Creative ideas have a tendency for showing up when you are already doing something else. You’re halfway through a painting and suddenly remember the class you want to take. You’re sketching one thing and your brain hands you four more ideas. You’re making tea and apparently this is the perfect moment to mentally develop an entire collection.

We have a problem with the weight these ideas hold because we think that if we don't act on them, they'll fly away. OR we have a lot of "shoulds" on our plate weighing us down. Our problem is that we don't have a place to put these ideas so they don’t disappear... while also keeping them from becoming 500 new things you now feel responsible for.

That’s exactly why I like having a simple idea hub. Key word: simple.

It gives me one place to dump ideas quickly, separate them from the projects I’m actively working on, and come back to them later without keeping all of them floating around in my head.

And when I say simple, I mean SIMPLE.

Notion can become an organizational playground very quickly. Properties! Automations! Dashboards! Relations! Fun little icons! Suddenly you went in to write down “paint tiny mushrooms” and emerged 90 minutes later having built an operational headquarters. Ask me how I know.

We’re not doing that today.

This setup is intentionally lightweight so you can capture your creative ideas, organize them just enough, and then go make the things.

 

 

Step 1: Start with a simple idea database

I use Notion as a general hub so this walkthrough is specific to it, but feel free to adapt the system to your own workflow.

Create a new page in Notion and give it a name like Idea Hub, Creative Brain Dump, or Artwork Idea Hub.

Step 2: Create an inline database

I personally like using an inline database because it leaves room on the same page for other useful things later, like notes or the quick-add button we’ll create.

Give the database a name.

Step 3: Set up the Notion database properties

• Rename the first column to whatever represents the main thing you’re capturing (e.g. Project, Art piece). This is where the actual idea goes.

• Add notes property
  Next, add a simple text property for quick notes. The goal here is giving yourself enough room to capture the part of the idea you’re afraid you’ll forget without requiring you to open the entire Notion page and fully develop it.
  
  
• Add status property
  

  This is the part that makes the whole system work. For this property, choose Status as the type. The important distinction I want this database to make is between something I might want to do someday and something I have actually decided to work on.
  
  Without that distinction, every fun idea can start feeling like an unfinished task. And when you’re multi-passionate and naturally generate a lot of ideas, that gets overwhelming really fast.
  

So inside the Status property, add an option called Idea. Make Idea the default status for new entries. That means every time you toss something into the database, it automatically lands in the idea pile unless you intentionally move it into active work.

Keep your statuses simple

You can customize your statuses however you want, but I’d keep the first version very basic.

It might look something like:

• Idea

• Not started

• In progress

• Done

That’s enough information to tell you where something stands without requiring you to manage a complicated workflow.

 

Create a current projects view

Notion lets you create multiple views of the exact same database. That means you can keep all of your information together while deciding what you actually want to see at any given moment.

I like to create a view for Current Projects, a view for the Full database, and a view isolating projects just for my inactive Ideas.

You can do this simply:

• Duplicate your original table view
• Rename the view
• Add a filter
  For the current project view, set the filter so: Status is not Idea

 

Now all of your someday ideas disappear from this view. They still exist! You haven’t deleted or hidden them from the database itself. You’ve simply created a workspace that shows you the things you’ve already decided to act on.

This is one of my favorite parts of the whole setup because it helps separate idea generation from execution.

When I’m working, I want to see my work. I do not necessarily need to see every fun possibility my brain has generated over the last six months. 😅

 

Create an ideas-only view

You can do the opposite too.

Duplicate the view again and call this one Ideas. This time, filter it so: Status is Idea

Now you have a place you can intentionally visit when you want to browse all of those possibilities.

Maybe you have a free weekend and want to start something new. Maybe you need an idea for your sketchbook. Maybe you’re planning your next creative season and want to see what keeps catching your attention. That's when this view becomes useful.

You’re choosing to look at the idea pile instead of having the idea pile choose your attention for you.

Keep a full view too

I like keeping a Full View with everything in it that gives me a complete overview whenever I need one.

So now the same database might have three views:

1. Current Projects: everything except ideas
2. Full view: all database pages in one glance
   
3. Ideas: exactly that.. only ideas

Simple.

And because these are views of one database, updating an item in one place updates it everywhere.

If an idea becomes a real project, you just change its status. It will disappear from your Ideas view and show up in Current Projects automatically.

Create a quick-add button

This is the piece that makes the system actually practical for me. Even the most perfect system is can be useless if it's a task to find every time you think of something.

So I like creating a button at the top on a page (or pages) I frequent often, easy to reach, especially on a main Notion dashboard.

Create a button. Give it a name like Idea Dump. You can even give it a little light bulb icon if you want. We contain multitudes. We can be functional and cute.

 

For the button action, choose: Add page to... Then select your idea database.

 

Set the new page’s Status property to Idea. That ensures every new item added through this button immediately enters the database as an idea instead of becoming an active project.

There’s one more step you need for the button to work properly for our setup. If the button only creates a new database entry, you still have to go find that entry afterward.

Instead, add another action to the button: Open page. Then tell it to open the page that was just created.

Now the experience becomes lightning fast ⚡️

• Think of idea
• Click Idea Dump button
• Type idea
• Close it. Done.

Your brain gets to release it without turning that idea into the next thing you need to deal with immediately. That is exactly what I want from an organizational tool.

Try different database layouts if you want

Once your system is working, you can play with how it looks visually. For example, you could group your full database by Status.

 

You can also change the layout entirely. I really like a board view for certain creative projects because it gives you a more visual way to move things through your process.

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You can adjust card sizes, show images, preview page content, and customize quite a bit from there.

But again... let the fancy stuff earn its way into your system.

Start with what helps reduce the mental load now.

 

The real goal is reducing creative noise

There is something really freeing about being able to say: That’s a good idea. I don’t have to do it right now. That is the real reason I use this system. It gives ideas somewhere safe to land. When you don’t trust yourself to remember something, your brain keeps resurfacing it.

Paint those mini florals.

Remember that class idea.

What about the sketchbook project?

Should we start that collection?

HELLO, IT’S ME AGAIN, THE IDEA.

Once it lives somewhere you trust, you can return your attention to whatever you already decided mattered.

And then when you actually have room for something new, you already have a whole library of creative possibilities waiting for you. Your organizational system should support your creative work without becoming another piece of creative work you need to finish.

And once the idea is safely in there, close Notion.

Go make the thing.