Summary

The author switched from Notion to Roam Research to improve knowledge retention and compounding due to Notion's slowness and inefficiency in managing recurring ideas and wisdom.

Abstract

The author, a writer and knowledge worker, decided to stop using Notion after finding it slow and ineffective for knowledge compounding. The primary reasons for this decision were the inability to remember and reuse knowledge effectively within Notion's system. The author experienced a constant feeling of needing to learn more to progress, as previous insights were easily forgotten or underutilized. Notion's folder structure contributed to the loss of ideas, as once something was journaled or stored, it was rarely revisited, leading to repeated ideas across different areas. Seeking a tool that facilitated knowledge retention and reuse, the author turned to Roam Research, which offers backlinks and block embedding, ensuring ideas are not forgotten and are reused efficiently, thus allowing for the compounding of wisdom over time.

Opinions

Notion's slowness was a contributing factor, but the main issue was the inability to compound knowledge effectively.
The author believes that knowledge work should lead to compounding wisdom, which was not happening with Notion.
Forgetting learned information and the inability to reuse wisdom were significant drawbacks of Notion for the author.
The author values the concept of spaced repetition for knowledge retention, which is facilitated by Roam Research's backlinks feature.
Roam Research is praised for its ability to embed blocks in multiple folders, preventing the duplication of ideas and creating a single source of truth for each concept.
The author recommends Roam Research to other knowledge workers who are serious about making their knowledge compound.
Despite the switch, the author acknowledges that Notion may still be suitable for team collaboration, indicating a situational preference rather than an outright dismissal of the tool.

Why I Ditched Notion and Started Using Roam Research

Notion is slow, but this isn’t the reason why I stopped using it.

I stopped using Notion two months ago, and I haven’t looked back since. The most straightforward reason is — Notion is slow.

It’s just slow, but the more exciting, more complex, and nuanced reason, and probably the real reason I stopped using Notion, was that knowledge work should compound.

So I’m in the business of knowledge work. As a writer, I work using my brain. I don’t use my body much apart from typing to writing articles.

Why was my work not compounding on Notion?

But I found that my work wasn’t compounding for two reasons.

First of all, I forgot things.

I would learn something that would be great, but then I would forget it, and I would stop being able to use that thing.

So it constantly felt like I had to increase the amount I was learning and the rate at which I was acquiring wisdom to continue progressing.

The second reason was that I kept using pieces of knowledge.

For example, Once I had an idea, I would make a video about it and never use it again.

Someone would send me an email asking me for some thoughts about I don’t know how to grow on Medium. So I would write that email, and I would send it, and I would never use that wisdom again.

So that meant I was creating value, going, creating value, going. So I needed to find an external tool that would help me in my quest to make my knowledge compound over time because that’s what we want.

And if we can find a way to stop forgetting things, our wisdom can compound. We can continue to acquire knowledge and not forget it.

If we can find a way to reuse wisdom repeatedly, we can make it compound. We can use a single block of learning or a single idea forever.

And over time, our wisdom can compound. Just think about it. If you have a fundamental physical block, you can use it once as a part of a house’s foundation.

Things were getting lost on Notion.

But If you have a mental block or a block of wisdom, you can use it repeatedly for an infinite amount of time because I’m going to be in this game of knowledge work for like 30 more years.

So a little tweak like that makes a massive difference to me. What I was finding with Notion was that things were getting lost. I would create a piece of wisdom, put it in the folder somewhere, and never open that thing again.

I would journal and write loads of exciting ideas down, never reopen that thing again. So I forgot stuff.

And also, with Notion, I kept having the same idea in multiple places, which doesn’t sound that bad on the surface. But, it was frustrating knowing I’ve had thoughts in loads of different areas, fragmented all over the place, and there wasn’t one core hub for each idea.

And don’t get me wrong, this isn’t me hating Notion completely when I had a big team of people; the Notion was great.

Why Roam Research?

With Roam, I don’t forget things because of the backlinks, which means I’m constantly getting spaced repetition, which is the best way to ingrain stuff into your mind.

It’s to continually expose yourself over a spaced amount of time to the same idea. And also means that I will never have the same idea in two different places.

Because with Roam research, you can embed blocks into different folders, I can have one idea and embed it everywhere.

I’m not going to understand the nuances of using Roam and figure that out for yourself.

But if you’re a knowledge worker and are serious about helping your knowledge compound, I recommend you check out this article from Mickey Mellen

Or, watch this video.

So, that is why I quit Notion and moved to Roam.

Have you ever felt you’re fed up with the productivity giant Notion? Let’s have a healthier conversation in the comments below. :-)

Read more similar stuff here:

5 ‘Notion’ Daily To-Do List Templates that You’ll Ever Need How To Use Evernote and Notion Together to Get Things Done Google Keep vs. Evernote vs. OneNote — Which Is Best For You Is Evernote Better than Notion as a Productivity Tool? I Quit Notion For a Month, and Here’s Why I Came Back

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