Recurring lists, tallies of expenses while on a trip — these are the kind of notes that I pin.
I also have a label for productivity tasks like accounting. If I’ve been doing calculations for taxes, I file it under the taxes label so that information related to the activity is presented in one spot.
Color-coded notes tend to be my least used, since it’s easy to end up with a rainbow of color notes cluttering your workspace.
When I use them, they are for specific notes like passwords. I don’t save my banking password in Keep. But if I’m at a hotel, I’ll jot down the common Wi-Fi password in a Google Keep note.
I’ll also assign a color to this note so that I can scroll through a long list of notes and find the one I need.
Why Google Keep completely replaced Notion for me
Moving away from Notion has simplified my workflow and note-taking organization. And for the most part, it’s become better. I no longer have to think about where to place a certain task or reminder.
Everything goes in Keep. From there, only the most important tasks get labels, pins, or color codes. That’s proven enough to save me time and help me get through my task list faster.
Some days, for long-running projects, I might turn to Notion, but as it stands, Google Keep’s simplicity has proven to be more effective for me.
