Notion is more than just a note-taking app. As a developer, you can use Notion to track your freelance projects, organize your code snippets, collaborate with clients, keep track of jobs you're applying for, and integrate with third-party tools to streamline your entire developer workflow.
Below, we'll dive deeper into some of these use cases to learn how you can use Notion as a software developer.
1. Saving Code Snippets
If you find yourself reusing a piece of code over and over again, you might want to save it for easier reference. A Notion table offers an easy way of organizing and accessing these code snippets. You can create tags for different programming languages, frameworks, or topics and use tag filters to find the snippet when you need it.
For example, you can create a new Notion page and add a table named Code Snippets. Then, add columns for the name, description, and category of the snippet to this table. You can also add a date column that indicates when you created the snippet.
In this table, each code snippet is a page.
You can add, edit, or delete content from it, and Notion will highlight the code syntax according to its programming language, making it easier to read.
2. Organizing Links
Many apps let you save links directly within the app. Examples of these apps include browsers and social media platforms like X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, which allow you to bookmark web pages and posts.
Keeping track of these links across different applications can be difficult. You might even end up forgetting about them. A better option is to organize them in a centralized Notion database.
Like the code snippets table, use tags to categorize the links to make it easy to sort and filter them when you’re looking for a specific bookmark.
To create a database for your bookmarks, start by creating a new page in your Notion account and naming it Bookmarks. Then, add a table to the page and create columns for the page name, the URL to the page, the category, and the date.
You can manually add bookmarks to the table or use one of the several Chrome extensions designed for saving data to Notion. The save to Notion Chrome extension, for example, allows you to link a database and create a form for adding the bookmarks to your table.
In the form, you can add the name, category, and link to the page you wish to bookmark using the extension.
3. Using Notion as a CMS for Your Blog
If you want to create a simple static blog, consider using a Notion database as your Content Management System (CMS). Below is an example of how you can organize your blog data in a Notion table.
This table has fields for the name, slug (a user-friendly URL), description, tags, a published checkbox, and the date the article was published. Having a published column you can toggle allows you to draft content and selectively publish it on your site when it's polished and ready for the public. The table provides a simple UI for adding, editing, or deleting content. Just add a Notion page, and start writing your post.
To display the posts on your site:
- Fetch the posts from the Notion database using the Notion API.
- Use the frontend framework you prefer to render these posts on your site.
- If you opt for React, consider using packages such as react-markdown for rendering Notion pages and syntax-highlighter to highlight the code blocks.
4. Integrating With Other Applications
As a developer, you can build apps that integrate with Notion's API and carry out specific tasks. Currently, there are over 250 integrations in the Notion marketplace for different purposes.
For example, you can use the GitHub and Figma integrations to preview repositories and UI designs, respectively.
Other popular integrations include Everhour to track the hours you're working on a project and Asana to consolidate tasks from multiple workspaces. These integrations make your life easier as a developer by eliminating the need to switch between multiple applications.
Instead, you can connect them to your Notion account and access them from a single platform. If the existing integrations don’t meet your specific needs, use the Notion API to build your own integrations.
5. Project Roadmap Tracker
When working on a software application, a project roadmap helps you visualize the milestones and timelines, helping you or your team keep on task.
Notion is an easy-to-use workspace for project management. You can create a project in Notion, define tasks, assign team members to specific tasks, set deadlines, and monitor the progress in real-time.
Customize the project pages according to your requirements by adding as many fields as necessary. Consider the following page where you can add task names, team members, set priorities, determine task status, specify deadlines, and more.
When the assigned team member completes their task, they move it to the appropriate column, providing a clear view of how the project is progressing. By monitoring progress, you can identify any tasks that may fall behind schedule and address them accordingly.
6. Tracking Job Applications
When job searching, having a list of companies you want to interview with is important. It's even more important if you have a visual representation of whether you’ve applied to the company already, if you got the interview, and if you’ve heard back or not.
One approach you can take is to create a Notion database and, for each company and job title, add these columns that track where you stand. This table functions like a job-search command center—you've got cards for each company in columns that show if you're interested, whether you've applied for the position, or if you're already in conversation with the team.
Laying out the data this way ensures you're not missing any opportunities, and you can follow back with interviewers when necessary. You can get started by duplicating the free Notion interview kit provided by Notion into your own account. Below is how it looks:
When you click a card, you can add interview details like the position link, title, location, area, and the status of the application.
As you progress through the interview process, you can edit the status of the interview to reflect the stage you're at.
Tailor Notion to Your Specific Needs
If you're a developer looking for a new opportunity, you can use Notion databases to track your job application and interviewing skills. If you're learning to code, you can use it to keep track of your learning journey. The more you use Notion, the more you learn how to customize it to your needs.