David Neira is an official Notion Ambassador and the founder of NotioStore, where he builds custom Notion operating systems for architecture, construction, and interior design firms. He run 40 Notion Setup Sessions per week and writes here about making Notion hold up under real client work.
Think you know the “right” way to use Notion? You’ve probably seen the same tips recycled across YouTube, Reddit, and Twitter: “Put everything in one database,” “Keep your properties minimal,” “Use toggles to stay clean.” They sound reasonable. They get thousands of upvotes. And they’re quietly wrecking your workspace.
After years of building Notion systems for creators, agencies, and small businesses, I’ve seen firsthand how these so-called best practices create bloated, confusing, and fragile setups. The truth is, most Notion advice is written for content engagement, not for people who actually need their workspace to work.
In this article, I’m breaking down 10 of the most popular Notion “best practices” that are actually terrible advice and showing you what to do instead.
Notion has one of the most passionate productivity communities online. That’s a double-edged sword. When a tip goes viral, it gets repeated by dozens of creators, each adding their own spin without questioning the original premise. Before long, it becomes accepted wisdom.
But viral doesn’t mean valid. Most of these tips are optimized for short-form content performance, not real-world productivity. A 60-second TikTok showing a single database looks sleek. A 10-database relational system that actually runs a business? Not as sexy but far more effective.
There are no universal Notion best practices. What works for a solo freelancer journaling their goals is wildly different from what works for a 15-person agency managing client projects.
The best Notion setup is the one built around your workflows, your team size, and your actual needs, not someone else’s aesthetic template. With that mindset shift in place, let’s tear apart the myths.
The claim: “Simplify your life. One master database to rule them all.”
This is arguably the most dangerous Notion tip out there. It sounds elegant: fewer databases, less complexity, right? Wrong.
A single “master” database forces you to use filters and views to separate fundamentally different types of information. Tasks, notes, projects, meetings, CRM contacts, all crammed into one table with dozens of properties, most of which are irrelevant to any given entry.
The result?
Create separate databases for distinct concepts (Tasks, Projects, Clients, Notes) and connect them with relations and rollups. This gives you:
Think of it like a well-designed app: you wouldn’t put your contacts, calendar events, and to-do items in the same spreadsheet tab. Don’t do it in Notion either.
The claim: “Rollups are the secret weapon. Use them to pull data across databases.”
Rollups are powerful, but they’ve been oversold. When every summary, count, and status check is a rollup, your databases become tangled webs of dependencies.
Rollups work by pulling values through a relation. That means:
Before reaching for a rollup, ask: “Can I solve this with a formula on the same database?” or “Would a linked view of the related database give me this information more cleanly?”
Formulas are self-contained and easier to debug. Linked views let you see related data in context without creating extra properties. Reserve rollups for cases where you genuinely need an aggregated value (sum, count, average) from related records, not just to display information that a linked view handles better.
The claim: “Keep your databases lean. Fewer properties = cleaner setup.”
Minimalism has its place, but blindly reducing properties in the name of simplicity can cripple your database’s usefulness.
Properties aren’t just columns in a table, they’re the building blocks of views, filters, sorts, and automations. When you strip them down too aggressively:
A “Status” property, a “Priority” property, and an “Assignee” property aren’t redundant, they each unlock different ways of slicing and viewing your data.
The real question isn’t “How few properties can I get away with?” it’s “Does every property serve a view, filter, or workflow?”
If a property helps you:
If a property sits there collecting dust and nobody ever filters by it, that’s when you remove it. Properties should be purposeful, not minimal.
The claim: “Build one dashboard page to see everything at a glance.”
The all-in-one dashboard is the poster child of Notion content. It looks incredible in screenshots. In practice, it often becomes an overwhelming wall of linked views that loads slowly and serves no one well.
When you jam every database, metric, and view onto a single page:
Instead of one mega-dashboard, create multiple focused entry points:
Each page loads faster, shows only what’s relevant, and is easier to maintain. You can still link between them for navigation, that’s what Notion’s sidebar and mentions are for.
The claim: “Create templates for everything. It’ll save you so much time.”
Templates are useful, but they’re not a universal solution. Over-templating can introduce as much friction as it removes.
Templates work best when you repeatedly create pages with a consistent, complex structure. But when the template is simple (a title and a few properties) or when each new entry varies significantly, templates become a speed bump:
Consider whether your needs are better served by:
Use templates when structure is complex and consistent. Use simpler tools when it’s not.
The claim: “Create folders within folders. The deeper the hierarchy, the more organized you are.”
This is the Notion equivalent of creating a folder structure 8 levels deep on your computer. It feels organized until you need to find something.
Deep page nesting creates several problems:
The most effective Notion workspaces are surprisingly flat. Here’s the pattern:
Instead of Company → Departments → Marketing → Campaigns → Q1 → Campaign X, you have a Campaigns database with a “Department” property and a “Quarter” property. Same organization, zero nesting, infinitely more flexible.
The claim: “Found an amazing Notion template? Just duplicate it and you’re set!”
Template marketplaces and YouTube walkthroughs make this tempting. But copying someone else’s system wholesale almost never works.
When you duplicate a setup, you get the structure without the thinking. You don’t know:
The result is usually a beautiful workspace you don’t understand, can’t customize, and eventually abandon. You end up back at square one but now with wasted hours and a cluttered sidebar of unused pages.
When you find a Notion setup you admire, don’t duplicate it. Study it:
Then build your own system using those principles, tailored to your specific workflows. You’ll understand every part of it, be able to customize it on the fly, and actually use it long-term.
The claim: “Hide content in toggles. Your pages will look so much cleaner.”
Toggles are one of Notion’s most-used blocks. They’re also one of the most misused. Hiding everything in toggles doesn’t make your page organized, it makes important information invisible.
When toggles become your primary organizational tool:
Instead of hiding content behind toggles, ask:
Use toggles for genuinely optional, supplementary content, not as a crutch for poor page structure.
The claim: “Formulas are for power users. Normal people don’t need them.”
This myth keeps people from using one of Notion’s most practical features. Yes, formulas can get complex but most useful formulas are surprisingly simple.
Notion’s formula language isn’t a full programming language. It’s a set of straightforward functions (similar to Excel/Google Sheets) that let you:
You don’t need to write complex code. Most practical formulas are 1-3 lines long.
dateBetween(prop("Due Date"), now(), "days") shows how many days remainif(prop("Due Date") < now(), "🔴 Overdue", "✅ On track") instant visual statusprop("First Name") + " " + prop("Last Name") merge text fieldsround(prop("Completed") / prop("Total") * 100) auto-calculate completionif(prop("Priority") == 1, "🔥 Urgent", if(prop("Priority") == 2, "⚡ High", "📋 Normal")) human-readable priorities
Start with these, and you’ll quickly see how formulas can save you hours of manual updates.
The claim: “Cancel all your subscriptions. Notion does everything.”
Notion is incredibly versatile, but pretending it can replace every tool sets you up for frustration and a Frankenstein workspace.
Notion shines at:
Notion struggles with:
The smartest approach isn’t to force Notion to do everything, it’s to make Notion your central hub that connects to specialized tools:
Let each tool do what it’s best at, and let Notion be the connective tissue that brings it all together.
Now that we’ve debunked the myths, what should you follow?
Great Notion workspaces share these principles:
The ultimate best practice is this: observe your own workflows first, then build a system that supports them.
Your Notion workspace should feel like a tool that works for you, not a system you work around.
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