The missing ingredient in your digital infrastructure

Here's the thing nobody wants to admit: your workspace needs to be pretty

What you might be missing

Here’s what I think you might be missing when it comes to trying to build a strong digital infrastructure but instead you to lose interest, get frustrated that you’re not making things easier (which was your intention) and go back to whatever method you used before which worked ok but didn’t exactly knock it out of the park either.

So what’s the big secret? Your command centre just isn’t pretty enough.

I know it sounds silly but bear with me because I think my argument is pretty solid.

I used to believe that function was more important than form. That my Notion dashboard didn’t need to look nice, it needed to work really well for its purpose.

The design questions I didn't expect

But when I ignored my itch to develop the visuals at the same time I was building for function - in essence I was forcing myself to work against my instincts - it actually made it harder and way less fun.

And yes, it's possible that it takes me longer to do it this way but the end result is a dashboard that I will actually use instead of abandon and I got there by combining form and function while I was building it.

This came up from several folks in the workshop series I'm currently running. I was demonstrating how I had set up my own Digital Gardening dashboard, talking through how I use it and I kept getting questions about the formatting, not about how it worked. Here are just a few of those questions:

• How do you make those columns?
• Are those databases inside callout boxes?
• How did you get it to look like a magazine?

One person literally buried her head in her hands - that universal gesture of overwhelm we've all felt - and said:

"I need to be able to imagine what it looks like and I don't know how!"

And right there, I realized this wasn't just about design preferences. This was about being able to see yourself in your own system.

Here's what I've learned about handling this.

What my clients taught me

Not only did I not anticipate these questions (or build in enough time for them - yikes), I realised that duh - if my desire was to follow my instincts and toggle back and forth between visual design and tactical structure then why would I assume that's something unique to me? What if others are wired this way?

And when I look back over the last year or so, working on small projects with creative clients (designing with them and guiding them through a build), they all had the same instinct.

These were people with established creative practices - they trusted their impulse to play and experiment. As we worked together, screen sharing and watching each other noodle around, my clients would constantly pause on the practical stuff so they could add a callout box, decide on a colour, play around with the fonts (yes, there are still only 3), create columns, highlight headings and on and on.

What if I told you the build part is actually the point?

So if you've been trying to set up headquarters in Notion but you just keep getting frustrated, I invite you to reframe the goal in terms of its path, not its destination.

When we pay attention to the process itself, our goal becomes a moving vision we can hold lightly instead of an expectation we might never meet.

So let's check in with where you are right now. I'd like to offer you an opportunity to picture your Notion practice and ask yourself how it feels. On a spectrum of flow to frustration, where do you sit? If you're all the way in flow then I tip my hat to you.

But if you're definitely feeling the burn then I want to encourage some playfulness and joy when you're organising, pottering around, gardening or futzing with your digital architecture. Give yourself permission to add emojis, colour code your icons (or make your own in Canva), slide your columns around, use quote blocks and callout boxes and all the heading sizes so you can envision a dashboard that you look forward to working in.

Three obstacles that keep your dashboard stuck in function-only mode

Is this you - your dashboard is stick in function-only mode? Do you have this nonsensical reason that tells you your Notion workspace doesn’t need to be pretty?

What might be stopping you from letting your Notion vibe?

• It's possible you don't consider yourself a creative person and you haven't unlocked your eye for design yet
• You may feel underskilled when it comes to making your Notion dashboard cute
• Perhaps the conditioning runs deep and it's hard to let yourself play

Let's look at how to move past each of these.

Here's how to get unstuck, based on where you're actually at

If you don't believe you're creative

I can relate to this as I'm newly embracing creativity for myself. If this is a moment that calls for gentleness then try something very small and manageable. A couple of columns and some headers to bring some form and function to your note-taking is a great place to start.

If you're in the awkward middle phase

You're in that awkward transition period where you've been using it long enough to get over the intimidation and start to really enjoy the tool. But you're not yet a superuser simply because you haven't been at it long enough yet. For this scenario, I recommend downloading some free templates for inspiration. There are a couple of ways you can go here.

• The first is to take the template and make tweaks and changes until you like it. This gives you valuable hands-on experience without having to come up with the design yourself.
• The second is to take the template and recreate it. Not only will this level up your skills with Notion's plethora of functions (and quickly if you do it enough) it also hones your design skills.

If the Conditioning Runs Deep

There's nothing wrong with you I promise. If you've had the play zapped right out of you then we can take a different approach and trick your brain by changing your environment. And yes, I know this might sound indulgent or avoidant, but I promise it's not - it's creating the conditions for the work to actually feel possible. Sometimes our brains need different stimuli to unlock that playful energy. Do you need music? A cute coffee shop with cute queers? Do you need a beautiful view? Give yourself permission to find the space that lets you breathe and experiment. Sometimes a change of scenery can loosen things up.

The part where I get to show you it works

The live workshop I'm running has a couple of co-working labs in the middle of the 4-week series so participants can dedicate some time to work on their Digital Gardens. We open and close with any questions but spend the bulk of the time working quietly together - just creating space for people to experiment without me hovering.

At the top of the hour, I brought the group back from their focus and asked if anyone had something to share. There was a pause - that quiet where people are deciding whether to be vulnerable - and then a message appeared in the chat. Remember that participant with her head in her hands? She wrote:

"Mine is starting to look really pretty!!! Hehe"

That 'Hehe' at the end - that's the sound of someone rediscovering play.

She was excited and engaged and using these techniques, she had shifted her approach to creating. The building part had become the point.

The dashboards that actually get used are the ones that feel like yours - not just functionally, but visually too.