I used to be an avid user of Notion. I was enthralled by the beautiful dashboards, dynamic databases with different views and filters, and how modular it all was. Eventually, its flaws started to show when I started using it as a place where I took all my notes and the place to have a dashboard/central area for my productive time. It was basically unusable on an unstable connection, and especially when you have no internet connection at all.

I didn't really think of the offline functionality that much, since internet connection is just so available nowadays. But in hindsight that should have been one of the first things I tested when thinking of integrating a whole app into my habit schedule.

I stopped using it, of course. It was an experience that led to my realization that I wouldn't trust a SaaS with truly important data, no matter how beautiful and shiny its features look. Especially when there are better alternatives. But I did take a lot of notes on it. My notes have been stuck there ever since I left, like an unorganized pile of laundry.

Last weekend, I took on the task of exporting it. It was a horrible experience. Naturally I first thought that I would do a full workspace export in Markdown and CSV. I tried exporting it thrice and all three archives were corrupted. I felt like I was wasting time. I didn't expect to have to deal with something like this. Eventually I got fed up with it and just exported the most important pages. Thankfully, doing it this way did not lead to data corruption.

From dealing with all this crap, I learned a lesson. If an app can't function without online access then rethink how much of your data you put into it.