Is Notion Worth It as an All‑in‑One Workspace? My Long‑Term, Real‑World Review

1. How I Actually Use Notion Day to Day

I use Notion as an all‑in‑one productivity workspace with a few core jobs. For teams, it functions as an all‑in‑one productivity workspace for teams that centralizes everything in one place:

• My second brain for ideas, reading notes, and references—essentially a second brain knowledge management system that connects everything
• A lightweight project management tool for personal and client work, or more specifically, a project and task management tool for multiple projects that keeps everything organized
• A content calendar and writing pipeline
• A semi‑chaotic but improving life OS (goals, habits, logs, reviews)

Concretely, my sidebar has things like:

• "Inbox" – a quick‑capture page for random thoughts and links
• "Writing" – a database of drafts with tags, status, and dates
• "Projects" – a database to track all ongoing work
• "Library" – a database of articles, books, and resources
• "Life" – yearly goals, reviews, habit trackers, etc.

So when someone asks how I'm using Notion as a second brain, my honest answer is:

It's the main place where I store and connect everything that matters enough not to lose.

2. My Journey: From Evernote to Notion

I didn't instantly "switch" from Evernote. I gradually moved from Evernote to Notion:

• First, I mirrored a couple of Evernote notebooks into Notion
• Then I noticed I was drafting more and more directly in Notion
• At some point I realized I was in Notion every day and opening Evernote maybe once a week "just in case"

Looking back, the difference for me is simple:

• Evernote is a solid notes app: fast capture, search, simple structure
• Notion is an all‑in‑one workspace:
  • Notes and documents
  • Tasks and projects
  • Databases and views
  • Dashboards and wiki pages
  • Collaboration

I don't think Notion "replaces" Evernote for everyone. If you only need straightforward notes, Notion might honestly be too heavy. I hit the point where I needed:

• More structure than nested notebooks multi‑level note‑taking system could provide
• More flexibility than static notes
• A place to connect tasks and documents

That's when using Notion as an all‑in‑one productivity workspace started to make sense for me.

3. Where Notion AI Actually Helps Me

I don't treat Notion AI as a general chatbot. I use it inside my existing pages and databases, where my content already lives.

3.1 Drafting and Polishing Text

When I'm writing:

• Emails
• Project descriptions
• Documentation
• Blog drafts

…I often rely on Notion AI as a writing assistant for emails and documents. This AI‑generated summaries and writing assistant workspace helps me move from rough ideas to polished drafts quickly:

• Turn messy bullet notes into a first draft
• Rewrite things to be more formal or more concise
• Suggest a simple structure when I'm stuck staring at a blank page

It doesn't replace my writing voice, but it gives me a fast rough draft that I can then refine.

3.2 Summarizing Long Notes and Meetings

My meeting notes already live in Notion, so I let AI handle the boring part:

• Create AI summaries for Notion meeting notes
• Extract action items and decisions
• Fill a short "Summary" property in my meetings database

I've basically stopped manually writing summaries for many internal notes because Notion AI summaries are good enough as a starting point, and I just tweak them if needed.

3.3 Smarter Databases With AI Autofill

I lean heavily on Notion databases. With AI Autofill, I can:

• Auto‑tag new drafts by topic
• Let AI guess priority from content (rough, but helpful)
• Generate a concise description from a long page

This is where AI‑powered Notion databases feel different from a static spreadsheet. With AI Autofill and AI‑powered databases for workflows, I don't have to manually maintain every property for every item. The system learns from my patterns and suggests values automatically.

3.4 Asking Questions Across My Whole Workspace

When I get lost in my own system, I'll ask Notion AI:

• "What were the key decisions for Project X last month?"
• "Show me the tasks due this week related to Client Y."

Notion AI searches across all the pages and databases I can access and gives me one answer with links. This global search and Q&A over my Notion knowledge base is something I can't cleanly replicate with a standalone chatbot and scattered documents.

4. How Notion "Thinks" (From a User's Perspective)

I'm not building the tech, but as a user I feel a pattern:

• There seems to be a central reasoning step that decides:
  • What I'm asking for (summary, rewrite, search, task help)
  • Which Notion features to call (AI, databases, search, etc.)
• Then it uses different skills:
  • Summaries
  • Text rewriting
  • Database operations
  • Search and Q&A
  • Automations

From my side of the screen, the point is:

It feels like one AI‑augmented workspace that can write, search, summarize, and automate around my content, instead of a dozen disconnected AI buttons.

That's the difference between using a generic chatbot and using Notion as an AI‑powered productivity system. It's an AI‑powered productivity system with smart databases that understands context and relationships, not just isolated prompts.

5. Where Notion Really Shines in My Workflows

5.1 Central Hub for Everything

I've tried the "many tools" approach:

• Tasks in one app
• Notes in another
• Docs in Google Drive
• Spreadsheets somewhere else

The result was always too many tabs and constant context‑switching.

Now, I use Notion as my central productivity hub. For teams, it becomes a team knowledge base and central productivity hub where everyone can access what they need:

• Every project has a main page
• Each project page can surface:
  • Tasks (linked from a tasks database)
  • Meeting notes
  • Related documents and links
  • AI‑generated summaries
• I can quickly see:
  • What I'm doing this week
  • What's blocked
  • What we already decided

It's far from perfect, but at least it's one place.

5.2 Databases, Relations, and a Personal Knowledge Graph

If I could only keep one feature, it would be Notion databases with Relations and rollups.

I maintain:

• A Projects database
• A Tasks database
• A Notes / Library database
• A Content database for posts and articles

Then I connect them:

• Tasks → Projects (Relation)
• Notes → Projects (Relation)
• Content → Source (Relation to Library items)

The result is using Notion as a personal knowledge graph for tasks and notes:

• A task isn't just a lonely line in a list—it's tied to:
  • The project it belongs to
  • The notes and decisions behind it
  • The people or clients involved
• When I open a project, I see:
  • All related tasks
  • All meeting notes
  • All content drafts and reference material

This is something I never really achieved with traditional note apps.

5.3 Team Wiki and Collaboration

When I use Notion with others, it naturally becomes our company wiki and team knowledge base:

• Onboarding guides and SOPs documentation workspace that new team members can reference anytime
• Standard operating procedures management system that keeps processes organized and searchable
• Checklists and processes
• Shared project dashboards
• Meeting notes tagged by team or client

Instead of digging through email or Slack history, the expectation becomes:

"If it's important and long‑lived, it's probably in Notion."

Using Notion as a company wiki and team knowledge base has made it much easier to keep everyone aligned, especially when teammates join later and need context. It's an integrated knowledge management workspace for teams that scales with your organization.

6. Where Notion Honestly Frustrates Me

Notion is powerful, but not flawless. A few pain points are real for me.

6.1 Overkill for Simple Notes

If your main needs are:

• Quick note capture
• A basic to‑do list
• Occasional longer notes

…then Notion can absolutely feel like overkill. It's very easy to fall into the trap of designing the perfect system instead of just getting things done.

Sometimes I genuinely miss:

• Opening a barebones notes app
• Typing
• Closing it and moving on

If all you want is straightforward note‑taking, then the answer to "is Notion too complex for simple note‑taking?" might be "yes."

6.2 Not My Favorite Deep‑Writing Environment

For focused, long‑form writing or deep research, I still prefer a deep‑writing environment for focused work:

• Minimalist Markdown editors
• Obsidian
• Or even Word / Google Docs for heavy collaboration

Why?

• Notion's editor is solid, but not ideal for:
  • Pure, distraction‑free writing
  • Offline work
  • Heavy annotation and side‑by‑side comparison
• Its real strength is structure and relationships, not the "writing feel"

So my current balance is:

• Notion for structure: projects, pipelines, tasks, overviews
• Other tools for deep content creation: actual drafting, reading, annotating

6.3 Offline and Performance

Two more honest annoyances:

• Offline support is still weaker than fully local apps
• Large workspaces and complex databases can feel slow, especially on weak connections or older machines

If you often work on airplanes, trains, or spotty networks, this matters a lot more than any fancy AI feature.

7. How I See Notion vs Other Tools I've Used

To keep this practical, here's how I personally think about Notion vs Evernote vs AI‑native and niche tools.

7.1 Rough Positioning

Type	Tools I Think Of	When I'd Use Them	Why I Still Keep Notion
Traditional note apps	Evernote, Apple Notes, Simplenote	Fast capture, simple note‑taking, "one big searchable notebook."	Great at notes, but I miss structured project and task management and a truly unified workspace.
AI‑native knowledge tools	Mem, Heptabase	When I mainly care about AI‑driven knowledge graphs and idea exploration for research and learning.	They're exciting, but for projects + wiki + tasks + AI in one place, Notion fits my real‑world work better.
Single‑scenario AI tools	Otter.ai, Glean	Extremely focused cases like meeting transcription or enterprise search.	Often, I can get "good enough" by combining Notion meeting notes + Notion AI summaries + Q&A instead of adding yet another app.

From my perspective:

• For Notion vs Evernote for knowledge management, Evernote still wins for pure notes, but Notion wins for structured projects + notes + tasks.
• Compared to tools like Mem or Heptabase, using Notion as a personal knowledge graph and project hub feels more practical for my mix of tasks.
• Compared to Otter.ai or Glean, Notion AI is less specialized, but the big advantage is that everything stays in the same workspace.

8. When I Choose Notion — And When I Don't

Over time, I've built a simple rule of thumb for myself.

I use Notion when:

• I need real structure:
  • Projects, pipelines, statuses, dashboards
• I need connections:
  • Tasks linked to projects and notes
  • Notes linked to people, clients, or content
• I want AI tools living inside my workspace:
  • Summaries of long pages
  • Drafting help
  • Q&A across my own knowledge base
  • AI Autofill for tags, descriptions, and other properties

I don't rely on Notion alone when:

• I want a pure writing environment with zero visual clutter
• I need offline‑first reliability
• I'm doing heavy research reading and annotation

In those scenarios, I'm happier with specialized apps, and I only bring key outputs back into Notion for structure and tracking.

9. So, Is Notion Worth It for Someone Like Me?

For my own workflow, the honest verdict is:

• Yes, Notion is worth it because:
  • It centralizes projects, notes, tasks, and docs into one all‑in‑one workspace—an integrated knowledge management workspace for teams that scales from solo work to full team collaboration
  • Notion AI gives me practical help with summaries, writing, and Q&A right where my content already lives
  • Its databases and relations let me maintain a personal knowledge graph for tasks and notes that I didn't have before
• No, it's not the right solution for everything:
  • I still rely on other apps for deep writing and heavy research
  • I wouldn't recommend it as a pure, simple notes app to everyone

If you're trying to decide for yourself, here's how I'd frame it:

Notion is probably not for you if:

• You just need a simple notes app and a basic to‑do list
• You hate tinkering with systems and templates
• You depend on offline‑first tools most of the time

Notion is worth a serious trial if:

• You juggle multiple projects, clients, content streams, or side hustles and need a project and task management tool for multiple projects
• You like the idea of a central second brain for tasks, notes, and knowledge—a second brain knowledge management system that connects everything
• You're willing to spend a few evenings setting up or customizing a workspace
• You want Notion as an AI‑powered productivity workspace, not just another note app

My suggestion:

1. Pick one real project (not a fake demo).
2. Run it entirely in Notion for 1–2 weeks.
3. Use:
   • A project dashboard
   • A tasks database connected to that project
   • Meeting notes inside Notion
   • Notion AI summaries for long pages
   • AI Autofill for tags and descriptions
   • Q&A to interrogate your own content ("What did we decide?" / "What's due this week?")

Then ask yourself:

"Do I feel more on top of this project, or did I just build a prettier place to procrastinate?"

If your honest answer is "I feel more in control," then for you—like for me—Notion is probably worth keeping as your main all‑in‑one workspace and second brain.