Why I stopped building complicated Notion templates
A behind-the-scenes look at how simplifying my templates made them work better for real life.
For the first two years of shopwithzoe, I built templates the way I thought a 'proper' system should look: nested databases, rollups, automations, a dashboard for every area of life. They looked impressive. People bought them. And then they'd email me saying they felt guilty for not using them.
That guilt stayed with me. I realized I was designing for the screenshot, not for a Tuesday night when you're tired and just need to see what's for dinner and whether the electric bill got paid. So I started over. I deleted half the sections. I replaced fancy formulas with simple checkboxes. I wrote instructions in plain language — no 'if you want to cascade your filters' nonsense.
The result was surprising: my simplest templates became my bestsellers. Turns out most people don't want a second job managing their Notion. They want a calm place to land. If you've been struggling with a template that feels too heavy, try removing one thing today. The lightness is the point.