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My personal design language for weaving harmony and clarity into your Notion workspace.

Since I use this terminology throughout my Notion client work, tutorials, and templates, I wanted to share a little insight into my thought process and design language when creating Notion workspaces and templates.

Let’s dive in!

Account

This refers to your Notion user account. Notion’s internal terminology refers to accounts and workspaces. By Notion’s definition, an account is your user account that is tied to your login credentials. From your user account, you can also gain access to other people’s/organization’s accounts; these are referred to as workspaces by Notion.

When I am working with other people, I need to differentiate between what I call a workspace and what Notion calls a workspace. Notion’s “workspace” is what I call a “workspace account”. My “workspace” is an organizational framework within a Notion workspace account.

Examples:

Notion workspaces I have access to through my Notion account →

Sidebar

The Notion sidebar is the navigation panel on the left side of your screen that helps you quickly access and organize all your pages, workspaces, and teamspaces. It’s your command center for moving through Notion—whether you're jumping into a project, switching between teamspaces, or accessing your private notes.

Key Sections of the Sidebar:

• Teamspaces – Shared areas for collaborating with specific teams or clients
• Private – Pages only you can see, ideal for drafts or personal notes
• Favorites – A customizable section for bookmarking (⭐) your most-used pages
• Workspace Switcher (top left) – Toggle between different workspaces if you're part of more than one

The sidebar can be collapsed or expanded for a cleaner view, and you can drag pages between sections for better organization.

I believe in a clean sidebar. Instead of using the sidebar to dump all your Notion dashboards, databases, and pages, I recommend creating high-level teamspaces dedicated to a specific area of your life or business.

Examples:

My Notion Sidebar →

Teamspace

A Notion teamspace is a shared workspace area designed for teams or groups to collaborate on pages, projects, and documents. It helps organize content around departments, clients, or specific functions—like Marketing, Product, or Operations—making it easy for members to find what they need and contribute where it matters.

Common Use Cases for Teamspaces:

• Marketing Teamspace – store campaign calendars, brand guidelines, content plans
• Client Portal Teamspace – give external clients access to dashboards, project timelines, and deliverables
• Product Development Teamspace – manage roadmaps, feature specs, and user feedback
• HR or Ops Teamspace – host onboarding documents, policies, and internal processes

Examples:

My Notion Teamspaces →

A teamspace can include areas within its organizational hierarchy (and usually does).