Think Google Calendar Is Just For Meetings? You’re Missing Out

A: Your work friend definitely has your best interests at heart. Notion promises to do a lot more than your typical free productivity and to-do-list tool. You can use it to store and organize notes, create budgets and schedules. You can even adjust the design to your liking. These features have made the app a favorite of the extremely online—whole corners of TikTok are devoted to people showing off their Notion dashboards.

Gen Z fans say that once you learn how to use it, Notion can serve as a second brain, a storage facility for all your work-related documents, checklists and musings. In theory, this should help you plow through tasks with the vigor of multiverse-traversing Michelle Yeoh in “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” But then, there’s the whole “once you learn how to use it” part.

I’m not that much older than the Notion-obsessed youths. Yet, like you, I find Notion inscrutable. I appreciate the work that’s gone into the TikToks that showcase its merits, plus the countless YouTube tutorials designed to help you set up a system that works for you. A company representative pointed me to a plethora of resources it’s created to help people use the platform. Those include Notion Academy, a series of video tutorials that walk you through both basics (e.g., creating a task list), and more advanced moves, like how to use the software to organize large data sets. Perhaps, with some elbow grease, I could also master one of the many free templates the company and various Notion acolytes have created. But why bother? It feels silly to expend all the effort just to work a bit more efficiently.

Before downloading anything new, consider whether you can get more from what you already use. If you have a Gmail account, Google Calendar can be a helpful organizing system. With the same button you use to create events, you can also create “tasks” to complete. These will show up in your calendar (color-coded if you wish), but also in a list to the right of your date book—click the blue check mark icon to open the list. Create tasks as soon as you get assignments and, if you procrastinate, break tasks into smaller ones to check off as your deadline approaches.

Another tip: In Google Calendar’s left column, click the three dots next to the name of your primary calendar (mine is just called “Daniel Varghese”) and click “Settings and Sharing.” Then scroll down to “Other notifications” and use the drop-down menu to turn on your “Daily Agenda” email. Now, at the beginning of each workday, you’ll get an email that tells you what meetings and tasks you have scheduled for the day.

If you’re itching for a new app, and your work tasks are pretty similar each week, try Trello. The free service works like a digital corkboard. You create a card for each project, which can store relevant links and files, and move it from the left side of your screen to the right as you progress toward completion. At a glance, you’ll see how much work any given project needs. You can pay extra for features that will help you use Trello collaboratively with others.

But here’s my own bottom line: Even as a supposed digital expert, I’ve found that analog methods suit me best. I’ve happily abandoned every productivity app I‘ve tried in favor of good old-fashioned pen and paper—without lines or grids, so that I can make to-do lists and notes unconstrained. It helps if your notebook is handsome, so that you can delight in taking it out of your bag. Because, after all, it won’t do you any good unless you actually open it.

Tools You Should Use: 3 simpler productivity solutions

• If you already have a Gmail account, try hacking Google Calendar before downloading anything else.
• The corkboard-style interface of Trello helps if your work is similar week-to-week.
• Don’t underestimate the utility of a nice notebook! I like this one, which doesn’t have lines. Pigna Bella Copia, $24, Pigna.store

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