For years, Notion has been my go-to for organizing everything from invoices to movie watchlists. Its flexibility as a database is unmatched, but when it came to creative workflows like jotting down spontaneous ideas, threading together thoughts, and collecting visual inspiration, that’s where Notion starts to feel a bit rigid. I needed something that didn’t ask me to file every passing idea into a system the moment it showed up. That’s just not how a creative flow works. At least not for me.
I needed a tool that didn’t ask every idea to fit into a system the moment it showed up.
I know, I know. Obsidian is the usual answer here with its unending customisation and the famed graph view. But I wanted something cloud-first. So I began looking for a tool that could complement, if not replace, what Notion already does so well. That’s how I found myself bouncing between Notion and Capacities for the better part of a year. Like most people trying to organize their digital life, I started with one, flirted with the other, then went back and forth until I realized something simple: these two tools aren’t competing. They’re completing each other. Here’s why building a system that uses both apps works so well for me.