When it comes to crafting your ideal Notion workspace (from a template or from scratch), there’s a fine balance to be struck between ‘aesthetics’ and ‘functionality’. Go too far in either direction, and you risk losing out on the one thing that this tool is really designed to help you achieve: productivity superpowers.

And I do mean in either direction. Dogmatic power users might see ‘pretty pictures’ and elaborate decorations as an inefficient use of space; that is, the aesthetics don’t matter, what matters is how your workspace fits and works together.

For the aesthetically-inclined, it’s easy to go overboard and forget why you’re building this dashboard in the first place—do you really need another tree illustration, or would that visual real estate be better spent on a link to a commonly visited page?

Aesthetics Leads To Functionality

The truth is, these two categories are intricately connected. If you’re anything like me, you’ll be spending a whole lot of time with your Notion setup—it pays to have it look and feel nice.

It also pays to have it designed in a way that is visually clear—which is closer to a UX/UI problem than it an ‘aesthetics’ problem.

Some questions to ponder on ‘visual cleanliness’ in your Notion workspace (then we’ll get into our beautiful list of examples and inspiration):

• What attracts the eye in your workspace? (And is it important?)
• How clear is the visual hierarchy of your page? Is it clear which sections are ‘together’ and which are not?
• How easy is it to navigate your workspace? and
• As you add more info and data to your pages, does their visual cleanliness break or remain?

Just some questions for you to ponder as you browse through, but for now: let’s look at our list of aesthetic Notion templates.

*Heads up: Some of the aesthetic templates in this list are paid: If you're looking to add some free templates to your own Notion setup, check out our library of 70+ Unique Notion Templates and Dashboards; or if you're looking to add some aesthetic Notion Widgets to spice up your workspace, you can read about those here: 7 Aesthetic Notion Widgets For 2022 :) 

1. Landmark OS

Landmark OS is a clean and powerful setup that lets you store all your business systems in one single Notion workspace. One of the main issues with using Notion for business (whether those be full-time or side hustles) is the sheer number of pages and workspaces that need to be organized and linked together.

This template lets you store everything in one simple side navigation, using toggle lists to clear up space and keep the menu tidy and minimal. Everything in Landmark OS is sorted into a few simple categories:

• Key Activities (for daily and weekly planning, projects & goals);
• Marketing (to store all your distribution channels and content);
• Interactions (contacts, pipelines and user journey planning);
• Revenue model (fine tune your offerings, products and revenue streams);
• Performance (to keep track of how you're doing);
• Systems (for checklists and workflows); and
• Notes & research

If you're a freelancer, small business owner or starting a new project of your own--I'd highly recommend taking a look at Landmark OS to be your business' base hub.

2. Independent Study

Another stunning and elegant template comes from Reddit community user: notredherring. While this workspace is quite limited in scope, it’s an excellent example of a standalone page format that could be repeated across many use cases.

In this use case, it’s used for tracking ‘Obligations’, ‘Milestones’, and ‘Documents’, plus a simple board view to track tasks and readings. However, this aesthetic design could easily be repurposed for your own particular needs—with a little imagination, of course.

The author has generously made the template available for free duplication here:

3. ADHD Life Planner

Beyond the instantly intriguing title and concept, I love the use of space and consistent colors through this workspace. The large habit tracker in the centre immediately draws the eye (hence, a great place to put your most important repeat tasks and actions!), along with several neat uses of space with the ‘quote’ in the top right corner and an on-theme menu in the lefthand side.

Full points for creativity and concept on this one to the maker, you can get the template for yourself here.

4. Notion Daily Planner

Personally, I was always a 'handwritten' kind of journaler and daily planner. But the advantages of being able to search your entries by day, task and tags was simply too appealing... I had to eventually create this daily, weekly and hourly planner setup in Notion.

First of all: I wanted to keep it as minimal as possible. All we have are pages for 'Today', 'This Week' and 'Tasks'. You then have (in purple) a section for reviewing past days and weeks, and we have some neat toggle lists to quickly reference any active and recurring tasks in the workspace.

With just a few clicks, it lets me create a new Daily Entry, plan my day's tasks in a neat timeline view (hour by hour), and then automatically keeps track of how many tasks were completed for the day, and week.

I'm a big fan of Notion's timeline view, and I don't think it gets enough airtime and most other daily planners.

If you'd like to give it a try, you can find and download our daily planner template here.

5. Black Aesthetic Book Tracker

There are two activities that are guaranteed to positively change my state of mind (and that I, nonetheless, don’t do enough of): exercise and reading. And there are few better ways to increase your reading time than to hold yourself accountable—enter Notion book trackers.

This particular tracker is just brilliant. With a quirky, but consistent, black and white aesthetic, it makes full use of illustrations, progress bars, callout separators and even a clock widget to create a truly unique feel.

All of that wrapped up neatly with some clever features like ‘quotes’ and ‘lists’—this one is a true delight for readers everywhere.

You can get the template here.

6. Simple Notion Project Management Template

If you're using Notion for work, freelancing or passion projects, it doesn't have to be overwhelming. It should still feel like a personal, enjoyable space to get things done in--and I like this project management system for precisely that reason.

The template uses a focused side menu to host your 'Projects', 'Tasks', and 'Archive' pages, along with a few little Notion superpowers to make project planning simple. You can quickly generate new Project pages with the '+ New Project View' button, then drag tasks from the side toggle menu into a specific project timeline.

Often, Notion can get a bit messy when you add more and more projects or tasks over time. This template includes a simple Archive section to keep everything clean and tidy--no matter how much work you're getting done :)

You can get the template for free, here.

7. Den

Populated with well-placed anime illustrations and galleries, this template simply named ‘Den’ is a lovely example of how to make your personal Notion workspace your own.

The workspace itself is well-structured, linking the key databases and making use of various views to make the information as accessible as possible.

Check it out for yourself.

8. The Bulletproof Workspace

Few Notion template lists would be complete without a mention of Nutt Labs’ Notion mastermind, William Nutt. His Bulletproof Workspace (along with his consistent Notion content and tutorials) are one of the finest examples of how to get the most out of Notion as a productivity tool.

The Bulletproof Workspace is a special one on this list for the thoroughness of structure and design thinking that’s gone into its creation—ironically, the functionality of this workspace is in many ways what allows for it to be so aesthetically clean and elegant.

You can learn a whole lot more about the workspace, and follow Nutt Labs for some excellent Notion content, here.

9. Notion CRM

Whether it's managing personal relationships or work contacts, one of the fastest ways to build your very first app-like workspace in Notion is by creating a CRM. A CRM is just a marketing acronym of 'Customer Relationships Management'; but it really just refers to any system to help you keep track of your contacts, the people you know and those you're trying to get in touch with.

This Notion CRM setup lets you go a bit further than just store contacts in a database though. With it, you can create focused segments, lists and pipelines--letting you get very specific about your network.

There's also a section for Meetings; if you're using this for more personal catch-ups and coffees, you can use this calendar to schedule live events, video calls or hang-outs.

A very clean and minimal setup that packs a punch with many of Notion's advanced features--if you're managing your contacts and network in Notion, give this one a try :) 

10. Momentum

This smart habit tracker from Yudax is a real delight. It lives on the border of ‘self-standing app’ and ‘Notion template’—which is a fine place to be, indeed.

The main goodie of this template is the integrated live charts that are generated as you fill out a native Notion table. The charts themselves are very pleasant to look at—and allow for customizable colors—and the layout of the template is simple, to-the-point and lets the power of the charts speak for themselves.

If you’re looking for a focused habit tracker for 2022, you may need to go no further than this.

11. Clarity OS 2.0

Clarity OS is an all-in-one integrated Notion workspace with over 25 linked databases, 100+ pages, dashboards and tools. As far as aesthetic business Notion templates go, this one strives for simplicity, while hosting a rich amount of sections and information.

The goal for Clarity OS is to give a comprehensive overview of any indie, agency or freelance business, without being overwhelming (or getting lost in a hundred subpages). One tactic used to try and achieve this is a lefthand ‘menu’, which appears on every page of the 100+ page system.

The menu is broken into 5 main ‘categories’, with links to main dashboard pages within each—you can recreate such menus for yourself by creating a ‘callout’, setting the color to default, then dragging your page links directly in the callout box. The menu gives Clarity OS a 'web app' feel, speeds up navigation and generally helps you feel like you're always a click away from whatever you need.

The setup also makes full use of 'dashboards', over and above static pages. For example, in the Content Dashboard, you get an overview of current Campaigns, pieces you are currently creating, and a list of objectives that are relevant to your content goals. From there, you can easily click into specific pages to complete writing or planning your content accordingly.

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12. Notion Drafts

Author: Red Gregory

Red is hands down one of the most talented, generous Notion creators out there. Whether it's a list of 200+ free Notion templates and resources, or a growing library of Notion Tutorials on YouTube; you'll be hard-pressed to find someone who is consistently contributing more Notion gold to the community than Red.

Notion Drafts is a recent creation that aims to make the process of writing, easier. From storing ideas to adding tags and sources; Notion Drafts helps you hone in on what matters most--actually making content! A very slick, minimal and straightforward design that removes any clutter means this workspace gives you no excuses but to simply get down to work.

Learn more about the template, here.

13. Notion Budget & Finances Hub

Staying on top of your money has typically been a job for spreadsheets and physical notebooks. Spreadsheets are, however much you try to spruce them up and make them pretty, rather dull and boring creations. Enter: Notion.

This Budgeting & Finances Hub makes full use of colored boards and grouped tables to help you quickly (and visually) breakdown common spending and earning groups. You can see your expenses grouped by category, break them down by status, and even view upcoming items in a calendar view.

While it's packed with formulas and filtered dashboards, this system feels lean and simple with just 5 main pages to navigate, and a simple way to archive past items.

If you're planning your finances and budget in Notion, you'll want to give this one a closer look.

14. Health Hub OS

Author: Pascio

A comprehensive hub to help you keep track of your most valuable asset: your health. Brought to you by popular Notion creator (you may have seen him on Twitter!), Pascio, this Health Hub is a very clean and simple to navigate example of how to leverage Notion as a tool for improving day-to-day data management.

Creative in its idea and implementation, this is one of our community favorites--nice work Pascio!

Check out the Health Hub OS with the link, here.

55+ Free Aesthetic Notion Templates To Browse

If you've made it this far and your Notion Template curiosity still hasn't been satiated, here are 55+ more Notion templates you might enjoy.