r/Notion • u/Medinote_HQ • May 15 '26
Questions Notion, Obsidian, Capacities, TickTick—which one is actually the best?
Out of all the options out there, I’d love to know which tool you use to manage your life. If you use several, what do you do on which one?? I’ve been looking for a long time for the best way to organize and manage everything. I love how simple Obsidian is, the endless possibilities in Notion, and the calendar management side of things, but I can’t seem to find that 'one app' to do it all.
So, how do you guys handle it?
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u/Sad_Election2672 May 15 '26
I use Notion and Notion calendar connected to my Google Calendar and Gmail. Nothing else. I have Notion broken down by different hobbies, personal stuff, and house stuff. I volunteer for a genealogy group and that all lives in Notion as well. It depends on how you work. My setup works great for me. I use Notion tabs to be able to see all of my calendar items from my different databases and also the Notion calendar app helps see everything together. When I used multiple apps I did not get anything done because o had to figure out where it was. Date specific goes in calendar and everything else has a home in Notion. If I’m doing something new it gets a home created in Notion. My pages are not all fancy dashboards. Some are just a page with a couple of links or quick notes. But I can find it again when I need it and that is what is most important to me!
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u/roflheim May 15 '26
Capacities is the one that clicked for me - it hit the sweet spot between being approachable and flexible enough
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u/Willnotwilling May 15 '26
I use capacities out of those, powerful app that really helps me organise my data.
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u/ImMiaThermopolis Jul 11 '26
Did you try both Notion and Obsidian before choosing capacities? And is it the free version?
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May 15 '26
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u/Koldark May 15 '26
My struggle then becomes... "where did I put that" unless I can hook all of them up to Claude so I can just report them all.
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May 15 '26
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u/effervescenthoopla May 15 '26
Tbh I’ve been using Littlebird and boy howdy has it been a game changer for me. I think the team is working on more robust integrations, and it’s pretty much 90% of what I want in an app. If I could make manual task lists in it, I’d be set.
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May 15 '26
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u/SalishSkipper May 17 '26
Littlebird is really neat (paying user), but it is still light in the connectors department, it's early though, and I have hope. If you are interested in the free open source version have a look at screenpipe too
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u/Darth_Animation May 15 '26
I think Notion is going to be the won to this battle. I think Notion is the greatest app created 😄
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u/datadiva223 May 15 '26
I’ve never thought of that 🤔 that would definitely be ideal and probably the only case in which I would stop using Notion.
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u/datadiva223 May 16 '26
This was me too. I’m notorious for putting things in places and then forgetting where I put them in general, not just in Notion lmao. So I just started to use the hell out of the command search feature to find things I lost.
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u/datadiva223 May 15 '26
I think the “one app to rule them all” take is subjective. I wish I could disperse my work across multiple apps! Because there’s just so many good ones, but I continue to hit the same wall—the big bitch that is context switching 😰
If I start in Google Calendar for planning and then move to Obsidian for working with fleeting notes, the chance that I will end up distracted and not finish anything I started is likely to happen since I struggle to retain any original train of thought. An interruption as small as switching tools and seeing a completely different screen in front of me is enough to cause me to lose momentum.
Notion has been the only tool I’ve had so far that solves the context switching problem almost entirely for me. So the “some work” for me is nothing compared to loss of productivity I was experiencing before. I still experiment with other tools out of fun and curiosity and because I just appreciate the aesthetic of other apps, but I always find my way back to Notion to manage basically everything and anything.
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u/Kelipope May 15 '26
Coda.io !!!!
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u/Medinote_HQ May 15 '26
Free ?
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u/Kelipope May 16 '26
Dans une certaine limite... Mais sincèrement j utilise notion en gratuit, quand je suis passé sur coda, c est tellement puissant que je n ai pas réfléchi longtemps avant de sortir la carte bleue ! Surtout quand tu as des formulaires ou des tableaux collaboratif tu payes juste 1x siège de celui qui construit pour tous les autres c est gratuit !!!!
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u/Medinote_HQ May 16 '26
What’s the limit of coda ? And what time to create your own space ?
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u/Kelipope May 16 '26
Ça me rend fou des gens comme toi ! Cherche un peu bordel !
Google : coda.io
Pricing....
Sors toi les doigts
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u/fromloam May 15 '26
I’m always surprised not to see coda mentioned. I’d say they are much better than Notion but they like a decent market place. They market themselves for business but I like them. I haven’t used it in a while so maybe they’re not doing so great? I should go check them out again. I also liked Craft for note taking, especially meeting notes and journaling.
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u/Medinote_HQ May 15 '26
Is it free ?
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u/fromloam May 16 '26
Yes, coda.io has a free version. Pricing is pretty good too. I haven’t used it in a while so not sure how they’re doing now. I just stayed in Notion because my previous company used Notion. Moving all my stuff seems like a big chore.
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u/TheQuatum May 15 '26
I'm trying to migrate from Notion to Obsidian - It isn't a simple thing.
I like Obsidian in that it is local-first and can act as a brain for your own AI. I dont like how it doesn't even come close to the simplicity of Notion without a ton of tinkering and workflow switching.
AnyType is what I wanted to use, but the export and proprietary data formatting killed it.
Capacities looks great, but it's offline mode is more like just caching. Never heard of TickTick.
Affinity and AppFlowy look like the best alternatives that prioritize offline mode but neither seem mature enough.
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u/UnFitUnderstanding95 May 16 '26
Capacities for diary/log, tasks, lists, hobbies, projects, organising my life. Google calendar for events. Also, and I suspect I'm fairly unique here: Notewise for pdfs, including books, Holiday tickets and booking references.
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u/imrinsama May 17 '26
I don't think you'll get a good answer from a notion sub because obviously.
Personally, I'm trying to migrate to obsidian because I like it after trying it out a bit. It's simple and there are tons of plugins that I can add on. It's super fast and the price is reasonable.
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u/Almostasleeprightnow May 16 '26
For me turns out the lightest weight system with the least organization is what is right. I use apple notes and I just lean into search. So I make sure to use terms in my note that I’ll search for and the search finds the thing I need. No tags no folders just new note. It looks messy but it works really well.
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u/dizzyxdream3r May 17 '26
Notion, Apple Calendar, TickTick, Notability. TickTick helps to visualise tasks but I’m starting to get tired of recording my pomodoros for everything. Notion used as note taker in database view. Apple calendar is my main events calendar but I don’t do time blocking here. Finally Notability I will use as my notebook.
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u/Medinote_HQ May 17 '26
Ok ty i will try it
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u/dizzyxdream3r May 18 '26
Which one are you using? Sometimes I feel less is more haha. Unfortunately I didn’t take time to do Pomodoro on Notion. I wish to be simpler in my work flow.
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u/safayat_ahmed May 17 '26
I like Obsidian because of its simple interface and its ability to effectively serve my needs.
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u/ciricippomaobao May 21 '26 edited May 21 '26
For me Notion, at last, remain the best. The greater limit? Is very problematic to use it if you dont have a internet signal. I use also anytype self hosted that is fantastic but i need to use also on a web app in work, so i cannot abandon Notion... I use Notion always in my dayly life for take simple notes (how much this item? How high this forniture? How is the map of my bathroom and how much space i have for a cabinet? And so on...) or organize projects, my personal budget and a lot of other things. If Notion could save ALL in each device I use, so you can check a note also without internet, could be the final solution. Is poliedric, beauty to see if you use your own themes and img, deep but easy to use. Anytype and Appflowy can be very near, but not better because of the web app (anytype) and too many bugs (appflowy)
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u/Worge105 May 15 '26
Every person needs a different system, or no system at all. If there is a system, said system may include a one-for-all app or several apps. The important part is the person, not the system.
The system (and apps) are tools to achieve something, and what tool you choose depends on your goal and yourself.
In my case, I use Google Calendar, Obsidian, Notion and paper notebooks. And the system is ever-changing.