May 26, 2025
What to Do When Notion Feels Overwhelming
Notion
Simplify Notion
Notion Beginner Tips
You opened Notion with the best intentions. Maybe you'd seen those gorgeous productivity setups on social media, or a colleague raved about how it transformed their workflow. Fast-forward a few weeks, and instead of the streamlined productivity paradise you envisioned, you're staring at a digital mess that feels more chaotic than the scattered notes you were trying to escape.
Sound familiar? You're not alone. The irony of productivity tools is that they can sometimes make us feel less productive, not more. But here's the thing: when Notion feels overwhelming, it's not because you're doing something wrong—it's because you're treating it like every other app you've ever used, when it requires a completely different approach.
Let's transform your Notion experience from overwhelming to empowering.
Why Notion Feels Overwhelming in the First Place
Understanding why Notion becomes a source of stress rather than relief is the first step toward fixing it. The platform's flexibility, which is its greatest strength, can also become its biggest obstacle for new users.
Too Many Templates, Not Enough Strategy
Walk into any productivity community, and you'll be bombarded with templates. Life planners, project trackers, habit builders, meal planners… the list goes on. The template marketplace feels like a candy store, and we want to try everything.
But here's what happens: you download five different productivity templates, three project management systems, and two habit trackers. Suddenly, you're maintaining multiple systems that don't talk to each other, each with its own logic and structure. Instead of one cohesive workspace, you've created five separate mini-apps within Notion.
The result? You spend more time managing your productivity system than actually being productive.
No Clear Structure or Naming System
Notion gives you complete freedom to organize your information however you want. For many users, this freedom becomes paralysis. Without clear naming conventions or organizational principles, pages multiply like rabbits. You end up with "Meeting Notes," "meeting notes 2," "MEETING NOTES," and "Notes from meetings" all floating around your workspace.
This inconsistency creates mental friction every time you need to find something. Your brain has to work harder to navigate your own system, turning what should be a helpful tool into a cognitive burden.
Feature Overload Without a Learning Curve
Notion is powerful—perhaps too powerful for its own good. Relations, rollups, formulas, templates, synced blocks, the feature list reads like a software developer's dream and a regular user's nightmare. The platform assumes you want to use everything it offers, when in reality, you probably need about 20% of its capabilities to solve 80% of your problems.
Many users feel pressure to master every feature, as if they're not getting their money's worth otherwise. This leads to over-engineered systems that require a PhD in Notion to maintain.
Trying to Build Too Much at Once
Ambition is admirable, but it's also the enemy of sustainable systems. You decide you're going to track everything: projects, habits, finances, meal planning, fitness, reading lists, and your five-year life plan. You spend hours building the perfect system, complete with color-coded databases and automated workflows.
Then life happens. You miss updating it for a few days, and suddenly your beautiful system feels like a monument to your failure rather than a tool for your success.
Step-by-Step: How to Simplify Your Notion Experience
The path from overwhelmed to organized isn't about adding more features—it's about intentionally removing complexity and focusing on what actually matters to your daily workflow.
Step 1: Define One Use Case to Start
Before you touch another template or create another database, get crystal clear on one specific problem you want Notion to solve. Not three problems, not your entire life organization; one problem.
Maybe it's keeping track of work projects. Maybe it's organizing your side hustle. Maybe it's planning your weekly meals. Choose the area of your life where disorganization causes you the most daily friction, and commit to solving only that problem first.
This singular focus prevents the feature creep that kills most productivity systems. You'll have a working, valuable system much faster, and success in one area will give you the confidence and knowledge to expand thoughtfully later.
Step 2: Delete or Archive Anything That's Not Useful
This step requires courage, but it's essential. Open your Notion workspace and honestly assess every page, database, and template you've accumulated. Ask yourself: "Have I used this in the past month? Does it directly support my chosen use case?"
If the answer is no, delete it. If you can't bring yourself to delete it (we've all been there), create an "Archive" folder and move it there. Out of sight, out of mind, but recoverable if you ever truly need it.
Remember: digital hoarding is still hoarding. Every unused page in your workspace is visual clutter that makes it harder to find what you actually need.
Step 3: Create a Homepage or Dashboard That Grounds You
Your Notion homepage should be your command center, a single page that gives you everything you need to start your day without hunting through multiple databases or nested pages. Think of it as your mission control.
A effective dashboard typically includes quick links to your most-used pages, today's priorities, and maybe a simple progress tracker for your main projects. It should never require scrolling or clicking through multiple levels to find what you need daily.
This isn't about creating Instagram-worthy layouts with fancy widgets. It's about reducing the mental overhead of using your own system.
Step 4: Use Consistent Naming Conventions
Establish simple, clear rules for naming pages and databases, then stick to them religiously. Your future self will thank you when you can find what you need in seconds rather than minutes.
Consider conventions like starting project names with the year ("2025 - Website Redesign"), using consistent prefixes for different types of content ("Meeting - Client Name - Date"), or organizing by status ("Active Projects," "Completed Projects," "Someday Maybe").
The specific system matters less than consistency. Pick something logical and use it everywhere.
Step 5: Limit the Number of Databases
Databases are Notion's most powerful feature, but they're also its most complex. Each database you create is another system to maintain, another set of properties to remember, another source of potential confusion.
Most users need far fewer databases than they think. Instead of separate databases for work projects, personal projects, and side projects, consider one "Projects" database with a property to distinguish between them. Instead of separate databases for books to read, books read, and books completed, use one database with a status property.
Consolidation reduces complexity and makes it easier to see connections between different areas of your life.
Step 6: Use Linked Views Instead of Duplicates
When you find yourself copying information between different pages or databases, stop and ask if there's a way to link to the original instead. Notion's database views and linked relations mean you rarely need to duplicate information.
For example, instead of maintaining separate task lists for different projects and then copying high-priority items to a daily task list, create filtered views of your main task database. One view shows tasks for Project A, another shows today's priorities, but they're all the same data.
This approach eliminates the maintenance burden of keeping multiple lists in sync and ensures you're always working with current information.
Step 7: Learn One Feature at a Time
Notion's feature set is vast, but you don't need to master it all at once. Instead of trying to understand relations, rollups, and formulas simultaneously, pick one feature that would solve a specific problem in your current system and focus on that.
Maybe you start by learning how to create filtered views of your task database. Once that becomes natural, perhaps you can explore basic formulas to automatically calculate project completion percentages. The key is building competence incrementally rather than overwhelming yourself with everything at once.
Create a Minimalist Notion Setup That Works
The most effective Notion workspaces often look surprisingly simple. They prioritize function over form and focus on reducing friction rather than impressing visitors.
3 Core Databases Most People Actually Need
Despite Notion's infinite possibilities, most productive users rely on variations of three fundamental databases:
Projects or Areas: This captures the larger initiatives in your life, whether they're work projects, personal goals, or ongoing responsibilities. Each entry includes basic information like status, deadline, and key outcomes.
Tasks or Actions: The individual steps needed to move projects forward. These link back to your project's database, so you can see all tasks related to a specific initiative.
Resources or Reference: Information you need to access regularly but don't need to act on. This might include meeting notes, research, reference materials, or documentation.
These three databases can handle the majority of organizational needs without creating unnecessary complexity. You can always add more later, but starting with this foundation ensures you have a working system quickly.
What to Put on Your Dashboard
Your dashboard should provide immediate value every time you open Notion. This typically means quick access to:
Today's priorities from your task database, upcoming deadlines from your projects database, and direct links to pages you access daily (like a daily notes template or your main project pages).
Avoid the temptation to include motivational quotes, complex charts, or information that requires regular manual updates. Your dashboard should be a launching pad, not a maintenance project.
When to Use Pages vs. Databases
Understanding when to use a simple page versus a database is crucial for maintaining simplicity. Use databases for information you need to sort, filter, or view in multiple ways. Use pages for information that's primarily text-based and doesn't need complex organization.
Meeting notes, project documentation, and reference materials often work better as pages. Tasks, projects, and any information with multiple data points (dates, status, categories) work better as databases.
Tools and Templates That Reduce, Not Add, Complexity
While templates can contribute to overwhelm, the right ones actually simplify your Notion experience by providing proven structures without the setup time.
Minimalist Dashboards
Look for dashboard templates that prioritize function over aesthetics. The best dashboards feel almost boring because they're so focused on utility. They provide clear navigation, display essential information, and get out of your way.
Avoid dashboards that require multiple databases to function or need constant manual updates to remain useful.
Ready-to-Use SOP Systems
Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) templates can be incredibly valuable if you run a business or manage recurring processes. However, choose templates that focus on capturing and organizing procedures rather than complex workflow automation.
The goal is to document how you do things, not to recreate enterprise software within Notion.
Workspace Starter Kits
Some template creators offer complete workspace setups designed around specific use cases (freelancers, students, small business owners). These can be excellent starting points because they provide integrated systems rather than disparate templates that you need to connect yourself.
Look for starter kits that include training or documentation about how to use and customize the system effectively.
Notion Is a Tool, Not the Goal
The most important mindset shift for overcoming Notion overwhelm is remembering that the tool should serve you, not the other way around.
Focus on Outcomes, Not Aesthetics
Social media has created unrealistic expectations about what productivity systems should look like. Those perfectly designed Notion pages with custom icons, elaborate color schemes, and artistic layouts might get likes, but they don't necessarily get results.
Your Notion workspace doesn't need to be beautiful; it needs to be functional. A simple, text-based system that you actually use consistently will always outperform an elaborate setup that you abandon after a week.
Measure your system's success by outcomes: Are you completing more projects? Do you feel less stressed about keeping track of information? Can you find what you need quickly? These metrics matter more than aesthetic appeal.
Your System Should Serve Your Workflow
One of Notion's biggest traps is the assumption that you need to change how you work to match what the platform does best. This backward approach leads to systems that fight against your natural workflow instead of supporting it.
Instead, start with how you naturally think and work, then adapt Notion to match those patterns. If you're a visual person who thinks in lists, don't force yourself to use complex database views. If you prefer detailed written notes to structured data entry, don't create elaborate forms you'll never use.
The best productivity system is the one that feels invisible because it aligns so well with how you naturally operate.
Bonus Tips from Power Users Who've Been There
Learning from others who've successfully navigated Notion's complexity can save you months of trial and error.
"One System at a Time" Philosophy
Experienced Notion users often follow a simple rule: implement one system completely before adding another. This means getting your task management working perfectly before adding project tracking, or mastering your note-taking system before incorporating habit tracking.
This approach prevents the fragmentation that makes Notion feel overwhelming. You build competence and see results from each system before adding new complexity.
Use Daily/Weekly Reviews to Stay in Control
Even the best systems drift toward chaos without regular maintenance. Successful Notion users build simple review processes into their routines to prevent overwhelming accumulation of outdated information.
A daily review might involve clearing completed tasks and updating project statuses. A weekly review might include archiving old pages and assessing whether your current systems are still serving your needs.
These reviews take minutes, not hours, but they prevent the gradual degradation that makes systems feel overwhelming over time.
When to Consider a Coach or Template Builder
Sometimes the fastest path to a functional Notion setup is getting help from someone who's already solved the problems you're facing. Notion coaches and experienced template builders can provide customized solutions that fit your specific needs without the learning curve.
This investment makes sense when you're using Notion for business purposes or when your organizational challenges are complex enough that trial and error would cost more time than professional guidance.
Final Thoughts: Simplicity Beats Complexity Every Time
The path out of Notion overwhelm isn't about mastering more features or finding the perfect template. It's about embracing intentional simplicity and remembering that the best productivity system is the one you actually use.
Your Notion workspace should feel like a trusted assistant, not a demanding boss. It should reduce mental overhead, not add to it. It should support your natural workflow, not require you to change how you think and work.
Start small, build incrementally, and measure success by results rather than complexity. The goal isn't to create the most sophisticated Notion setup possible, it's to create a system that makes your life easier and your work more effective.
Remember: every productivity guru started with a simple system that solved one specific problem. Your journey from overwhelmed to organized begins with that same first step. Choose one area of your life that needs better organization, build a simple system to address it, and let success in that area guide your next moves.
Notion is a powerful tool, but it's still just a tool. The real power comes from the intention, consistency, and wisdom you bring to using it. Focus on those elements, and the platform will transform from a source of overwhelm into exactly what you hoped it would be: a reliable partner in creating the productive, organized life you want.
Latest Updates
(GQ® — 02)
©2024
Latest Updates
(GQ® — 02)
©2024
HR Documentation Made Simple: Building an Employee Handbook in Notion
Jul 14, 2025
Notion Systems
HR Documentation Made Simple: Building an Employee Handbook in Notion
Jul 14, 2025
Notion Systems
How to Design a Productivity Dashboard in Notion That Actually Works
Jul 7, 2025
Notion Systems
How to Design a Productivity Dashboard in Notion That Actually Works
Jul 7, 2025
Notion Systems
May 26, 2025
What to Do When Notion Feels Overwhelming
Notion
Simplify Notion
Notion Beginner Tips
You opened Notion with the best intentions. Maybe you'd seen those gorgeous productivity setups on social media, or a colleague raved about how it transformed their workflow. Fast-forward a few weeks, and instead of the streamlined productivity paradise you envisioned, you're staring at a digital mess that feels more chaotic than the scattered notes you were trying to escape.
Sound familiar? You're not alone. The irony of productivity tools is that they can sometimes make us feel less productive, not more. But here's the thing: when Notion feels overwhelming, it's not because you're doing something wrong—it's because you're treating it like every other app you've ever used, when it requires a completely different approach.
Let's transform your Notion experience from overwhelming to empowering.
Why Notion Feels Overwhelming in the First Place
Understanding why Notion becomes a source of stress rather than relief is the first step toward fixing it. The platform's flexibility, which is its greatest strength, can also become its biggest obstacle for new users.
Too Many Templates, Not Enough Strategy
Walk into any productivity community, and you'll be bombarded with templates. Life planners, project trackers, habit builders, meal planners… the list goes on. The template marketplace feels like a candy store, and we want to try everything.
But here's what happens: you download five different productivity templates, three project management systems, and two habit trackers. Suddenly, you're maintaining multiple systems that don't talk to each other, each with its own logic and structure. Instead of one cohesive workspace, you've created five separate mini-apps within Notion.
The result? You spend more time managing your productivity system than actually being productive.
No Clear Structure or Naming System
Notion gives you complete freedom to organize your information however you want. For many users, this freedom becomes paralysis. Without clear naming conventions or organizational principles, pages multiply like rabbits. You end up with "Meeting Notes," "meeting notes 2," "MEETING NOTES," and "Notes from meetings" all floating around your workspace.
This inconsistency creates mental friction every time you need to find something. Your brain has to work harder to navigate your own system, turning what should be a helpful tool into a cognitive burden.
Feature Overload Without a Learning Curve
Notion is powerful—perhaps too powerful for its own good. Relations, rollups, formulas, templates, synced blocks, the feature list reads like a software developer's dream and a regular user's nightmare. The platform assumes you want to use everything it offers, when in reality, you probably need about 20% of its capabilities to solve 80% of your problems.
Many users feel pressure to master every feature, as if they're not getting their money's worth otherwise. This leads to over-engineered systems that require a PhD in Notion to maintain.
Trying to Build Too Much at Once
Ambition is admirable, but it's also the enemy of sustainable systems. You decide you're going to track everything: projects, habits, finances, meal planning, fitness, reading lists, and your five-year life plan. You spend hours building the perfect system, complete with color-coded databases and automated workflows.
Then life happens. You miss updating it for a few days, and suddenly your beautiful system feels like a monument to your failure rather than a tool for your success.
Step-by-Step: How to Simplify Your Notion Experience
The path from overwhelmed to organized isn't about adding more features—it's about intentionally removing complexity and focusing on what actually matters to your daily workflow.
Step 1: Define One Use Case to Start
Before you touch another template or create another database, get crystal clear on one specific problem you want Notion to solve. Not three problems, not your entire life organization; one problem.
Maybe it's keeping track of work projects. Maybe it's organizing your side hustle. Maybe it's planning your weekly meals. Choose the area of your life where disorganization causes you the most daily friction, and commit to solving only that problem first.
This singular focus prevents the feature creep that kills most productivity systems. You'll have a working, valuable system much faster, and success in one area will give you the confidence and knowledge to expand thoughtfully later.
Step 2: Delete or Archive Anything That's Not Useful
This step requires courage, but it's essential. Open your Notion workspace and honestly assess every page, database, and template you've accumulated. Ask yourself: "Have I used this in the past month? Does it directly support my chosen use case?"
If the answer is no, delete it. If you can't bring yourself to delete it (we've all been there), create an "Archive" folder and move it there. Out of sight, out of mind, but recoverable if you ever truly need it.
Remember: digital hoarding is still hoarding. Every unused page in your workspace is visual clutter that makes it harder to find what you actually need.
Step 3: Create a Homepage or Dashboard That Grounds You
Your Notion homepage should be your command center, a single page that gives you everything you need to start your day without hunting through multiple databases or nested pages. Think of it as your mission control.
A effective dashboard typically includes quick links to your most-used pages, today's priorities, and maybe a simple progress tracker for your main projects. It should never require scrolling or clicking through multiple levels to find what you need daily.
This isn't about creating Instagram-worthy layouts with fancy widgets. It's about reducing the mental overhead of using your own system.
Step 4: Use Consistent Naming Conventions
Establish simple, clear rules for naming pages and databases, then stick to them religiously. Your future self will thank you when you can find what you need in seconds rather than minutes.
Consider conventions like starting project names with the year ("2025 - Website Redesign"), using consistent prefixes for different types of content ("Meeting - Client Name - Date"), or organizing by status ("Active Projects," "Completed Projects," "Someday Maybe").
The specific system matters less than consistency. Pick something logical and use it everywhere.
Step 5: Limit the Number of Databases
Databases are Notion's most powerful feature, but they're also its most complex. Each database you create is another system to maintain, another set of properties to remember, another source of potential confusion.
Most users need far fewer databases than they think. Instead of separate databases for work projects, personal projects, and side projects, consider one "Projects" database with a property to distinguish between them. Instead of separate databases for books to read, books read, and books completed, use one database with a status property.
Consolidation reduces complexity and makes it easier to see connections between different areas of your life.
Step 6: Use Linked Views Instead of Duplicates
When you find yourself copying information between different pages or databases, stop and ask if there's a way to link to the original instead. Notion's database views and linked relations mean you rarely need to duplicate information.
For example, instead of maintaining separate task lists for different projects and then copying high-priority items to a daily task list, create filtered views of your main task database. One view shows tasks for Project A, another shows today's priorities, but they're all the same data.
This approach eliminates the maintenance burden of keeping multiple lists in sync and ensures you're always working with current information.
Step 7: Learn One Feature at a Time
Notion's feature set is vast, but you don't need to master it all at once. Instead of trying to understand relations, rollups, and formulas simultaneously, pick one feature that would solve a specific problem in your current system and focus on that.
Maybe you start by learning how to create filtered views of your task database. Once that becomes natural, perhaps you can explore basic formulas to automatically calculate project completion percentages. The key is building competence incrementally rather than overwhelming yourself with everything at once.
Create a Minimalist Notion Setup That Works
The most effective Notion workspaces often look surprisingly simple. They prioritize function over form and focus on reducing friction rather than impressing visitors.
3 Core Databases Most People Actually Need
Despite Notion's infinite possibilities, most productive users rely on variations of three fundamental databases:
Projects or Areas: This captures the larger initiatives in your life, whether they're work projects, personal goals, or ongoing responsibilities. Each entry includes basic information like status, deadline, and key outcomes.
Tasks or Actions: The individual steps needed to move projects forward. These link back to your project's database, so you can see all tasks related to a specific initiative.
Resources or Reference: Information you need to access regularly but don't need to act on. This might include meeting notes, research, reference materials, or documentation.
These three databases can handle the majority of organizational needs without creating unnecessary complexity. You can always add more later, but starting with this foundation ensures you have a working system quickly.
What to Put on Your Dashboard
Your dashboard should provide immediate value every time you open Notion. This typically means quick access to:
Today's priorities from your task database, upcoming deadlines from your projects database, and direct links to pages you access daily (like a daily notes template or your main project pages).
Avoid the temptation to include motivational quotes, complex charts, or information that requires regular manual updates. Your dashboard should be a launching pad, not a maintenance project.
When to Use Pages vs. Databases
Understanding when to use a simple page versus a database is crucial for maintaining simplicity. Use databases for information you need to sort, filter, or view in multiple ways. Use pages for information that's primarily text-based and doesn't need complex organization.
Meeting notes, project documentation, and reference materials often work better as pages. Tasks, projects, and any information with multiple data points (dates, status, categories) work better as databases.
Tools and Templates That Reduce, Not Add, Complexity
While templates can contribute to overwhelm, the right ones actually simplify your Notion experience by providing proven structures without the setup time.
Minimalist Dashboards
Look for dashboard templates that prioritize function over aesthetics. The best dashboards feel almost boring because they're so focused on utility. They provide clear navigation, display essential information, and get out of your way.
Avoid dashboards that require multiple databases to function or need constant manual updates to remain useful.
Ready-to-Use SOP Systems
Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) templates can be incredibly valuable if you run a business or manage recurring processes. However, choose templates that focus on capturing and organizing procedures rather than complex workflow automation.
The goal is to document how you do things, not to recreate enterprise software within Notion.
Workspace Starter Kits
Some template creators offer complete workspace setups designed around specific use cases (freelancers, students, small business owners). These can be excellent starting points because they provide integrated systems rather than disparate templates that you need to connect yourself.
Look for starter kits that include training or documentation about how to use and customize the system effectively.
Notion Is a Tool, Not the Goal
The most important mindset shift for overcoming Notion overwhelm is remembering that the tool should serve you, not the other way around.
Focus on Outcomes, Not Aesthetics
Social media has created unrealistic expectations about what productivity systems should look like. Those perfectly designed Notion pages with custom icons, elaborate color schemes, and artistic layouts might get likes, but they don't necessarily get results.
Your Notion workspace doesn't need to be beautiful; it needs to be functional. A simple, text-based system that you actually use consistently will always outperform an elaborate setup that you abandon after a week.
Measure your system's success by outcomes: Are you completing more projects? Do you feel less stressed about keeping track of information? Can you find what you need quickly? These metrics matter more than aesthetic appeal.
Your System Should Serve Your Workflow
One of Notion's biggest traps is the assumption that you need to change how you work to match what the platform does best. This backward approach leads to systems that fight against your natural workflow instead of supporting it.
Instead, start with how you naturally think and work, then adapt Notion to match those patterns. If you're a visual person who thinks in lists, don't force yourself to use complex database views. If you prefer detailed written notes to structured data entry, don't create elaborate forms you'll never use.
The best productivity system is the one that feels invisible because it aligns so well with how you naturally operate.
Bonus Tips from Power Users Who've Been There
Learning from others who've successfully navigated Notion's complexity can save you months of trial and error.
"One System at a Time" Philosophy
Experienced Notion users often follow a simple rule: implement one system completely before adding another. This means getting your task management working perfectly before adding project tracking, or mastering your note-taking system before incorporating habit tracking.
This approach prevents the fragmentation that makes Notion feel overwhelming. You build competence and see results from each system before adding new complexity.
Use Daily/Weekly Reviews to Stay in Control
Even the best systems drift toward chaos without regular maintenance. Successful Notion users build simple review processes into their routines to prevent overwhelming accumulation of outdated information.
A daily review might involve clearing completed tasks and updating project statuses. A weekly review might include archiving old pages and assessing whether your current systems are still serving your needs.
These reviews take minutes, not hours, but they prevent the gradual degradation that makes systems feel overwhelming over time.
When to Consider a Coach or Template Builder
Sometimes the fastest path to a functional Notion setup is getting help from someone who's already solved the problems you're facing. Notion coaches and experienced template builders can provide customized solutions that fit your specific needs without the learning curve.
This investment makes sense when you're using Notion for business purposes or when your organizational challenges are complex enough that trial and error would cost more time than professional guidance.
Final Thoughts: Simplicity Beats Complexity Every Time
The path out of Notion overwhelm isn't about mastering more features or finding the perfect template. It's about embracing intentional simplicity and remembering that the best productivity system is the one you actually use.
Your Notion workspace should feel like a trusted assistant, not a demanding boss. It should reduce mental overhead, not add to it. It should support your natural workflow, not require you to change how you think and work.
Start small, build incrementally, and measure success by results rather than complexity. The goal isn't to create the most sophisticated Notion setup possible, it's to create a system that makes your life easier and your work more effective.
Remember: every productivity guru started with a simple system that solved one specific problem. Your journey from overwhelmed to organized begins with that same first step. Choose one area of your life that needs better organization, build a simple system to address it, and let success in that area guide your next moves.
Notion is a powerful tool, but it's still just a tool. The real power comes from the intention, consistency, and wisdom you bring to using it. Focus on those elements, and the platform will transform from a source of overwhelm into exactly what you hoped it would be: a reliable partner in creating the productive, organized life you want.
May 26, 2025
What to Do When Notion Feels Overwhelming
Notion
Simplify Notion
Notion Beginner Tips
You opened Notion with the best intentions. Maybe you'd seen those gorgeous productivity setups on social media, or a colleague raved about how it transformed their workflow. Fast-forward a few weeks, and instead of the streamlined productivity paradise you envisioned, you're staring at a digital mess that feels more chaotic than the scattered notes you were trying to escape.
Sound familiar? You're not alone. The irony of productivity tools is that they can sometimes make us feel less productive, not more. But here's the thing: when Notion feels overwhelming, it's not because you're doing something wrong—it's because you're treating it like every other app you've ever used, when it requires a completely different approach.
Let's transform your Notion experience from overwhelming to empowering.
Why Notion Feels Overwhelming in the First Place
Understanding why Notion becomes a source of stress rather than relief is the first step toward fixing it. The platform's flexibility, which is its greatest strength, can also become its biggest obstacle for new users.
Too Many Templates, Not Enough Strategy
Walk into any productivity community, and you'll be bombarded with templates. Life planners, project trackers, habit builders, meal planners… the list goes on. The template marketplace feels like a candy store, and we want to try everything.
But here's what happens: you download five different productivity templates, three project management systems, and two habit trackers. Suddenly, you're maintaining multiple systems that don't talk to each other, each with its own logic and structure. Instead of one cohesive workspace, you've created five separate mini-apps within Notion.
The result? You spend more time managing your productivity system than actually being productive.
No Clear Structure or Naming System
Notion gives you complete freedom to organize your information however you want. For many users, this freedom becomes paralysis. Without clear naming conventions or organizational principles, pages multiply like rabbits. You end up with "Meeting Notes," "meeting notes 2," "MEETING NOTES," and "Notes from meetings" all floating around your workspace.
This inconsistency creates mental friction every time you need to find something. Your brain has to work harder to navigate your own system, turning what should be a helpful tool into a cognitive burden.
Feature Overload Without a Learning Curve
Notion is powerful—perhaps too powerful for its own good. Relations, rollups, formulas, templates, synced blocks, the feature list reads like a software developer's dream and a regular user's nightmare. The platform assumes you want to use everything it offers, when in reality, you probably need about 20% of its capabilities to solve 80% of your problems.
Many users feel pressure to master every feature, as if they're not getting their money's worth otherwise. This leads to over-engineered systems that require a PhD in Notion to maintain.
Trying to Build Too Much at Once
Ambition is admirable, but it's also the enemy of sustainable systems. You decide you're going to track everything: projects, habits, finances, meal planning, fitness, reading lists, and your five-year life plan. You spend hours building the perfect system, complete with color-coded databases and automated workflows.
Then life happens. You miss updating it for a few days, and suddenly your beautiful system feels like a monument to your failure rather than a tool for your success.
Step-by-Step: How to Simplify Your Notion Experience
The path from overwhelmed to organized isn't about adding more features—it's about intentionally removing complexity and focusing on what actually matters to your daily workflow.
Step 1: Define One Use Case to Start
Before you touch another template or create another database, get crystal clear on one specific problem you want Notion to solve. Not three problems, not your entire life organization; one problem.
Maybe it's keeping track of work projects. Maybe it's organizing your side hustle. Maybe it's planning your weekly meals. Choose the area of your life where disorganization causes you the most daily friction, and commit to solving only that problem first.
This singular focus prevents the feature creep that kills most productivity systems. You'll have a working, valuable system much faster, and success in one area will give you the confidence and knowledge to expand thoughtfully later.
Step 2: Delete or Archive Anything That's Not Useful
This step requires courage, but it's essential. Open your Notion workspace and honestly assess every page, database, and template you've accumulated. Ask yourself: "Have I used this in the past month? Does it directly support my chosen use case?"
If the answer is no, delete it. If you can't bring yourself to delete it (we've all been there), create an "Archive" folder and move it there. Out of sight, out of mind, but recoverable if you ever truly need it.
Remember: digital hoarding is still hoarding. Every unused page in your workspace is visual clutter that makes it harder to find what you actually need.
Step 3: Create a Homepage or Dashboard That Grounds You
Your Notion homepage should be your command center, a single page that gives you everything you need to start your day without hunting through multiple databases or nested pages. Think of it as your mission control.
A effective dashboard typically includes quick links to your most-used pages, today's priorities, and maybe a simple progress tracker for your main projects. It should never require scrolling or clicking through multiple levels to find what you need daily.
This isn't about creating Instagram-worthy layouts with fancy widgets. It's about reducing the mental overhead of using your own system.
Step 4: Use Consistent Naming Conventions
Establish simple, clear rules for naming pages and databases, then stick to them religiously. Your future self will thank you when you can find what you need in seconds rather than minutes.
Consider conventions like starting project names with the year ("2025 - Website Redesign"), using consistent prefixes for different types of content ("Meeting - Client Name - Date"), or organizing by status ("Active Projects," "Completed Projects," "Someday Maybe").
The specific system matters less than consistency. Pick something logical and use it everywhere.
Step 5: Limit the Number of Databases
Databases are Notion's most powerful feature, but they're also its most complex. Each database you create is another system to maintain, another set of properties to remember, another source of potential confusion.
Most users need far fewer databases than they think. Instead of separate databases for work projects, personal projects, and side projects, consider one "Projects" database with a property to distinguish between them. Instead of separate databases for books to read, books read, and books completed, use one database with a status property.
Consolidation reduces complexity and makes it easier to see connections between different areas of your life.
Step 6: Use Linked Views Instead of Duplicates
When you find yourself copying information between different pages or databases, stop and ask if there's a way to link to the original instead. Notion's database views and linked relations mean you rarely need to duplicate information.
For example, instead of maintaining separate task lists for different projects and then copying high-priority items to a daily task list, create filtered views of your main task database. One view shows tasks for Project A, another shows today's priorities, but they're all the same data.
This approach eliminates the maintenance burden of keeping multiple lists in sync and ensures you're always working with current information.
Step 7: Learn One Feature at a Time
Notion's feature set is vast, but you don't need to master it all at once. Instead of trying to understand relations, rollups, and formulas simultaneously, pick one feature that would solve a specific problem in your current system and focus on that.
Maybe you start by learning how to create filtered views of your task database. Once that becomes natural, perhaps you can explore basic formulas to automatically calculate project completion percentages. The key is building competence incrementally rather than overwhelming yourself with everything at once.
Create a Minimalist Notion Setup That Works
The most effective Notion workspaces often look surprisingly simple. They prioritize function over form and focus on reducing friction rather than impressing visitors.
3 Core Databases Most People Actually Need
Despite Notion's infinite possibilities, most productive users rely on variations of three fundamental databases:
Projects or Areas: This captures the larger initiatives in your life, whether they're work projects, personal goals, or ongoing responsibilities. Each entry includes basic information like status, deadline, and key outcomes.
Tasks or Actions: The individual steps needed to move projects forward. These link back to your project's database, so you can see all tasks related to a specific initiative.
Resources or Reference: Information you need to access regularly but don't need to act on. This might include meeting notes, research, reference materials, or documentation.
These three databases can handle the majority of organizational needs without creating unnecessary complexity. You can always add more later, but starting with this foundation ensures you have a working system quickly.
What to Put on Your Dashboard
Your dashboard should provide immediate value every time you open Notion. This typically means quick access to:
Today's priorities from your task database, upcoming deadlines from your projects database, and direct links to pages you access daily (like a daily notes template or your main project pages).
Avoid the temptation to include motivational quotes, complex charts, or information that requires regular manual updates. Your dashboard should be a launching pad, not a maintenance project.
When to Use Pages vs. Databases
Understanding when to use a simple page versus a database is crucial for maintaining simplicity. Use databases for information you need to sort, filter, or view in multiple ways. Use pages for information that's primarily text-based and doesn't need complex organization.
Meeting notes, project documentation, and reference materials often work better as pages. Tasks, projects, and any information with multiple data points (dates, status, categories) work better as databases.
Tools and Templates That Reduce, Not Add, Complexity
While templates can contribute to overwhelm, the right ones actually simplify your Notion experience by providing proven structures without the setup time.
Minimalist Dashboards
Look for dashboard templates that prioritize function over aesthetics. The best dashboards feel almost boring because they're so focused on utility. They provide clear navigation, display essential information, and get out of your way.
Avoid dashboards that require multiple databases to function or need constant manual updates to remain useful.
Ready-to-Use SOP Systems
Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) templates can be incredibly valuable if you run a business or manage recurring processes. However, choose templates that focus on capturing and organizing procedures rather than complex workflow automation.
The goal is to document how you do things, not to recreate enterprise software within Notion.
Workspace Starter Kits
Some template creators offer complete workspace setups designed around specific use cases (freelancers, students, small business owners). These can be excellent starting points because they provide integrated systems rather than disparate templates that you need to connect yourself.
Look for starter kits that include training or documentation about how to use and customize the system effectively.
Notion Is a Tool, Not the Goal
The most important mindset shift for overcoming Notion overwhelm is remembering that the tool should serve you, not the other way around.
Focus on Outcomes, Not Aesthetics
Social media has created unrealistic expectations about what productivity systems should look like. Those perfectly designed Notion pages with custom icons, elaborate color schemes, and artistic layouts might get likes, but they don't necessarily get results.
Your Notion workspace doesn't need to be beautiful; it needs to be functional. A simple, text-based system that you actually use consistently will always outperform an elaborate setup that you abandon after a week.
Measure your system's success by outcomes: Are you completing more projects? Do you feel less stressed about keeping track of information? Can you find what you need quickly? These metrics matter more than aesthetic appeal.
Your System Should Serve Your Workflow
One of Notion's biggest traps is the assumption that you need to change how you work to match what the platform does best. This backward approach leads to systems that fight against your natural workflow instead of supporting it.
Instead, start with how you naturally think and work, then adapt Notion to match those patterns. If you're a visual person who thinks in lists, don't force yourself to use complex database views. If you prefer detailed written notes to structured data entry, don't create elaborate forms you'll never use.
The best productivity system is the one that feels invisible because it aligns so well with how you naturally operate.
Bonus Tips from Power Users Who've Been There
Learning from others who've successfully navigated Notion's complexity can save you months of trial and error.
"One System at a Time" Philosophy
Experienced Notion users often follow a simple rule: implement one system completely before adding another. This means getting your task management working perfectly before adding project tracking, or mastering your note-taking system before incorporating habit tracking.
This approach prevents the fragmentation that makes Notion feel overwhelming. You build competence and see results from each system before adding new complexity.
Use Daily/Weekly Reviews to Stay in Control
Even the best systems drift toward chaos without regular maintenance. Successful Notion users build simple review processes into their routines to prevent overwhelming accumulation of outdated information.
A daily review might involve clearing completed tasks and updating project statuses. A weekly review might include archiving old pages and assessing whether your current systems are still serving your needs.
These reviews take minutes, not hours, but they prevent the gradual degradation that makes systems feel overwhelming over time.
When to Consider a Coach or Template Builder
Sometimes the fastest path to a functional Notion setup is getting help from someone who's already solved the problems you're facing. Notion coaches and experienced template builders can provide customized solutions that fit your specific needs without the learning curve.
This investment makes sense when you're using Notion for business purposes or when your organizational challenges are complex enough that trial and error would cost more time than professional guidance.
Final Thoughts: Simplicity Beats Complexity Every Time
The path out of Notion overwhelm isn't about mastering more features or finding the perfect template. It's about embracing intentional simplicity and remembering that the best productivity system is the one you actually use.
Your Notion workspace should feel like a trusted assistant, not a demanding boss. It should reduce mental overhead, not add to it. It should support your natural workflow, not require you to change how you think and work.
Start small, build incrementally, and measure success by results rather than complexity. The goal isn't to create the most sophisticated Notion setup possible, it's to create a system that makes your life easier and your work more effective.
Remember: every productivity guru started with a simple system that solved one specific problem. Your journey from overwhelmed to organized begins with that same first step. Choose one area of your life that needs better organization, build a simple system to address it, and let success in that area guide your next moves.
Notion is a powerful tool, but it's still just a tool. The real power comes from the intention, consistency, and wisdom you bring to using it. Focus on those elements, and the platform will transform from a source of overwhelm into exactly what you hoped it would be: a reliable partner in creating the productive, organized life you want.