---
title: 'The Biggest Problem with Notion (That I Didn''t Want to Accept)'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=uZwXLBwjpgU'
video_id: 'uZwXLBwjpgU'
date: 2026-07-27
duration_sec: 659
---

# The Biggest Problem with Notion (That I Didn't Want to Accept)

> Source: [The Biggest Problem with Notion (That I Didn't Want to Accept)](https://youtube.com/watch?v=uZwXLBwjpgU)

## Summary

The video discusses the speaker's frustration with Notion's lack of visual note-taking capabilities, leading them to explore Obsidian and its Excalidraw plugin as an alternative, but ultimately deciding to stick with Notion for now, hoping the feature will be added soon.

### Key Points

- **Introducing the problem** [00:02] — Notion lacks the ability to draw or create visual notes, which is a major frustration for the speaker.
- **Examples of missing features** [00:33] — The speaker shows that they cannot draw diagrams, mind maps, or simple sketches directly in Notion.
- **MindMeister as a past solution** [01:53] — The speaker used MindMeister for mind maps in a course on passing competitive exams.
- **MPFI for automatic mind maps** [02:18] — MPFI automatically generates mind maps from a topic, but the speaker prefers manual creation.
- **ScoldDraw online version** [03:15] — The speaker tried ScoldDraw (Excalidraw) in browser but faced file management issues.
- **Decision to try Obsidian** [04:26] — Disappointed with existing solutions, the speaker reluctantly turns to Obsidian.
- **Excalidraw plugin for Obsidian** [06:07] — Obsidian has an Excalidraw plugin that allows drawing and mind maps directly within the app.
- **Predicts Notion will add visual notes** [08:05] — The speaker believes Notion's team is working on this feature due to high demand.
- **Excalidraw is #1 plugin** [09:22] — Excalidraw is the most downloaded Obsidian plugin with 2.7 million downloads, indicating widespread need.
- **Will not abandon Notion** [10:07] — Despite liking Obsidian, the speaker decides to stay with Notion for now, awaiting built-in visual notes.

### Conclusion

While Notion currently lacks visual note functionality, the speaker remains hopeful that Notion will add it soon and chooses not to migrate to Obsidian despite its attractive plugin ecosystem.

## Transcript

important videos, so if I'm here now it's because something happened. As you know, I use Notion to organize all areas of my life, and it's always had a problem that bothered me a lot, but now I can't continue like this anymore. And no, I
'm not talking about the backup problem, which is a mess. Visual notes. That's right, Notion still doesn't allow me to draw on the screen; it's simply text. And when I talk about visual notes, I'm simply talking about this: look,
want some examples? If I want to draw something like this on the screen in Notion, I can't. If I want to make a diagram, explain something, or simply make a mind map to store my reasoning, I can't.
Things like this, for example, mind maps, adding graphs, and simply drawing something as if it were simply a board where you could simply write, draw, pull an arrow, or do mental juggling of
super complex reasoning that you simply want to get out of your head. It might look crazy, but unfortunately, Notion doesn't let me do that, and that makes me very sad. Because, as
you know, I'm a minimalist; I hate having to use several tools to do things.  The fewer tools the better, but since Notion doesn't give me that option, I had to look for it externally, outside of my system. It's
exactly a betrayal; I feel like I'm betraying Notion, but what can you do? I'm not going to talk about morality here. So basically, I had to look for some solutions, and some of the solutions
I came up with were terrible. For example, using these little tools, like MindMeister, which is very interesting and many people use. Look at
this; it's a mind map that I actually created in a course on how to pass competitive exams, and this is the mind map I made with my students in that course. This is the mind map I used MindMeister on. It was pretty good and
solved my problem back then. Nowadays, there are platforms like MPFI, for example, where you simply type in the subject and it creates a mind map for you automatically. Look at this one, for example; I
typed "best ways to use artificial intelligence to pass competitive exams," and this site simply created this mind map automatically. However, my goal isn't to create mind maps automatically. I want to be able to
create my own mind maps, to be able to draw on the screen myself, and I want that to be integrated into my workflow.  So, for a while, I started using these online mind maps, which become an island of
information, you know? I have my Notion, which has everything I need, all the organization of my life, and then I end up using these external websites where one site has mind maps, another site has something else, and so on. It's bad, but there was a
solution that wasn't so bad, which was using this little guy here called ScoldDraw, ScoldDraw, whatever you want to call it. It's this little guy here that works in the browser, and everything was going very well until
browser, and everything was going very well until I needed to have several mind maps. In this case, if I wanted to have several mind maps, I would have to pay for the platform. I could have mind maps in the cloud, or for free. I could
simply save my mind maps. So I could simply mind maps. So I could simply save this map in a file, and then if I wanted to work on or create another mind map, I would have to upload
this file, and I would simply have to manage files. I would have to have a file for each map, and every time I wanted to edit the map, I would have to wanted to save the map, I would have to download this map and save it as.  It
was a pretty crappy solution, so I said, "This is awful, I need a definitive solution to solve my problem since Notion doesn't have it," and the solution is for you to like this video. It all
starts there. I'm ashamed to say this, I even feel a little distraught, but I apologize in advance,
but I had to go to Obsidian, exactly, right? It was everything I wanted to avoid in my life, falling into the black hole of Obsidian. And I'll tell you something, I liked it. I found Obsidian very good.
you probably know some organization, productivity, etc. tools. Notion, for sure. Obsidian, probably, if you don't know what
something similar to Notion. Basically, you have a place where you store all the issues of your life, all your notes, files,
files, organizations, maps, etc. Obsidian has a very visual approach, you can look at the data like this, in a knot-like way, etc. This isn't an Obsidian tutorial, okay? I'll stop here. You probably already
know what Obsidian is. It's basically a different Notion, okay?  The functionalities and some objectives are different; I'm not saying here that Obsidian is better or worse than Notion. But they address different pain points
for each person, and the interesting thing is that Obsidian is one thing, but Obsidian also has fun personalities for visual maps. But what really touched people's hearts is this plugin called
Scol Draw. If you remember, I just showed you the online version of Scol Draw, where you simply had to download and save files or feature to save your maps in the cloud, etc. There's a plugin
for Obsidian called the Scol Draw plugin, which is exactly what you're seeing right now. At this very moment, I'm using Obsidian, which is this little guy here that you already know, the icon. And this screen
you're seeing is Obsidian itself. If I get here, I have my folder structure, as you can see in this part of Obsidian. I'm not doing much, calm down, I'm not transferring my entire life from
Notion to Obsidian.  Hold on a minute, I've even started using this strategy even started using this strategy of visual maps and drawings, etc., in my saw earlier, I'm using this scheme to
create mind maps in my course classes, where I'm adding a new module on artificial intelligence and how to actually use artificial intelligence correctly. Because there are a lot of people
studying artificial intelligence for public service exams who are doing actually hindering more than helping. But that's not the subject of this video, but anyway, if you want to at least check out
this course, the link is in the description. One thing is certain: description. One thing is certain: if Notion doesn't implement a feature, a resource that allows me to do exactly what I'm
doing now, Notion will slowly die. And that's actually why I'm making this video in mind map format, where we're following a correct path, like a chart here, to show you how
important and surreal this is. How can Notion not have this functionality yet? Notion not have this functionality yet? One thing is certain: I'm absolutely sure that the Notion team is working on this because, theoretically...  It's a
multi-million dollar company with very intelligent people working there, and they're seeing this happen. So, I imagine that soon Notion will introduce a feature like this, which I'll really like. It will be
great not having to divide my organization system, because where Notion will have text, and Obsidian will have my visual maps, my visual notes. I wouldn't want that disruption, so Notion is certainly
implementing this, and you won't need to switch to Obsidian or look for other alternatives because of this. You might leave Notion for various reasons, but in the future, that won't be the
reason. Obviously, I'm not the only one who went through the frustration of Notion not allowing me to do this. If we go to community plugins, and you take a look here to see
the community plugins, look how interesting! Which is the most downloaded plugin of all time, by a landslide? Look at this: Scol Draw, which is what we're doing now in this video, 2.7 million
this video, 2.7 million downloads, simple as that. So, this is what I'm...  Actually, the masses are passing by along with me now, and I'll tell you a secret: I liked Obsidian, and it was very
interesting to dip my toe in the water and understand how the understand how the plugin community works. It's incredible. It's a shame that Notion doesn't have something like that. Having said that, a
said that, a very important question arises: will I abandon Notion? Will I migrate to the OBS crowd? Those people who speak badly of those who use Notion, saying you're missing out on a lot because Notion
is very rigid, and here we have community plugins to do a million things. Will I be that guy? Actually, no, I won't be that guy, at least not for now. I won't switch from Notion to Obsidian. The
reason is in this video you're watching on the screen, but I confess I saw the other side, and I liked what I saw. If you want me to start posting videos regularly on this channel again, give this video a like, maybe subscribe
to this channel, and leave a nice comment below. See you later!