I am someone who started using note-taking services relatively late. Previously, I would usually take notes on OneNote and local markdown files. However, after a while, I found it to be inconvenient. There were instances where I lost notes on OneNote, and its functionality was also quite basic. Managing local markdown files was also chaotic. So, during the three years of the pandemic, I started looking for a new note-taking service.
The first cloud note-taking service I came across was Notion. It's quite funny how I discovered it. I saw many people recommending this note-taking app on Twitter, and I also saw some people creating beautiful templates.
I thought to myself, "Wow, this is the note-taking app of my dreams!" So, without hesitation, I registered an account.
After registering, I realized that making my Notion homepage look aesthetically pleasing would require a lot of time and effort. It seemed troublesome to copy templates and make slight modifications, especially since my own design skills were terrible. Moreover, at that time, I didn't know how to make the best use of this powerful cloud note-taking app (I couldn't find the right use cases). As a result, I left it unused for a long time after creating an account.
Later on, I noticed that many articles easily disappeared from the Chinese internet. So, at that time, I decided to use Notion as a backup for my notes.
- It has a built-in image hosting feature.
- Its search function is powerful.
- It is easy to use in combination with the Simplified Chinese extension.
In this way, Notion took on the responsibility of backing up my notes. Although I had the idea of using it as a personal blog, whenever I looked at the interface, I felt overwhelmed. It seemed more suitable for long-form text-based work. My blog couldn't consist of lengthy articles for every post, and at that time, Notion hadn't yet launched the feature of custom public domains. If I wanted to customize it myself, it would require additional time and effort, so I decided to give up on that idea.
Obsidian, on the other hand, became my choice for a local markdown writing tool. Previously, I used Typora, but after it started charging for the official version, I thought to myself, why pay when I can find an open-source alternative? So, I tried several open-source markdown applications. For general text-based note-taking, these applications were sufficient, but I always felt that file management was not very convenient. Just when I was hesitating whether to spend money to purchase Typora, I came across China's first open Luhmann note-taking app. It allowed me to see more knowledge points related to a specific topic on the knowledge map. As someone who was new to the concept of double-linked notes, I found it quite impressive. I thought to myself, "This note-taking app is really convenient for note-taking. When I look at my own knowledge map masterpiece, I will definitely be satisfied." So, without hesitation, I downloaded it.
However, just like when I first saw Notion, I was attracted by its fancy features, but when I actually wanted to use those fancy features, I found it troublesome. So, until now, my knowledge map has not been fully developed. But I also realized that when using a note-taking service, I don't have to use all of its features to consider it as being used. I can choose to use only the features that meet my needs. The main focus of a note-taking app should be on the note content itself, rather than just making the notes look visually appealing.
Obsidian is great for handling plain text content and serves as an excellent writing tool. There are many plugins available to further expand Obsidian's functionality. Now, on my xlog blog, I can easily import my Obsidian notes into blog articles and publish them.
Notion is useful for handling tasks that involve long-form content with images. It facilitates my note-taking and sharing.
Google Keep is used for daily inspiration fragments, as well as for excerpting sentences and paragraphs. It is used for managing small amounts of text.
Although there are still many new note-taking products being launched, Obsidian and Notion already fully meet my needs.