Teams Split on Notion vs Google Sheets for Project Tracking
12 posts across 5 communities in the last 60 days; 50% from r/projectmanagement.
“It's impossible to keep a team accountable when you're trying to manage their ever-changing processes through a messy OneNote.”
“Don't get me wrong, I hate it, but it's out there in the wild and there's no putting it back in a box TBH, no project I've ever worked on has been standard, we just push it in the right direction”
“I HATE excel but there’s no way around it”
Team members express frustration with complex project management tools like Notion, and a desire for simpler solutions like Google Sheets. This shift is perceived as a loss of efficiency and potentially indicates a lack of willingness to learn new systems on the part of the Project Manager.
SOURCES (54)
“It's impossible to keep a team accountable when you're trying to manage their ever-changing processes through a messy OneNote.”
“Don't get me wrong, I hate it, but it's out there in the wild and there's no putting it back in a box TBH, no project I've ever worked on has been standard, we just push it in the right direction”
“Such as? I mean Program Management IS Project Management. It's just a higher ladder in 99% of cases.”
“I never said managing tasks like this was a good idea. Just showing a path the OP should he want to continue down his rabbit hole. Do you think it's a good idea? How would you help the OP?”
“Honestly, if Google Sheets is already doing what you need, I’d probably stick with it. I find it a bit more difficult with sheets because there are just so many different things that need doing that might not be relevant to each other (e.g doing tax vs marketing) and I got overwhelmed. Right now I use WIthNettle because the tree structure help my brain stay on track, and it automatically can change to timeline or board mode so it's easy to focus on one thing before moving to another So I wou”
“Might have to play around with it. Last time I did that all the subprojects behaved a bit weird, but that was weeks ago so maybe with the new release they behave better”
“You can make a "template" project and just copy it around since it's a simple folder and you will get all your personal preferences applied for each new project :)”
“So they wanted you to build a project plan before discovery . . . before requirements trawling, validation, documentation, current state/future state modeling, workflowing, mockups, estimates, etc? They have no documentation, yet expect you to build a plan out of thin air? I think you need to look for a new job at a new company.”
“And workplace collaboration? Sooooo right. Unless its Karen. Block her from altering the spreadsheet.”
Sheets is ok but has its limitations in comparison to excel.
“You can do much of the same work in Google Sheets, not as many great templates as there are in Excel though.”
“Yeah if the teams can plan their own work reliably then there isn't any reason to try and manage below that level. We actually go one step further and collect multiple teams into groups, and then actually plan per group at the highest level. Then the groups plan oer team, and then the teams plan their own work. Basically you divide up the planning so that nobody has to worry about too much details below the level you are dealing with”
“Because its shit. For the same amount you can get claude or chatgpt or even gemini and get so, so, so much better everything. Its buggy, clunky, incredibly slow and most of all, i do not know how microsoft does it, but integrates worse into office products than claude. Wild how bad it is and good could have been”
“Let's start with your use case. You don't "PM" with Excel or Word. MS Project has changed and is now a completely different model than before. It is not a bad tool, but it is very different than Clickup. Build your requirements first before deciding what approach you need. For example, are you just looking for a simple checklist of action items or are you running a full scale project with EVM? these require very different approaches. Stay away from products that are designed fo”
“Yes, if you're dumb enough to go into PA knowing what it entails, and refuse to teach yourself basic Excel. It's like a CS grad that doesn't know how to use git or even any type of version control. M.Eng./Architect major that doesn't know how to use CAD. Etc. I'd go a step farther, I'd expect any applied science or business major to know how to use at least 1 of Excel, R, Stata, Mathematica or any equivalent software package as a Y2+ student even before graduating.”
“Yeah, but these days you just tell copilot to write your complicated formulas. So no real need to learn let either”
“Yes, they are awful… Worst “project managers” I have ever worked with. They have developers trying to double as project managers. They end up having the clients guess what the hell is going on/ basically run the working session UATs themselves with no assistance or instruction. They also have no stakeholder management skills whatsoever! Instead of you know… actually developing a stakeholder management plan and knowing who should be on which meetings/UATs/etc. they just add the whole project to 3”
“You're right. My point was about unreviewed ai-made project plans ending up in production. Will try giving the Codex voice chat mode a try to see the blind spots in our current structure.”
“Yeah, same here. I am the Smartsheets SME for my team and wish I could help, but I dont see any direct questions here. I'm also now using AI to leave smartsheets behind, but Smartsheets was good to me for many years.”
“Honestly. It was excel tool set more than sql. The non techie group preferred this more than developers with sql tools”
Exactly. All the schedules in the world won’t fix a lack of clarity.
“You're definitely going to need strong document management processes and organization principles, and there's not much way to enforce them but manually. If the goal is to be efficient alright. Im not so sure about that anymore..”
“After my last stint with ChatGPT to create more actionable tasks in our project, I ended up with 555 tasks and 20+ milestones for a 1-month long website revamp project. So I'm not keen on letting AI write to the project plans for the foreseeable future. It could only help with helping us interpret results. And even those, I think should be done more deterministically.”
“Easier to move tasks into different milestones, delete them, edit them without having to think about automations, different views etc. I agreed to create an excel file with all tasks and milestones for him so that he can work on task updates offline, before applying the changes to live projects on Notion.”
“Is your team planning to use Gemini with Google Sheets? If so, it could be useful. It might be easier for them to find info using chat while you/whoever updates info. It could work well, as long as the info is up to date. You could then build dashboards/presentations using Google Slides + Sheets data quickly.”
“I just joined a company as a PM where I’m being trusted to get everyone on the same tool.. we went through the Notion vs Google Sheets thing and ultimately landed on Asana. If people want to link their work to Sheets or Notion they can on their own accord, but Asana keeps everyone checking off tasks in a single “source of truth” while being able to do their work elsewhere if they want.”
“My databases are configured like this: 1) projects database: where client projects live. 2) Milestones: A project has many milestones. 3) Tasks: A milestone has many tasks. 4) Documents: Anything from research notebooks to client presentations. 5) Meeting Notes: All the meeting notes from milestone meetings with clients. Right now our problem is with excessive number of tasks. It doesn't help us see what we need to do next. Recently I tried being more verbose how we record tasks. But it requ”
“id focus on solving the task visibility problem first. if gogle sheets makes it easier for the team to stay on top of daily work, it could be worth trying”
“Sounds more like someone not willing to learn something new. Kind of a yellow flag to suggest such change for what seems to be nothing else than "I don't like your way". If the person was confident enough they would bring what would be the positive impact with a way to quantify it, accepting accountability if it is not achieved.”
“I would be interested on knowing how you’ve set up your Notion for project management. What are you using the most and are you able to have gantt views?”
“Have them build out a proposed program structure in Google Sheets and present their case. No, they can’t “just” change a fundamental framework of how the business operates. But they can present a case outlining the structure, their transition plan for the business, access/training for the new structure, SOPs, etc. I personally find the suggestion to move any sort of real project schedule management into Google Sheets or excel as a major red flag. But that’s just me.”
“If can you describe why it is that the system can’t show you what needs to happen each day?”
“Being a small company this is considered growing pains and as a business owner you need to start considering a technology roadmap in how and what your company needs from a technology standpoint. Every PM will convey a position to either something that they're used to or personal preference but at the end of the day you also don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. When you start scaling a business your existing toolsets may no longer be applicable that is why it's a good idea to”
“I've found working with other PMs that a lot of them seriously don't know or care about the intricacies of a PM tool, they just want information presented in the simplest way possible with minimal learning required. It's a short sighted approach and while I love tinkering with a PM tool to the Nth degree, I need to stop myself at times and configure it for the lowest common denominator. But then if someone joined and within 2 hours tried to tell us the way we do something doesn't”
“On one hand I agree, on the other OP just said they have 550 tasks for a 1 month long website revamp. That's insane. I'm all for OP staying in Notion, but without seeing his workspace, it sounds like OP needs to seriously simplify his task tracking.”
“Smartsheet does half of what Excel can do more slowly and with more clicks for far higher cost. It's outdated, has extremely limited features, hasn't had a facelift in twenty years, doesn't auto save, lacks collaboration features, uses proprietary formats and formulas for no reason, has very few integrations (none of which are bidirectional), and requires tons of complex solutions like dummy columns and whatever the hell Control Center is for basic functionality that other software h”
“Hey OP, I wouldn’t recommend switching your project management tool right away. A sudden change could disrupt ongoing projects and create unnecessary confusion for the team. Instead, have an open conversation with the new PM. Let them know you’re not opposed to exploring a different tool, but you’d prefer to revisit the idea after a few months. That gives everyone time to see if they’re the right fit for the team and to better understand the existing workflows before making such a significant ch”
“Off topic, but what’s your complaint with smartsheet and what are better alternatives? (dont find notion that good). Was planning to look into it as an alternative to current google workspace hell managing projects in drive and sheets with nothing tying it together.”
“Not knowing what needs to happen each day is a much larger problem than new PM wanting to use Google Sheets. First, if you don’t know what needs to be delivered, than notion is 100% failure. Switching to another task tracking system will fail as well. Simplify simplify. Don’t get fancy just make a list, organize it is some logically way everyone agrees, have a way to update it regularly and communicate tasks, risks and dependencies. That’s it, you can use a white board with post its as long as y”
“Im all about simplicity. I’ve used notion, Asana, trello, procore, jira, ms project, and everything else in between. And I went back to excel. To oversee over 30-35 Mechanical turnkey projects. BUT, we didn’t have a tool. In this case there’s a tool and at the end of the day it’s your mindset and discipline to use the tool that makes the difference in it’s effectiveness. If it works and it’s been working make them adapt. Some people that are new refuse to just observe the current process before”
“honestly, simple is better. These systems are so fucking so complex unnecessarily so like you need a database for literally everything. It's like you try so hard to make these notes so perfect. You make this system so perfect and it is a waste more time. You have to go if you actually took the notes you wanted to go review them and make sure that I didn't miss anything that you might've caught on. It's just like the fucking work it just so much easier. Perhaps they don't wann”
“You hired a PM and they’re giving up on learning a new tool after 2 hours? That doesn’t bode well… don’t change your entire setup based on their can’t-do attitude.”
“Caveat though, my tools were mostly for my own personal tracking and reporting. if you need the tools to integrate with other systems, you’ll need to invest in some deeper engineering skills.”
“I have been managing projects on Notion for a while now. I have different databases for milestones, Tasks, meetings and a decision log for each project. I just hired a project manager who isn't accustomed to using Notion, and at the end of a 2 hour Notion training he asked if we can just switch to managing projects on Google sheets instead. He thinks that for the number of projects we work on continuously, Notion introduces more complexity than needed. Has anyone faced similar concerns from”