Why I stopped building complicated Notion dashboards (and what I do instead)
The best Notion system is the one you actually open. Here's why I simplified everything.
For two years, I built Notion dashboards that looked like mission control. Linked databases everywhere, rollups, formulas that took me a weekend to debug. I was proud of them. I also stopped opening them.
One day I realized I was spending more time maintaining my system than doing the things the system was supposed to help me do. That's when I started over with one rule: if it takes more than two clicks to find something, it's too complicated.
Now my templates use simple pages, a handful of databases, and clear section headers. No nested views. No color-coded tags that require a legend. The goal is a space that feels obvious the first time you open it.
If you're wrestling with your own Notion setup, try this: delete everything you haven't touched in thirty days. You'll be surprised how much lighter it feels — and how much more you get done.