Notion Users Overwhelmed Building Complex Systems
Users, particularly those attempting to build complex systems or integrate Notion with other tools, find the platform overwhelming and difficult to master. This complexity hinders productivity and limits its applicability for operational roles or less tech-savvy users. The platform's flexibility, while a strength, also contributes to a steep learning curve and ongoing frustration.
SOURCES (60)
“Thank you! Now I see that what people were showing must've been blank pages. OK, I'm on a roll now. :)”
“The messy stage and the filing stage are genuinely different modes. When moving the result into Notion, I would preserve source links and the relationships between cards rather than only the final text. Otherwise the clean page loses the reasoning that made the canvas useful.”
“Yes, free workspaces are limited to 1 native chart per account, so if your template relies heavily on multiple native charts, free users will have to upgrade or use third-party embeds like Notion2Charts”
“How much of the directional relationships are preserved when you bring it into Notion? Does it make an attempt at some kind of hierarchy or is just just a content dump onto a page? Would love to see this looks like on a Notion page.”
“I have very very basic templates that I use. I don’t try and make them an all in one template. It is just 1 template for books, games, etc. each with their own separate everything and just 1 button to click within the page. If I wanted too, I could make a link to each page on a “homepage” so it is easier to see all templates but I don’t need a purpose for that at the moment. I can share the templates I use if anyone needs (again like barebones templates for 1 purpose)”
“As an expert on neither isn't this like comparing Microsoft Office to Notion? There's some overlap but you're not exactly comparing apples to apples.”
“Start by creating a new blank page. Click the star in the upper right to add it to your favorites so you can find it again. Then start adding the things that you want to it. Over time, you'll learn better ways to manage those things. Instead of individual pages, you'll create a database and so on.”
“I used several AI to look for a solution... But enex2notion is still a top one even though it is not working anymore due to the API change. So there is very few options now: Modified the notebooks' organisation and reduced notes in each notebook, then used the built-in import function plus multi-check Export the enex, then convert to markdown, and import to Notion”
“Notions biggest pro is also it's biggest con. It's super flexible to the point it is too much choice and complexity adds up quick. I think it's best to start off with what you actually need Notion to do. You mentioned a kind of view you want to see, but what are you actually using it for? Task management? Project management? A wiki? Once you nail that down, work backwards from there. You can also just check out templates that match closer to what you need and tweak them as well.”
“You're gonna have to just keep using it man. Trust me, nothing beats Notion. It can do so many things.”
“I take a lot of notes from tutorials, courses, talks, and podcasts, and I am curious how people handle this in Notion. How do your video notes get into Notion in the first place: typed directly while watching, pasted in after, a clipper? And once they are in, how are they structured: one database for everything or separate per type, which properties, and how do the notes look inside a page? Do you keep timestamps so you can get back to the moment in the video, or does that stop mattering once th”
“I started using notion 5 years ago. I use a series automations to do my work for me (I know AI is out there but I created all of this before that became popular and I’m not willing to change it all when it already works 90% perfectly). 1. My calendar syncs to notion using Nsync. I got into that way back when so I am grandfathered. So much easier to use that than to try to recreate it in Zapier. 2. Speaking of Zapier, I setup a customized system to send my emails to Notion. Using Notion built in”
“I try to save things I actually care about. I'm a software engineer so I frequently use Claude Code + the Notion CLI ntn. I love seeing it visualized in a database. I'll use a Claude Code skill like impeccable.style and have it output reports about my website's design to Notion database, ranking issues by priority. I see myself checking back routinely because there is content that is actually helpful! If it's something like a to do list that I just remember, I never have a need t”
“the database/relation stuff is probably where it pulls ahead of a notebook, but for basic notes yeah theres not a huge difference”
“Would you mind sharing a screenshot (or even just further describing your setup) for the dynamic backlinks mentioned in points 1 and 2! I’ve been trying to envision/create a version of this myself and this sounds like exactly what I’m looking for!”
“It's not all that useful, unless you've got a lot to organise in a database type way which is honestly better done in dedicated datebases like Obsidian for example. I always feel like Notion is more for productivity guru's who feel productive by trying new templates and reorganising and adding to their current templates while actually not getting anything done.”
“After months of losing track of clients and invoices, I built a simple Notion workspace that keeps everything in one place. It has 4 databases: Client Tracker — all clients, status, and total paid Finance Tracker — income and expenses by category Project Manager — table and board views with progress tracking How to Use guide — set up in under 10 minutes submitted by /u/julianvance005 [link] [comments]”
“I made it as simple as possible and I'm using ChatGPT to manage it so ChatGPT does the entry, the organizing, the arrangements, and I only just open it to view whatever I need. That's it 😆”
“Sometimes we change and grow (so does the app) so the system has to be adapted to that. Like before I had time to do elaborate journal entries but once I stopped going to school and went into training, it just became impossible to do that so I changed that part of the system.”
“Because this person has a lot of experience with working with the type of businesses that we provide marketing services to. I thought learning Notion would take them a few hours for basic operations, and another few days for advanced automations. Our projects rely heavily on accessing and updating documentation. That's why notion was chosen before since it's easy to manage content there.”
“I've mostly worked as a solopreneur up until now so it was mostly only me using the notion set-up. The PM thinks that our project template needs to change a lot, and that having to click around on Notion causes friction. For reference, we have 1-month long website revamp projects that have 22 milestones and 550 tasks.”
“How does the rest of the team feel? Makes no sense to switch if the brand new person is the only one unhappy. Notion is better for certain types of projects. It allows you to keep everything in one place. It's a much smarter way of working imo. Notion will scale much better as well. If your biggest problem is not knowing what to each day, why not have one note that's just a rundown of what needs to happen when? Seems like you already have this info, just need to create a view for it. Que”
“was doing a cleanup of my workspace. selected what I thought was a duplicate database, hit delete. went to grab coffee. came back and realized i would deleted my actual client CRM.. three yrs of projects, every relation, every rollup. first instinct: version history. nope.. doesn't restore deleted database rows, only edits to pages that still exist. second instinct: my Notion export from a few weeks back. opened it. flat CSV files. every relationship between clients and projects just... gone”
“Started using Notion pretty seriously about a year ago and the first few months were great. Everything felt organized, I was actually using it daily, the whole thing. Then at some point I just stopped maintaining it and now I have pages inside pages inside pages that I haven't touched in months and honestly have no idea what half of them are for anymore. What gets me is I still think Notion is the right tool, I just clearly don't have a system that holds up over time. I've tried doin”
“Great question! My favorite underrated Notion use case: A linked database system for job searching. You create: → Companies database (name, status, link, notes) → Applications database (linked to companies + interview dates) → Contacts database (linked to companies) Then one master dashboard shows everything in one view — active applications, upcoming interviews, follow-up reminders. Way more powerful than a spreadsheet because everything is connected. What's your favorite use case?”
“Have you ever tried to download and use free systems from the Notion marketplace? Tons of good well templates do extremely incredible management”
“In the beginning I thought, it would be really helpful if clients are able to work with me on an notion page. So they are able to check tasks, right feedback, ... Nowadays I totally agree with you, just reading everything and being able to find the last update is in 99% enough.”
“The solution for lazy ass like me. Pay for Notion AI, now I use it as knowledge base, my work CRM and everything in my sales job because updating and constructing is so easy with Notion ai. Or a personal basis i use Claude and yes Claude notion has been very useful as I use notion for knowledge and database storing for personal stuffs and some of my projects in Claude. Of course if my work don’t require a CRM and I don’t need notion, there is other alternatives but since I’m already on it and ne”
“I have been using my set up for a couple of years now. I built mine at the ground up and if I find that I am faltering, I just find where my process breaks down then tweak it again. My main tracker, I’ve been using consistent for a year now (mostly tweaking it every now and then). I multiple views on it as my mood changes on how I want to use it. I have a daily view, calendar view. One that shows just daily stuff, weekly stuff, future stuff, etc. My journal, gets overhaul every so often and rece”
“switched from onenote to notion when i started juggling multiple programs - linked databases beat separate notebooks for scheduling. clickup's calendar view is solid too if you want gantt-ish stuff built in. honestly the tool matters less than having one source of truth.”
“If you need scheduling tool, you should definitely have a look into tools like https://www.resourceplanner.io/ or https://www.runn.io .”
“In my opinion, you’re spot on. Notion is overhyped and under delivers. I’ve been painfully trying to use it for almost a year now, and I am hitting my limit. Every week I submit 1-2 new bugs I find in the system. Notion is literally charging users to act as their QA team. Their response and resolution times are nonexistent. I’ve had an issue opened for 8-months that’s still unresolved. Customer support aside, the platform is not up to par with other AI products. Notion AI repeatedly hallucinates”
“This is so true. I built 8 different Notion templates and the ones that sell best are the ones that solve specific problems - like freelancer invoicing or student scheduling. Generic 'aesthetic' templates don't convert. People want solutions, not pretty dashboards. Also, bundling related features together (CRM + invoicing + time tracking) makes the value proposition much clearer.”
“Nice work! I have been building Notion templates for a while too. The key is making them practical - I focused on solving specific problems like freelancer invoicing and student scheduling. If you want inspiration, check out some of the more complex templates on Gumroad - they show how far you can push Notion database features. Keep building!”
“You've got a really interesting setup there. I've found that using Notion for a centralized knowledge base works wonders, especially for keeping track of client documents and notes. It might be worth exploring Notion databases with linked views to better organize your files. That way, you can pull up specific documents faster without getting lost in folders. Good luck with your projects!”
“Organizing interconnected data is my primary use case of Notion. It’s great that I can type notes onto the pages, but it’s how I can organize those notes that’s the primary reason I use it. When people come on to this subreddit promoting alternative programs that don’t offer the same capabilities — yes, those programs are great at doing what they’re designed to do — but without relational databases it’s not really a viable alternative for Notion power users.”
“You know, these days, that’s exactly the issue: it’s up to us to organize the workspace. I don’t want to anymore. Let AI minions organize it.”
“I have had a very similar experience with Notion however I don't like how they're focusing on business. I feel like they are shutting us "normal" users out...”
“We run projects/tasks in Notion. Options I’ve tried/heard: Guests on a portal page Public Notion pages Business row permissions A tool on top of Notion (Softr / portalize products) What’s actually working for agencies with 10+ clients? Especially curious about privacy (clients seeing each other) and whether clients need Notion accounts. submitted by /u/Over-Professional501 [link] [comments]”
“I've been freelancing for a while and my client management was a mess — emails everywhere, invoices in random spreadsheets, deadlines I nearly missed. Spent some time building a Notion setup that keeps everything in one place: clients, projects, invoices, revenue tracking and a weekly planner. It's not fancy but it actually works. Curious how others handle this — do you use Notion for client work or something else entirely? Always looking to improve the system. submitted by /”
“I've been using Notion for about a year and a half. At first, I thought it was really convenient, but recently I've started to feel that Google Workspace is easier to use. For those of you who are big Notion users, what do you think makes it stand out? submitted by /u/ArbitraryThoughts000 [link] [comments]”
“You could try contextium.io - it’s pretty good I we use it in our team we use the $10 a month it’s more than enough for what we need 👍”
“quick reality check: Notion's own export can't restore relational databases. relations, rollups, views.. all of it breaks the moment you try to put it back. and once something's been in trash for 30 days, it's GONE permanently , no matter what tool you use after that. restora.cc is a backup-and-restore tool built specifically to fix that gap. here's what's actually in it: it does full relational restore.. relations reconnect, rollups recompute, views rebuild, not just tex”
“I think what I found annoying is the misconception that people have about what Notion is as it was in Notion 1.0 vs Notion now. And it’s because no.1, it’s just so flexible, and there’s so many use cases but people just focus on their old ways or what they used to do with other apps and that’s what causes the friction. And that’s because Notion evolved from a what used to be a note taking tool, to a collaborative productivity tool, to then AI connected workspace and beyond. Secondly, Notion expo”
“The image handling in Notion is definitely its weakest point. I stopped trying to use it for visual content and just keep it for text-based databases. Works much better that way”
“Totally agree. A template is just a starting point — the real work is building the habit of actually using it. I found that simpler templates stick better. The more complex, the more likely you abandon it after week one”
“Its just focussed on AI and upselling. Not the great tool we used to love for years. I would prefer they gibe out the Version we all need instead of forcing us into AI things…”
“I love Notion's modular block layout, but I think a lot of us have hit the exact same wall as power users: Eventually, the system becomes harder to maintain than the actual work. Your databases start lagging as they grow, you're locked into a single cloud ecosystem, and there's always that background data anxiety about what happens to years of work if a sync glitch or database index error occurs on their remote servers. I got so tired of these architectural bottlenecks that I spent t”
“The export function is still a bit meh, but I've been happy with some recent changes (still need to test out the most recent update). And selecting entire columns to do changes is a bit tricky (but maybe that's where the automations come in). Also grouping by Rollup is not an option.”
“The key is use databases as much as possible, but use less of them by making the most of tags and group views , view tabs.”
“I have used notion in the past when it was just a second brain tool. Recently my girlfriend gifted me a one year subscription of notion’s Business Plan. I am a freelancer and I also have a corporate job. Can you suggest me some features that you think I should try out that are not talked about a lot but super useful? submitted by /u/pratik_srivastava [link] [comments]”
“When I share a workspace or page in notion with somoneone else it only appears in their list of workspaces that includes my own, not their own workspace how. How can I make it so what I share shows in their own workspace and we can collaborate live in, like Google Docs? submitted by /u/thunderwolfgo [link] [comments]”