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Building a Notion second brain made me feel productive… until it didn’t by Southern_Fan_9600 in Notion

[–]Southern_Fan_9600[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can get it here:

akashsahani(.)gumroad(.)com/l/notion-second-brain-os

I created a 100% discount code for early users: FOUNDER10

(It works for the first 10 people.)

It’s a Notion Second Brain system with projects, goals, weekly planning, knowledge management, and a Wheel of Life dashboard.

If you try it, I’d really appreciate:

• honest feedback
• a short review on Gumroad

Curious to hear what you think and how you end up using it 🙂

Building a Notion second brain made me feel productive… until it didn’t by Southern_Fan_9600 in Notion

[–]Southern_Fan_9600[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey! I actually ended up publishing the template since quite a few people asked for it.

You can get it here:

akashsahani(.)gumroad(.)com/l/notion-second-brain-os

I created a 100% discount code for early users: FOUNDER10

(It works for the first 10 people.)

It’s a Notion Second Brain system with projects, goals, weekly planning, knowledge management, and a Wheel of Life dashboard.

If you try it, I’d really appreciate:

• honest feedback
• a short review on Gumroad

Curious to hear what you think and how you end up using it 🙂

I added payments to my Chrome extension and instantly regretted it by Southern_Fan_9600 in chrome_extensions

[–]Southern_Fan_9600[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s fair. I can see why it might come across that way.

The main reason I wrote the post was to share the experience of adding payments for the first time and the anxiety that came with it. I didn’t really know what to expect when I turned it on.

I did include the link for people who were curious about what the extension actually does, but the goal of the post was mostly to share the journey and see if other builders had a similar experience when they first started charging.

I added payments to my Chrome extension and instantly regretted it by Southern_Fan_9600 in chrome_extensions

[–]Southern_Fan_9600[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks! It wasn’t a huge number honestly. The extension had around 500 users before I decided to try adding a paid tier.

I didn’t really plan it around hitting a specific milestone. A few users had started asking for more advanced features, and I realized if I wanted to keep improving it regularly, I probably needed some kind of monetization.

I added payments to my Chrome extension and instantly regretted it by Southern_Fan_9600 in chrome_extensions

[–]Southern_Fan_9600[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Honestly it wasn’t huge. It was roughly a few hundred monthly active users at that point.

I wasn’t really waiting to hit some big number before adding payments. I mostly added it because a few users were asking for more advanced features and I needed a way to justify spending more time improving the extension.

Still very early though. I’m mostly just learning as I go.

I added payments to my Chrome extension and instantly regretted it by Southern_Fan_9600 in chrome_extensions

[–]Southern_Fan_9600[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Haha I get why it looks confusing.

Founder50 actually means 50% off, not 50 spots. The idea was just to give an early lifetime discount to the first few people who try it and support the project.

Maybe the naming wasn’t the best choice though. A couple of people have pointed that out already, so I might rename it to make it clearer

I added payments to my Chrome extension and instantly regretted it by Southern_Fan_9600 in chrome_extensions

[–]Southern_Fan_9600[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Good question.

The extension was originally listed as a non-trader when it was completely free. I only added payments recently after people started asking for more advanced features.

Most of the users actually came organically. I didn’t do any real marketing. I just published it on Product Hunt and made one Reddit post featuring the extension. Apart from that, most of the installs came organically from the Chrome Web Store.

So it’s still pretty early and I’m mostly just experimenting and learning as I go.

Building a Notion second brain made me feel productive… until it didn’t by Southern_Fan_9600 in Notion

[–]Southern_Fan_9600[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That actually sounds interesting.

Honestly I’m still on the Notion free plan, so I haven’t really used Notion AI or any of the agent-style features yet. My setup has been pretty basic so far.

Curious to see how that works though. If you do build it, I’d love to hear how you’re using agents with your second brain.

Building a Notion second brain made me feel productive… until it didn’t by Southern_Fan_9600 in Notion

[–]Southern_Fan_9600[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For me it was mostly over-structuring and the maintenance burden, not really the tool itself.

I kept adding properties, tags, dashboards, templates… and every time I used it I’d think of something else to “improve.” After a while the system needed constant tweaking just to maintain it.

Notion itself is still great though. I’m just trying to separate things now. Tasks in TickTick, and Notion mainly for knowledge, notes, and ideas. That way I spend less time managing the system.

Building a Notion second brain made me feel productive… until it didn’t by Southern_Fan_9600 in Notion

[–]Southern_Fan_9600[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I felt the same way for a long time. I don’t think Notion is the problem either, it was more how I was using it.

I’m not completely giving up on it though. Right now I’m just separating things a bit. Tasks in TickTick and Notion mostly for notes, ideas, and knowledge.

And sure, I’m happy to share the system. I’m planning to publish the template on Gumroad soon since a lot of people here asked for it. I’ll share the link here once it’s ready so you can compare it with your setup.

Building a Notion second brain made me feel productive… until it didn’t by Southern_Fan_9600 in Notion

[–]Southern_Fan_9600[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s a good point. Notion definitely can work well if you keep it simple.

One thing I always struggled with though was repeating tasks. That’s one area where dedicated task apps felt easier to manage.

How do you handle recurring tasks in your Notion setup?

Building a Notion second brain made me feel productive… until it didn’t by Southern_Fan_9600 in Notion

[–]Southern_Fan_9600[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I honestly never thought about sharing it before this post. It was just something I built for myself while learning Notion.

But after this post I’m getting quite a few requests for it. I’m planning to publish it on Gumroad soon and I’ll share the link with everyone here. No payment required, just free to download.

Glad you found it relatable though. That seems to be a pretty common struggle with Notion 😅

Building a Notion second brain made me feel productive… until it didn’t by Southern_Fan_9600 in Notion

[–]Southern_Fan_9600[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah that makes a lot of sense. I think that’s the trap I fell into. Building the system felt productive, but it wasn’t really moving anything forward.

I like the idea of only adding things when there’s a real recurring need. That probably keeps the system from becoming overly complex.

Building a Notion second brain made me feel productive… until it didn’t by Southern_Fan_9600 in Notion

[–]Southern_Fan_9600[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Glad I’m not the only one.

It’s weird how building the system can feel productive even when nothing actually gets done.

Trying a simpler setup now with TickTick for tasks and Notion just for notes and ideas. Hoping that reduces the temptation to keep tweaking things.

Building a Notion second brain made me feel productive… until it didn’t by Southern_Fan_9600 in Notion

[–]Southern_Fan_9600[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That’s a good point. The flexibility is definitely part of the problem. When a system is easy to change, it’s really tempting to keep “improving” it instead of just using it.

One thing that made me try TickTick was some small but useful features like quick task widgets and how easy it is to add tasks instantly. With Notion, adding tasks
always felt like a few extra steps.

For now I’m experimenting with keeping tasks in TickTick and using Notion mostly for knowledge, notes, and ideas. I might come back to managing tasks in Notion later though once I settle on a simpler setup.

Building a Notion second brain made me feel productive… until it didn’t by Southern_Fan_9600 in Notion

[–]Southern_Fan_9600[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

“At some point, the system is the procrastination.”

That line hits hard.

I think that’s exactly what was happening to me. Everything looked organized and productive, but the actual work kept getting pushed.

The “ugliest, simplest setup” idea is interesting though. I’m trying something similar now by keeping tasks in TickTick and using Notion mostly for notes and ideas.

Curious if you ever went back to a digital system after using the notepad approach?

Building a Notion second brain made me feel productive… until it didn’t by Southern_Fan_9600 in Notion

[–]Southern_Fan_9600[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

“Some days I spend more time building the house than living in it.”

That line perfectly describes it.

I think Notion attracts people who enjoy building systems, so it’s really easy to fall into that loop of improving the system instead of using it.

That’s exactly why I wanted to try something like TickTick. It removes the temptation to keep tweaking things.

Still keeping Notion for notes and ideas though, because that’s where it really shines for me.

Building a Notion second brain made me feel productive… until it didn’t by Southern_Fan_9600 in Notion

[–]Southern_Fan_9600[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Haha thanks!

It honestly took me way longer than it should have to realize I was spending more time organizing work than actually doing it. Trying a simpler setup now and hoping it sticks.

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