I realized that I was spending way too much time every day just to find where a certain message, file, or note was instead of actually getting things done. It’s also why, in the search for something a little more streamlined, I ended up moving everything to Basecamp.
Basecamp isn’t the hottest new productivity app in town. It doesn’t promise to be a second brain like Obsidian or have a revolutionary new AI-powered workflow, but it handles all the essentials in a simple, structured way. This includes everything from chats to message boards, to-dos, schedules, documents, files, and more. That simplicity is precisely what I’d been looking for.
The free note-taking app that helped me straighten out what Evernote could not
Notion’s modern tools and flexibility offer an improved note-taking experience
Notion is powerful, but Basecamp is easier to use
Reducing the temptation to be stuck in template fatigue
I really like Notion, but Notion has a massive issue, which, if you use the tool, you’d already be aware of. It is way too easy to go down a rabbit hole of optimizing your workspace instead of actually using the tool. For example, I have a content tracker, but I’m always looking for ways to improve it instead of just adding tasks to it and moving along.
There’s also the plethora of Notion-oriented YouTube channels and blogs that help you build out a cleaner home page or a weekly dashboard, and then there are templates. All of this is great, but it’s not why you use a productivity app when the app itself becomes the task. It’s just detracting from the work at hand.
Basecamp handles many of the same features and does it with a much smaller toolset. Each project gets a to-do list, a schedule, a docs and files section. Compared to Notion, all of that might sound a little basic, but switching over to Basecamp was precisely the goal.
I don’t want the extended amount of features that I don’t actually use but that I know absolutely get in the way of my productivity. For example, when I’m planning an article, I usually add a new entry to my running ‘Writing’ project. I’ll add my research notes into the docs and files folder, and I’ll set myself a deadline using the schedule feature. The outline of my article will go into the to-do section, and that’s it. The entire structure is already decided, and I don’t mess around with it.
Compared to juggling Notion’s different elements and dropping my files and folders into Google Docs, this is much simpler. In Basecamp, I can just add my relevant documents directly to the project itself, and everything from version histories to shared access is all available. If you work solo or even in collaboration with other team members, that simplicity continues to be a key focus.
Basecamp solves the problem of being constantly online
Less chat, more visibility into work
If you think Notion is distracting, wait until you come across Slack. While it’s a communications platform, the problem is that even when nothing is happening, there’s a tendency to go ahead and keep checking through all your channels, messages, conversations, even threads inside threads.
Checking on Slack every few minutes basically started becoming second nature for me, but when you’re trying to be productive and do deep work, that is far from ideal. Basecamp handles communication completely differently, and it makes a big impact on your daily productivity. For one, instead of treating everything like a live chat, it creates quick conversations based on decisions.
You have a option to privately message other team members, and you can continue conversations in comments under individual tasks. While Basecamp doesn’t have a full-fledged messaging system the way you would expect from Slack, it has all the basics in place to make sure that work moves as intended. And then you have features like Mission Control, which gives you a gauge-based look at the overall progress of tasks. I find that to be a big step above going into something like an Asana task and looking at specific labels and markers, simply because it’s much faster at getting an overview of your projects.
Why fewer features can make you more productive
While Basecamp has a lot more features, it’s this subset of features that has helped me move away from Notion and Slack to a simpler solution. And the switchover has certainly been far more relaxing for me. While I certainly like being productive, tools like Notion and Slack add enough overhead on top that maximizing the tools themselves can end up being the most productive thing that you do. But at the end of the day, the goal is to get tasks out of the way, and using a tool that is more streamlined and focused, even if it has fewer features, has its merits.
9/10
- SoC
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Google Tensor G5
- RAM
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16GB
- Storage
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256 GB / 512 GB / 1TB with Zoned UFS / 1 TB with Zoned UFS
- Battery
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5200mAh
The Pixel 10 Pro XL packs all the same features you’ll find on its less expensive siblings, along with a few exclusive features like a 6.8-inch display and faster charging.
