I talked about my gorgina Notion dashboard some time ago, telling you that Notion had a huge impact on reducing my mental load as a neurodivergent solopreneur. I couldn’t get into the actual build itself because I wanted to give it it’s own post 🥳
For those who missed it, this is my personal Notion workspace that I LIVE in as a Notion solopreneur. Every gatdamn thing is in here chile but I wanted to highlight the little things that make this space even easier to navigate and work in as a neurospicy baddie.
These are Notion hacks for the gorls, gays and theys chile. Super easy but almost genius 🤯
This is a bit of a long post today yall. You might have to open it in your browser! Strap in and get your notebooks out to take some notes. I’ve even got pictures and videos in here for you!
Back buttons in database templates
I live in databases so every item, like this newsletter edition for example, lives in a database. Now, it’s hard to move out of database items — well not hard, it just takes too many clicks and we ain’t got time for all that.
Like look at this breadcrumb for this page for example:
To get back to my content planner, I’d have to click the 3 dots, then content planner to be back out into my content planner page and on to whatever I was doing. Those two clicks are usually annoying enough for me that I actually get distracted and forget where I was going. My solution?
Create a callout block with a hyperlink to a divider in the page I wanna go back to.
Yea it sounds a bit weird but lemme explain.
This is my content planner database. This database lives on a page with other databases as my content planner page. I have a bunch of views and templates in this database depending on what I’m writing for.
In each of these templates, I created a synced block with a callout box inside.
The ‘back’ text is hyperlinked to a divider I have within the main content planner page.
This way, I only have to do one click to get out of my database.
I do this in my content planner, my meeting notes, my clients databases — just make sure to add the divider on top of the database you’re exiting so that you end up right where you want to!
The good thing about making it a synced block is you can edit what the block is hyperlinked to across all pages without manually editing each instance.
How to do this yourself (because you totally can)
Type /callout to get a callout box
Type ‘back’ into your callout box (or ‘home’, or whatever you want this button to say)
Click the hamburger menu on your divider block and click “copy link to block”
Highlight your text in your callout box and hit CTRL (CMD) + V (yes you can hyperlink by copying and pasting a link onto text in Notion!)
Click the hamburger menu on your callout box
Hover over “turn into” and scroll down to and click synced block
Congrats! You made a synced block back button 🥳
Now I know you can probably do this with a button block but I personally LOVE that the callout block extends across the entire page. It’s almost like a divider or bookend that way. Button blocks don’t take up as much real estate which is good for what they’re supposed to be used for but my aesthetics demand MOAR.
Hyperlinks also allow you to end up on a specific part of a page — a button opens a page and puts you at the top. If your pages have a lot of content in them, a hyperlinked back button can help you skip scrolling!
Shortcut buttons
As someone with ADHD, I’m easily distractable sometimes. I can be hyper-focused on writing something and have a good idea mid-writing but leaving this page risks losing my 🍃flow🍃 and not writing down this bomb idea risks it evaporating, never to be caught again~
Here are my shortcut buttons. Since these buttons launched I’ve been OBSESSED with them. I love seeing them on others’ templates but the only personal use case I could think of is having them as shortcuts so my brain can get this idea out without getting distracted.
This synced block with buttons is in all of my top level pages and has buttons for adding a new content idea, a new task, a new entry into my Human Design stats collector (because I love analyzing the designs of the folks in my circles), a new client and a new connection.
The block is at each top level page for ~ease of navigation~ because lord knows I can’t lose time over some extra clicks.
How to do this yourself (because you totally can)
Type /toggle or > to get your toggle block
Type the name of your toggle
Open your toggle and click ‘Empty toggle’
Type /columns and click how many columns you want - 2 for 2 buttons, 3 for 3 buttons and so on
Click in one of the columns then type /button to get a button block
Adjust the icon, name and settings of your button block
My buttons add then open new pages in databases. You can do the same, ask your buttons to open another page, or simply add blocks below or above it.
Repeat steps 5 an 6 to get all the buttons you need
Rearrange them in their columns how you’d like
Click the hamburger menu of the toggle block
Hover over “turn into” and scroll down to and click synced block
Congrats! You made a synced shortcut navigation 🥳
Copy and paste this into any space you need it in
One thing to note with synced blocks is that you risk deleting or unsyncing all instances of your synced blocks if you try to delete one instance. So you have to unsync the instance you’re trying to delete first, then delete it:
Click the hamburger menu on your synced block
Click unsync
Delete!
This one’s getting a bit long besties and there’s MORE I have to say about my workspace so I’ll make a part 2!
Be sure to check out this dashboard (5 more sale copies are left) and play around with ways to improve your navigation around your Notion space.
I’d love to hear if you tried it out, and if you need any help with anything, so leave a comment!
In case you missed it🚨
Templates are a great way to start using Notion but sometimes they’re a pain in the ass to customize to your unique needs. This can make you feel like you and/or Notion SUCKS and you’ll never get organized.
If you’re struggling to figure out your templates, I’m having a workshop next week, on Monday 9th October at 6pm EST!
Come learn how to manage your expectations when it comes to Notion templates, choose a template that’s within your knowledge level, and get clear on your needs and wants so that you can bend any Notion template to your will 😈
You’ll also learn handy tips and tricks like the ones I shared here today!