The main problem with implementing GTD on Todoist is that this software is oriented around due dates and there is no clear way to implement task status. This could be solved by either having a set of mutually exclusive labels (for task status) or simply nested labels (for projects, which would free up the Todoist projects pane for task status. Nozbe vs Todoist. When assessing the two solutions, reviewers found Todoist easier to use, set up, and administer. Reviewers also preferred doing business with Todoist overall. Reviewers felt that Todoist meets the needs of their business better than Nozbe.
For this demonstration, we’ve shortlisted Evernote, Trello and Todoist as the applications we’ll put head to head against Notion. Autodesk revit 2017 serial number and product key crack. We will simply compare how Notion challenges it, with some wins and losses to consider.
Remember Notion is aiming to be an all-in-one workspace, and the other resources mentioned are specialist resources. Todoist, for example, is a perfect list manager, with Notion replicating some basic features of task management, this is only to compare the snapshot of Notion to these tools to see if they compare.
Let’s highlight the following tools:
Evernote
Trello
Todoist
Starting with the elephant in the room.
Evernote vs Notion
Let’s start with the oldest, it’s only fair.
Evernote has been the world’s most popular note-taker for 10 years now. With Notion in 2019 aiming to take a chunk out of the Evernote platform. Notion looks the most focused on becoming an Evernote replacement this year. Before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s take a look at what makes this comparison in more detail.
A win - Evernote Clipper: One thing to kick things off is the Evernote Web Clipper for Chrome. The Evernote Web Clipper wins. Compared to Notion’s newly released Web Clipper, it doesn’t have much of a fight. You are limited to adding links and storing them in a database in Notion’s Web Clipper, whilst in Evernote’s Clipper you can snap up text, PDFs and much more - also adding tags, reminders and getting a share link ASAP. Early days for the Notion Web Clipper, but Evernote’s clipper redeems top spot!
A loss - Clunky Designs: The lack of platform consistency means Evernote’s Mac, iOS, Android and Windows versions all look different and still a little outdated. Compared this to Notion’s minimalist approach, Notion takes home the win. Evernote have stated they are focusing on getting things all consistent in 2019 - so we should see a streamlined Evernote coming this year, with no feature changes.
A win - Deep Function: Evernote takes home the bacon (sorry PETA) with their attention to detail on features. They’ve been the leader in note-taking for a fair while and you can see that with scanning OCR, hand-writing searching, advanced notebook searching, exporting abilities, merging notes, sorting abilities. There’s no doubt that Evernote still takes home the trophy with this, with Notion lacking behind with some basic functionality.
A loss - Inventing Future: Back in 2014/15, Evernote took their foot off the gas, and focused on building their business proposition, which for many personal users was a loss. The loyalty began to fall and many Evernote users felt sad that their use wasn’t as recognised. It’s fair to say Evernote has not been inventing the future ever since 2014, apps like Notion, Coda and Airtable have leapfrogged them in concepts making Evernote more vulnerable to being a legacy tool, like Steve Dotto puts it, in the space it once dominated.
Trello vs Notion
Next up, the one Trello to rule them all!
This project management solution has been a favourite amongst start-ups looking to use the popular Kanban methodology to get things done. With over 10m users worldwide, Trello has build itself as a house hold name, in many cases helping people to decorate their house and even plan major projects from parties to launches.
Here’s where Trello wins and loses:
A win - For Everyone: The one thing I see with Trello is its mass appeal. Trello is one of the most widely used tools, with very little explanation needed. Trello can be used by all types of teams, professionals and even in casual use, it reminds me to the versatility of Evernote in the beginning, with start-ups using it to plan their goals and retired individuals planning home decor redesigns, the abilities are literally endless and it’s so easy to get on with.
A loss - Too Fixed: It’s hard to point flaws in Trello, but one of the cracks that might appear in the future is Trello’s lack of alternative views. Trello is designed and focused on Kanban, and they do this well. But in the future, the space is open up to optional views, designs and even more. Will Trello fall behind due to their fixed state of Kanban? Too early to say but this fixed view could be Trello’s downfall.
A win - Free Resource: Trello is one of the most free tools out there, yes, you do have limits with the power-up additions, but there are no limits to how much you can post and use inside of Trello - leaving it to be potentially free ongoing if you don’t use those business tools, or have no need for customised backgrounds or stickers.
Todoist vs Notion
And finally, the king of to-do list apps, Todoist is here!
This is probably the least likely comparison, Notion doesn’t market itself at all as a task management tool, but does have some features that resemble Todoist and potentially will continue to add them.
Let’s explore this comparison to Notion
A win - List Management: The one thing to note is that Todoist is an amazing list manager and it doesn’t try to be anything else. When it comes to comparing it against Notion, I’m so hesitant. Whilst you can create lists and build to-do lists in Notion, it doesn’t come close. Todoist continues to invest in making task management easy to get started with and I think people considering it against Notion for a task manager shouldn’t jump the gun, just yet.
A loss - Static Views: One of the biggest losses is that Todoist lacks the viewing options of Notion. In Notion, you can change your database to view gallery, list, table and board view, even calendar view - here’s our Notion database guide - but with Todoist, you have list view and that’s all. Todoist have announced that Boards are coming 2019, with a focus on giving you more layout options too, this will spice things up with long-time Todoist users looking to view their upcoming tasks with more intent.
A win - Context: Notion has reminders, it has the ability to add tags inside tables, but it doesn’t have something GTD prides itself on, and that’s context. Context helps people to add labels, associations and even create filters with a task and it makes Todoist so wonderful when looking to get more from the application. With this lacking in Notion, it’s not worth considering.
From looking at all three of these softwares in comparison to Notion, I’d recommend people do their research into what features are the most suitable and whether Notion meets those needs. Whilst Notion can be used as a Trello, Todoist and Evernote replacement, it isn’t going to fulfil all the needs you and with these applications.
From my own opinions, it replaces Trello - due to the board nature and databases - but not fully Evernote and Todoist right now. To fully replace Evernote it does need a little more focus on note-taking, and with Todoist it needs a LOT more.
Let’s see what 2019 brings, let us know if you have any Notion-related questions, take the Beginner’s course and do check out our long list of Notion videos on YouTube too. Our email: francesco (at) keepproductive (dot com).
Nozbe and Google Calendar are like best friends: they share information, work together for the greater good and don’t bother each other. And, by the way, they both work for you! Learn how to make use of integration with Google Calendar. And a calendar in general.
Why you should try Google Calendar
Let’s start with some myth busting for those who are not familiar with Google Calendar. (If you are already convinced, you can skip this section!)
Hey, I’ve got Nozbe. Do I really need something else?
Well, welcome on board! Although Nozbe is superfly, it’s designed for tasks – actionable stuff. Calendar is for tracking dates and your day-to-day schedule. Imagine: if you’re planning a vacation, you’d use Nozbe to plan what you want to do and the calendar to choose when it may happen. What’s more, not all dates need any action (like national holidays). So yes, it’s likely you need a separate calendar.
I don’t need any digital calendar!
Do you remember this famous quote?
And sometimes it is indeed. There are people who heavily rely on paper planners of course. I can understand – I’ve worked this way for a couple years. Then, after a few months spent with Nozbe, I appreciated automated recurrence (repeating events or anniversaries, such as birthdays – I’ve got so many of them in my calendar), accessibility and the ability to share (my spouse knows that whatever is in our family calendar or shared project in Nozbe, is also in my memory). Consider if these features would improve your team’s flow. Because paper can’t sync.
For instance, on the Nozbe Team we use GCal to follow scheduled meetings, vacations and events.
I don’t use Google Calendar – why should I care?
Even if your attitude towards Google Calendar is negative, you might still be interested in leveraging the power of the service.
First, it’s free and if you have a Google account, it’s already in your hand. At least it’s worth checking out! Second, there isn’t any other calendar that can integrate with such a great number of other apps. Not only other Google products (Gmail, Chrome and Android, to start with) but also other apps like iCal, Slack etc. Services like IFTTT and Zapier even extend possibilities to integrate GCal into your productivity system. And, eventually, it integrates with Nozbe!
If you prefer to use another calendar app, check if it integrates with Google Calendar – it will allow you to enjoy all the features. The Google product would be just a seamless middle-man. Integrate it and forget it.
“Calendar for events, Nozbe for tasks” – how to use Google Calendar with Nozbe? (Click to tweet)
Todoist And Notion
Okay, I’m in! Now what?
Todoist Vs Nozbe
Nozbe integration
Free Electronic To Do List
Let’s start with integrating Nozbe with Google Calendar. To do that, follow these quick instructions from our Help Page. Then switch to your Google Calendar. On the “My Calendars” list you will see “Nozbe.” Your tasks should already be visible.
I recommend this Robby Miles article as well.
Manipulating tasks in Google Calendar
What you should know about the Nozbe-GCal integration:
- All your tasks are stored in one calendar. This means it’s easy to hide or show tasks in one click.
- Google Calendar only shows you tasks delegated to you that have a due date.
- Recurrences of repeating tasks are not visible – we have explained this on our Help Page.
- Changes made in the “Nozbe” calendar will affect tasks in your Nozbe: try changing the due date, time needed and name. If you make an entry planned for today from 2-2:30 PM, it will appear as a task in your Inbox, with date: today, due date: 2 PM and time needed: 30 minutes. Easy, right? 😊
- In event details you’ll see a project name and other parameters.
- Completed tasks are marked with a “✔” sign.
Google Calendar in your productivity system
Now that you’ve mastered the basics, it’s time to make it work for you. There are some more or less obvious methods:
Calendar for events, Nozbe for tasks. This fundamental distinction impacts how you think about entries. If you are not sure, use a simply question: Is there any actionable verb I could use to express it? For example, a meeting with your boss may require some preparation – so you add a task “Create a report for Friday meeting.” But the meeting itself is the event, so you schedule it in your calendar. You’ll quickly discover how to distinguish events and tasks.
Review your calendar during your Weekly Review. As the calendar is now inside your productivity system, you need to keep it clean and up to date. See what events will occur next week and decide if they need any action. If so, put tasks into Nozbe. And vice versa.
Control your efficiency. As we said, finished tasks have a special sign. You can easily gauge how productive you were in previous days.
Make a perfect plan for today. If you like to schedule all the time you have available, with the calendar it’s as easy as ABC: move tasks to time blocks and set the time needed.
If an event becomes a task, move it to the Nozbe calendar. It will appear in Nozbe, so you won’t miss the action.
Integrate GCal with other services. The best way to do this is to use the sites mentioned above: IFTTT and Zapier. Rafał explained on our blog how they can be useful – I’ll just give recipe examples:
- Share a calendar with your team. Hate questions like “Do you have a second…”? This tip is for you! Share your personal schedule to let them see when you have free time to talk and when you are out of the office. If you have an assistant, he/she surely needs to be able to see and edit your calendar.
BONUS TIP: Gantt Chart
Google Calendar has a vast range of features – you might like to check them out. It’s not my intention to show all of them. Anyway, this one is really worth sharing!
Do you know what a Gantt Chart is? It’s a method to present any project on a timeline. Each step (event, task, sprint) is presented as a block settled in time. When timing is crucial, the project has a linear, step-by-step form and lots of tasks included, so the Gantt Chart is the simplest way to visualize the process.
You can try it on your own – right away, thanks to Google Calendar and Ganttify. Sign up for free and choose your calendar. Now that you’ve integrated Nozbe with GCal, why not try it with your tasks? :)
Be a calendar master
That’s it! Thank you for reaching the end. Now it’s your turn: share a comment below about how you use Google Calendar to plan, automate or review your tasks.
written by Kuba, social media manager