To give an idea of how I approach the problem, I see my Notion homepage as having two main jobs:
1) Nudge my attention toward the most important, urgent or valuable things (whether that's in my business, studies or personal life); and
2) Act as a portal that links me to all the useful workspaces I may need to access, quickly.
If it does those two things well, I'm satisfied. Which is nice; it gives us a clear framework to focus on while considering a few common Notion homepage ideas, what makes some better than others, and how to decide which is best for your particular setup.
In an age where so much of our attention is spent in digital space, distractions abound. I want my Notion homepage to be a silo of focus--not another source of clutter or distraction.
One of the ways to achieve this is by purposefully prioritizing certain things above others on your homepage. For example:
The bold parts of each bullet point are qualifiers that make something fit (in my mind) for the homepage.
I don't want to list all the projects I've ever done or thought about doing on the homepage. Nor do I want to be reminded about low-priority tasks, outdated mission statements and tools I think I may want to explore, but am not yet using.
I want a focused view of the things I've already filtered to be important; and that's precisely the thinking behind this first idea for how to organize your Notion homepage.
Filtered views of key databases.
If you're comfortable with Notion's linked databases feature and filtering views, this is a powerful way to organize your Notion homepage.
Basically--all the useful things you need for your homepage are, presumably, scattered somewhere across your various pages. But they do live in your account, which means you can pull whatever you need into your homepage with a '/linked database' command from the keyboard.
Which databases might you want to link to your home dashboard?
For those of you who feel a little uneasy hearing the term 'database' thrown around so often, remember: any table, kanban board, calendar, timeline or gallery you create in Notion is already a database.
That list of books you want to read that you have listed in a Notion table is a database (*as long as it's not a simple table).
That gallery of images you've been collecting for an upcoming trip? It's a database.
And with a '/linked database', you can recreate that same collection of information on your homepage.
Only, since there's limited room on your Notion homepage, you'll probably want to make use of Filters. This could be filtering your reading list to only show books that have the Status property 'reading'. Or tasks that have the Priority property 'High Priority'.
Combining linked databases with filtered views of those databases is one of the best ways to summarize the most important things happening in your Notion account, in one accessible homepage; which is why I've rambled on for so long about it!
To see an example of this, take a look at this preview of our most powerful system, Landmark OS.
Menus of page links.
Another common Notion homepage trend is to use it as a page to list links to the most important pages of your account. This can be done with toggle lists (that take up less space), or simply by creating some sub-headings for various Areas of your account, then listing relevant pages below.
This approach satisfies our second criteria for 'what makes a good Notion homepage'--namely, it acts as a portal to useful places in your account--and you can adjust those lists to highlight the most important elements of your workspace as needed.
However, for me, this approach doesn't quite do enough to direct my attention in the right places. If I already know where I need to go--this homepage will help get me there, fast. But it won't necessarily help me figure out where to go, which in my view is why idea #5 is my personal winner...
Aesthetically pleasing vibes.
There's another approach one can take with their Notion homepage; aim to delight.
If you want your Notion homepage to make you smile when you open up your account in the morning, then consider adding some images or GIFs, adjusting the background color or font, and generally making it feel like an inviting space; rather than just another doc to list your stuff.
Team Hub.
If you're using Notion with a team, then you might want to consider making your Notion homepage a 'team hub'. This would be a page that lists all the important information for your team in one place.
This could include:
- Team calendar
- Upcoming deadlines
- Company news and announcements
- Employee contact list
- Employee birthdays
- Helpful resources and links
Side menu + dashboards.
This is my personal favorite, and it's how I've setup my own Notion business workspace (which is also recreated Landmark OS).
In effect, it's a combination of ideas #1 and #2. Leverage filtered linked database views of the most important things going on, currently, along with a navigational menu that helps me get around my workspace quickly.
I've also introduced something of a 'persistent menu' in all my workspaces, which lets me stay oriented as I move from workspace to workspace; that is a synced block side-menu.
My Notion homepage, then, lets me get a quick sense of where I should be going, and it helps me get there quickly, without distractions.
I'm sure there are plenty of other creative ways of achieving those two main criteria, and this side-menu plus linked databases dashboard approach is simply something that I've found works well for me.
I'm curious though; what do you think?
How do you setup your Notion homepage, and what ideas or philosophy are you implementing to make it possible?
You can always reach me at gerrard@landmarklabs.co if you have an idea to add to this list.
And if you'd like to learn more about the setup I use to run Landmark Labs (the site you're on right now!), then you can also check out Landmark OS to learn more.
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