Best practices for an organized workspace

Organized Notion workspaces don’t happen by accident: they rely on deliberate structure—especially how team spaces, top-level pages, and a small set of shared databases are arranged—so people can find what they need quickly without the sidebar turning into clutter.

At scale, teams should treat the sidebar like shared office space. If physical offices can’t stay littered with trash, Notion workspaces shouldn’t drift into chaos either. The core approach starts with team spaces. Companies can create team spaces for major functions—such as Marketing, Product, Sales and Success, Legal, Finance, and Security—plus a general team space that every workspace must include. Within each team space, sub-teams get their own home pages that appear as top-level sidebar pages. Those top-level pages matter because they make browsing intuitive; unlike a traditional folder-and-file setup, Notion also allows text to sit alongside pages, helping teams understand where to go.

A second pillar is standardizing the “few things everyone uses.” Teams should align on three to five key databases—examples include meeting notes, docs, and tasks—because most day-to-day work flows through them. Keeping those databases stocked with rich properties (like tags and other metadata) helps information stay searchable and consistent. Equally important: the general team space should hold company-wide resources that any new hire would need regardless of role. That includes mission, vision, and values; benefits information; a new hire manual or office information.

The transcript contrasts two workspace designs to show what goes wrong and what improves outcomes. One example suffers from too many top-level pages with no hierarchy or rationale. That’s flagged as a common large-team mistake. Several fixes are offered: on Enterprise plans, workspace teamspace owners can prevent members from editing top-level sections of the sidebar; teams can create a dedicated “lost pages” or “tidy pages” top-level page for items that need a home; and teams should train members on nested pages so people don’t accidentally create visible top-level clutter. The messy example also highlights usability friction—such as inconsistent iconography, pages that serve competing purposes (like docs versus engineering docs), and overuse of shared pages paired with poor database usage.

The more polished example uses team spaces by functional area, with the general team space clearly laying out the company’s five key databases and how to use each one. Headings in team spaces guide readers to the right place, and each sub-team’s homepage is customized to match its needs. The result is a workspace that feels welcoming to new hires and reduces friction for everyone else.

In the end, the best practices boil down to four moves: be intentional with team spaces, give each sub-team its own home page, keep company-wide information in the general team space, and add community-friendly visual cues—custom icons, cover images, and other flair—to make the workspace easier and more pleasant to navigate.