#notion layout

Personally, when I first started using Notion a couple of years ago, I would try and make these “aesthetic” dashboards with overly complex databases. But over time I would create more and more complex databases that would cause insane lagging which made it almost impossible to use.

I eventually moved over to obsidian to try the markdown approach but I started to miss the database function of Notion and the structured freedom it provided. So I ended up coming back to Notion and adopted the master database concept and it has changed my life, seriously. I created a tagging system and started taking advantage of creating filtered views. It gives me relief that I don’t have random databases just floating around.

So to give a visual, my template has one master database (current tasks table in the bottom picture) and I created several liked databases with different database views. I tried to make it as simple as possible so it can be easily updated from day to day.

Current tasks section at the top: (Board View) This shows the tasks grouped by priority. This is more of an overview section. This is a linked database.

Key: (Table view) the priority labels I use with a description of each and the tags to be used for easy reference. This is also a linked database.

Note: the labels are recorded in the current tasks master database but I filtered the table to only show these items

Schedule tasks: (Calendar View) this is what I will use to add appointments and important meetings. It’s also a linked database.

Note: I have a filter on this table so that each new item created will automatically be added to the master

Add tasks section at the bottom: (Table view - Master database) this is where I will enter other tasks that do not need to be scheduled such as actions, things to delegate and tasks that are not important and should be avoided.

hello! i would be HAPPY to make a template - it might take a while to make a full tutorial though, so i'll just give you a quick how-to in the meantime below.

my formula for this is really simple - it just takes stuff existing in my database already, which is the number of completed milestones divided by the number of total milestones to give me a percentage of milestones that are completed:

you can copy paste this and replace it with whatever the name of your properties are:

prop("Completed Milestones") / prop("Total Milestones") * 100

then you click edit property, which will show you the below window. you use the formula feature to generate a number, which can then be displayed as either a linear or circular progress bar.