From Messy Sidebar to The Sideboard

2.5 months, 500 downloads, and the story of how I created my first packaged Notion template

Alright, I feel like I only write when there’s something to celebrate. Maybe that’s not a bad thing. But I’m also trying (yes, still trying) to make a habit of jotting down the thought process and story behind each tool I create, so I’m sharing that here.

So here we are: 2.5 months into this Notion Creator journey, with over 500 downloads across all my templates. I’m not sure if that counts as a success, but honestly, I’m impressed. Most of those downloads came from my free templates, but seeing this many people enjoy my tools is incredibly rewarding. It’s the fuel that keeps me building.

As I mentioned in my first post, I wanted to share more about my template The Sideboard.

This is my first packaged template, the moment where I pulled together all the scattered pages and databases I had been using to manage my side gigs and turned them into one cohesive system.

When I first started using Notion, my sidebar was a mess. Pages everywhere. No structure. And I hated that clutter. I’ve always liked a clean, simple sidebar. So I started nesting pages, creating links, adding action buttons, basically piecing together a system that kept everything simple and tidy but still powerful.

How I Learned Notion

And maybe it’s worth talking about how I learned to use Notion in the first place. I’m not the “watch a YouTube tutorial” type. I learn by doing — hands-on, building my own setups, running into bumps and hoops along the way. It’s not the fastest way to learn, but it helps me understand how things work and, more importantly, why. It also means I can troubleshoot more easily when I run into issues later.

When I truly can’t figure something out, that’s when I turn to Google, Reddit, and now ChatGPT for help. If anyone’s interested, I could share more about my learning habits in a future post.

I don’t plan to write detailed how-to instructions here since there are already plenty of great resources out there. But if you’re curious about a specific part of my process, feel free to drop me a comment.

That hands-on approach is what shaped The Sideboard: a dashboard for side hustles that combines projects, tasks, goals, and finances into one workspace. It’s the setup I wish I had from the beginning.

If you’d like to try it yourself, you can find The Sideboard template on Gumroad or the Notion Marketplace.

More templates and stories to come!

Thanks for reading! You can explore the rest of my Notion templates on Gumroad.