Why I stopped building custom Notion dashboards (and what I do instead)
Custom dashboards look great in screenshots but often fall apart in real life. Here's the simpler approach I use now.
For two years, I built elaborate Notion dashboards for myself. Linked databases, rollups, filtered views, progress bars. They looked incredible. They also broke constantly, and I spent more time maintaining them than using them.
The turning point was a Tuesday night spent fixing a formula that had quietly stopped working. I realized I hadn't actually looked at my tasks in four days—I'd only looked at the dashboard. That's when I deleted the whole thing and started over with three pages: Today, This Week, Someday.
Now I design templates the same way. One page for what matters right now. One for what's coming. One for the ideas I'm not ready to act on. No nested databases unless they earn their place.
If you've ever felt behind because your Notion setup is more complex than your actual life, try stripping it back. Start with a single page and add only what you'll open tomorrow. The goal isn't a beautiful system. It's a system you'll actually use.