Hi there! How's your summer going? βοΈ
This Week's Reflection:
βThe Hidden Cost of "Free" Alternatives
I spent three hours this week trying to recreate a $20/month app in Notion, convinced I could save my audience some money. Spoiler alert... I couldn't.
But the experiment taught me about the cost of productivity tools. It's not just about the subscription price, it's about the time and mental overhead of maintaining your own systems.
Some quick takeaways from my failed experiment:
- Time has a price tag - Those 3+ hours of building plus ongoing maintenance would cost me more than just paying for the tool that works
- Integrations aren't free - Replicating native connections through Zapier would cost more than the original app π€¦πΌββοΈ
- Good design is worth paying for - Seamless workflows aren't just pretty, they help you actually use the tool
The most productive thing you can do is stop trying to hack together a collection of free alternatives and just invest in tools that work out of the gate. Your time is often worth more than the subscription.
From the Blog:
β"I Tried to Build a Sunsama Dupe in Notion. Here's What I Learned."
Want to see my failure in action? I documented the process of trying to recreate Sunsama's best features in Notion. Plus, you can grab my "failed" template if you want to experiment before committing to the real thing.
βRead the full story ββ
Your Turn:
Have you ever spent hours trying free alternatives that ended up costing more time than money? Hit reply and tell me about your productivity tool experiments. I would love to know I'm not the only one π«
Resource of the Week:
βThe Ultimate Goal Planner (Free Notion Template)
While Notion failed at replicating daily time management, there's one thing it does well: goal planning. This template helps you break down big goals into actionable steps - perfect for planning what you'd like to accomplish.
The best part is that it's Notion based, meaning it plays beautifully with other productivity systems (instead of trying to replace them).
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