How Notion Tries to Be Everything Now (And That’s Becoming Problematic)
The More Notion Tries to Help, the Harder It Gets to Use
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My Medium friends can read this story over there as well.
Notion has always been more than a note-taking app.
It’s a task manager. A project manager. A database builder. A team workspace.
But now… well, now it’s trying to be everything. And I am not sure whether that’s the best thing to do.
Over the years, Notion has become a full-blown productivity operating system. It’s useful, yes. It’s powerful, sure. But it’s also starting to feel like a piece of software that’s trying to absorb your entire digital life, one feature at a time.
Let’s talk about what that means — and why it’s getting messy. For me, at least.
Notion Was Already a Lot
Even before the latest updates and feature additions, Notion wasn’t exactly “simple.”
It could do almost anything you asked of it — if you had the time to set it up, figure out how databases work, and make peace with the fact that adding a simple to-do list might accidentally turn into a 7-tab spreadsheet.
If you’re the kind of person who enjoys building systems from scratch, Notion is a playground. I loved it when I started using Notion 5 years ago. And I still do.
But for the average user, Notion becomes more and more intimidating.
People open it up expecting a “notes” app and end up staring at a blank page that says “Type / for commands.” Then they do, and a firehose of features hits them in the face.
Tables, calendars, linked databases, rollups, formulas, AI, and now even calendar and maybe a Notion Mail invite.
That’s a lot!
Built-In Calendar
It started with Notion Calendar.
Yes, Notion now has its own calendar. It works with Google Calendar and Apple Calendar.
That sounds like a good idea. Who doesn’t want everything in one place, right? And it is a cool addition, paired with the database functionality and all the time-tracking aspects in Notion.
But here’s the issue: the more features Notion adds, the more layers it creates. You used to just link to your calendar. Now you have to decide — do you use Google Calendar? Notion Calendar? Both? Do they sync properly? Where do you schedule your meeting? Where do you check your week?
Notion’s calendar is sleek, but it adds another point of decision-making and another system to maintain.
Instead of simplifying your life, it now asks you to manage one more thing — inside an app that already expects you to build half of it yourself.
And we’re not done.
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Mail Is Here
Soon, you’ll be able to check your Gmail inbox directly in Notion on desktop and mobile. And other mail accounts in the future as well (I assume).
In theory, this is powerful. Fewer tabs. One central hub. All your work in one view. Also, the design looks great from the screenshots and videos I’ve seen so far. It feels like a sleek, minimal email experience tight into your Notion system.
But let’s pause for a second: Email inside a “note-taking” app?
That’s quite the addition. It means Notion isn’t just your planner, your docs, your team space — it’s also becoming your communication center. Once that door opens, it’s hard to shut.
What’s next? A Slack clone? A browser? Social media? A publishing platform?
Pulling email into Notion might sound efficient, but it also makes the app even more overwhelming. It’s already hard enough to teach people how to use a synced database correctly.
Now you’re going to teach them how to manage projects and email inside a database-driven document builder?
Not to mention, the questions (or issues) with offline use, data protection, encryption, and privacy.
Powerful? Yes. Practical? Not Always.
Notion is powerful. Nobody is doubting that.
If you’re organized, tech-comfortable, and have time to build, you can create a dashboard that truly does everything. You could run a business, a newsletter, a content calendar, your finances, and now your email — all from one place. I do it with my Superwriter system.
But for most users, that’s not the dream. It’s a productivity trap. They don’t want to build a dashboard. They just want something that works. But the end up designing the system more than they work.
And Notion increasingly feels like a tool built for builders, not for people who just need to get things done.
The Complexity Problem
Every time Notion adds a new feature, the complexity level goes up.
It might look clean on the surface (and it is super clean, I love the design), but the learning curve is real. Many users don’t stick around long enough to get the benefits because they’re too busy trying to figure out how to set things up.
The more Notion tries to “simplify” your workflow, the more workflows you need to learn just to make it work.
That’s a problem. A problem that other apps solve, and by solving it they’re attracting more and more users. Like Apple Notes and Reminders which I increasingly use instead of Notion.
At the end of the day, most people aren’t trying to master productivity software. They’re just trying to get things done. And the more tools you cram into one app, the more it becomes like a Swiss Army knife with a 50-page manual.
Who Is Notion Really For Now?
Notion used to be for individuals and teams who wanted a clean way to organize notes, tasks, projects, and documents.
That’s still true, technically.
But now it feels like it’s shifting toward power users — people who love spending hours optimizing their system. Or people who love designing optimized systems for other people.
There’s nothing wrong with that. I’ve been doing that too, with my Notion templates on Gumroad*. But it’s worth asking: how many people actually want to do that?
Not everyone wants to be their own productivity engineer. Some people just want to write a to-do list and move on with their day, so they can eventually check off those to-dos.
The Bottom Line
Notion is evolving fast.
It’s becoming a tool that can do just about everything — notes, projects, calendars, and soon, email. It’s impressive. But it’s also starting to feel bloated.
The people who will love this direction are already deeply embedded in Notion’s world. The rest might take one look at the new features, get overwhelmed, and go back to simpler tools like Apple Notes.
There’s something to be said for focus. Notion used to help you stay focused. Now it’s becoming something you might need to focus on.
And that’s not the same thing.
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Moved to Basecamp for project management and collaboration while simple notes app and onedrive manages the repository of documentation for a small team.
Notion and the complexity of do everything here makes it exhausting after a while.
I've tried to set up Notion for my business at least two times. It's impossible. I guess the logic is so different than mine, that none of it feels intuitive. I get even annoyed to see those emoticons it uses everywhere. 😆 After reading your post I'm pretty sure I won't give it another go. Thanks!