After trying SharePoint and Microsoft Lists, I reached a point of frustration—not with the tools themselves, but with how they were (or weren’t) being used. I was relying on them to manage tasks and communicate updates. As a result, key information wasn’t reaching the team, and I was constantly following up manually.

That’s when I made the shift to Notion—not because it was trendy, but because I needed something that worked the way I worked.

At the time, I had two main challenges:

• I needed a database system I could easily build myself, without waiting on admin permissions or backend setup.
• I wanted a simple way to track quantities and keep clear daily notes—things that mattered to site performance and reporting.

With Notion, I was able to create a custom workspace tailored exactly to those needs. It wasn’t just another task list—it became my central hub for managing site activities, tracking quantities, and keeping records in a way that was actually usable in the field.

Here’s how it made a difference for me:

• Ease of use on my terms: Notion let me build what I needed without coding, templates, or rigid workflows. I could set up a tracking table in minutes, link it to relevant pages, and adjust it as the project evolved. It felt like a tool that worked with me, not against me.
• Daily notes as a working logbook: I started using Notion to record key site events each day—deliveries, subcontractor activities, issues, and weather impacts. These daily pages became an organized archive I could reference anytime, and they helped me stay ahead of questions from supervisors.
• Quantity tracking made simple: One of the biggest wins was being able to build a quantity log. I set up a database that tracked production and progress by area/volume. With rollups and filters, I could instantly see how we were tracking against targets—no more digging through spreadsheets or paper records.

Over time, Notion became more than a tool—it became a habit. It brought structure to my day and gave me the visibility I needed to stay on top of fast-moving site activities. And perhaps most importantly, it allowed me to create systems that I actually used consistently.