Notion Dashboard: Key Features, Pros and Cons

Is Notion the right tool for those looking for a project management dashboard? A Notion dashboard would be ideal for monitoring project progress. It’s an essential tool for task management, whether using a business dashboard or personal dashboard.

There’s no argument about dashboards. They are an important part of any collaborative work environment. But is there a Notion dashboard? Let’s find out, and if there is one, let’s see what it can and can’t do. Only then will readers be able to make an informed decision on the time-tracking tool that’s right for them.

What Is Notion?

Notion is an all-in-one workspace designed for organizing and managing various types of information like notes, tasks, documents and more. Users can create pages, add text, images, checklists, tables and even embed content from other apps.

It’s a highly customizable tool, which users can adapt to fit their own workflows, whether for personal use, team collaboration or anything in between. It likes to think of itself as a digital notebook that lets users combine many different organization tools into one place but without the rigid structure.

Some key features include pages and blocks, which can be text, images, a list, a table or even a calendar. Notion has powerful database features that allow users to organize information. It’s also a collaborative tool allowing users to share pages, comment on content and work together in real time.

If this sounds project management adjacent, it is. But is there a Notion dashboard to provide a high-level overview of work? This might be software that can help with some projects, but without a dashboard, it’s going to fall short. That leads us to the big question.

Does Notion Have a Dashboard?

Project managers and their teams need dashboards. If there is a Notion dashboard, does it have the features that project professionals rely on to monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) such as time, tasks, workload and more?

Before deciding on Notion as the software to manage your project, take a moment to see if there is a Notion dashboard and, if there is, what it can do. Managing a project without a dashboard, or even with one that is not robust, is like driving blind. It’s not a good idea.

Short Answer: Yes, Notion Has Dashboards

Yes, Notion allows users to create dashboards that can help with task management. A Notion dashboard shows tasks and project progress via the kanban boards, tables or timelines. It can also show deadlines and schedules in the calendar view. Meeting notes and documents can be linked pages and embedded files. Progress bars and to-do lists help with goal tracking and other metrics. Embedded widgets and external tools make it excellent for custom workspaces, documentation and personal productivity tracking.

Long Answer: Notion Dashboards Lack Key Features for Project Management

Again, yes, Notion dashboards do exist! However, users have to create them. On the plus side, they are customizable and flexible. But to reiterate, they don’t come pre-built and some features are lacking. These are not plug-and-play dashboards as found in other apps. Here are some areas where Notion dashboards fall short.

No Native Gantt Charts or Advanced Timeline Features

While Notion offers a basic timeline view, it lacks the dynamic Gantt chart functionality found in tools like Monday or Asana. Dependencies, critical path tracking and automated scheduling are missing, making it less ideal for complex project planning.

Limited Automation & Workflow Triggers

Unlike project management tools that support task automation (e.g., auto-assigning tasks, updating statuses), Notion requires manual updates. While third-party tools like Zapier can add automation, it’s not built-in.

No Built-In Planned vs. Actual Tracking

Notion doesn’t have native features for comparing planned vs. actual timelines, budgets or effort. You would need to manually set up formulas or external integrations, making variance analysis difficult.

Lack of Workload & Resource Management

There’s no workload view to show team capacity or prevent the overallocation of tasks. Unlike tools with a workload widget, Notion doesn’t easily track who is over- or underutilized across multiple projects.

No Dedicated Project Portfolio Management (PPM) Features

Notion is not ideal for managing multiple projects at a high level. There’s no native dashboard for tracking interdependencies, prioritization or risk across a portfolio, requiring manual database setups or external tools.

Those looking to use a powerful dashboard for their projects will want to look beyond a Notion dashboard to the built-in and dynamic dashboards found in the award-winning project and portfolio management software of ProjectManager. We have dashboards for a high-level overview of single projects, programs and portfolios of projects, all ready to use when you are and delivering real-time data on time, cost, workload and more. Get started with ProjectManager today for free.

ProjectManager's dashboard — ProjectManager’s real-time project and portfolio dashboards are better than a Notion dashboard. Learn more

How to Make a Notion Dashboard Better With ProjectManager

For those who are itching for a dashboard that can do more than the Notion dashboard, there is a workaround. Use the data from Notion to make a dashboard in ProjectManager. All it takes is a few steps and users will find that they’re can now monitor their project with more metrics for greater insights. Just start a 30-day trial with ProjectManager for free, no credit card required, and follow these steps.

Notion dashboard and ProjectManager dashboard

1. Export Your Notion Project

Open Notion and navigate to the database or project page that you want to export.

2. Select the Excel File and Import Into ProjectManager

Choose that file and export it into a CSV file. Then open up ProjectManager and import that file into our software using the Gantt chart view.

Import a Notion Gantt chart into ProjectManager

3. Add the Data to a New or Existing Project

In ProjectManager, users will either create a new project or, for those who already have an account, they can add the exported file to an existing project. If you’re adding data to an existing project, make sure the project in ProjectManager aligns with the Notion project’s structure or manually match the task categories and columns to create consistency.

4. Choose What Data to Import

ProjectManager allows users to import all the data from the Notion exported file or only the task list. Users can decide to add all data or choose specific task details such as task name due date, assignee, priority level and more. The software will map these fields from the Notion project into ProjectManager. To compare actual vs. planned data on the ProjectManager dashboard, be sure to set a baseline on the Gantt chart. You can then toggle to the ProjectManager dashboard view to access live project data.

5. Success! View Notion Dashboard Data In ProjectManager

When the popup window says, success, that means the data is now in ProjectManager. This allows users to view their project on our robust project dashboard as well as have access to real Gantt charts, resource management features, automation, risk management, global search, version control and so much more.

ProjectManager Has a Better Dashboard Than Notion

Once users have a chance to view their project in our software and compare it to a Notion dashboard, they’ll quickly see how superior ours is. Our real-time dashboard is built in with access to advanced project management features such as progress tracking, cost tracking and slippage reporting. Let’s break it down.

Project Portfolio Management Dashboard: While Notion can build a portfolio-style dashboard, it has to be manually set up and a database linked to it. That requires a lot of customization. ProjectManager has portfolio dashboards, which makes it easier to track multiple initiatives simultaneously.
Planned vs. Actual Project Management Data: Again, Notion dashboards require custom databases and a lot of manual tracking. ProjectManager has planned vs. actual data tracking built in.
Progress Tracking: It sounds like a broken record, but that’s what happens when describing the broken Notion dashboard. Instead of manually setting up progress tracking, ProjectManager has progress tracking with Gantt charts, task lists and, of course, the dashboard, and it’s ready when you are.
Cost Tracking: Notion has no automated way to track expenses in real time. You guessed it, ProjectManager tracks costs directly in the dashboard, including labor, materials and other expenses in real time to set a budget and track actual spending against it.
Workload Management Data: Notion can assign tasks, but lacks built-in workload management tools. ProjectManager can assign tasks to team members, track their availability and balance workloads to avoid overloading, with its color-coded workload charts.
Slippage Reporting: Users better like manually setting up features that ProjectManager has built-in because that’s what they’ll have to do to get slippage reporting. ProjectManager tracks project delays and automatically highlights any milestones or deadlines that are slipping. It helps identify risks early and provides a way to act before the situation gets worse.

Notion Dashboard Example

Enough abstract talk about what a Notion dashboard can or can’t do, let’s look at an example to view this tool in a real-life scenario. Below is an actual screenshot of a dashboard from the Notion software.

Let’s look at two widgets. There’s a today list on the left, which shows a list of tasks, priority, when they’re due and which project they belong to. On the right, there’s a list of projects. These projects are filtered by current and archived projects.

How to Make a Dashboard in Notion

Let’s now look at how to create a dashboard in Notion. It’s more involved compared to tools with pre-built dashboards like ProjectManager. Users have to create multiple databases and link them together manually. Then set up different views to represent the data in a way that works for them.

At this point, filters and sorters can be added to tailor each view based on specific conditions like due dates, assignees, priority, etc. Users can then organize these views into a cohesive layout, which can get complex depending on the amount of information one’s working with.

The level of customization in a Notion dashboard is a double-edged sword. It’s nice to design a dashboard how one wants, but it also means having to figure out how to make it work with one’s workflows. Notion doesn’t offer automatic analytics or reporting, though. To track slippage or budget vs. actuals, users have to manually input and calculate that information.

Why ProjectManager Is a Better Project Tracking Software Than Notion

Rather than doing all that work for so little return, not to mention pulling one away from the more important work of managing the project, users tend to prefer project management software with built-in dashboards. A Notion dashboard is a poor substitute for the real-time project and portfolio dashboards from the award-winning ProjectManager. Not only are our dashboards more robust, but they connect with a suite of powerful project management features that make them stand head and shoulders above the competition.

Plan, Schedule and Track With Multiple Project Management Views

For one thing, our software also has multiple project views, such as kanban boards for visualizing workflow, task and calendar views. But unlike Notion, we have real Gantt charts, which schedule tasks, resources and costs, add milestones, assign teams and more. Unlike other Gantt charts software, though, we can link all four types of task dependencies, which helps project managers avoid delays and cost overruns. Our Gantt charts can filter for the critical path, which means no time-consuming and difficult calculations. Then set a baseline and track progress in real time, comparing the planned against actual live data.

Track Costs with Online Timesheets, Workload Charts and Reports

While our dashboards offer a high-level overview of the project, other features can provide tracking. For example, our secure timesheets streamline payroll and allow team members to update timesheets anywhere and at any time with our mobile app for Android and iOS. But they also give project managers visibility into labor costs, which helps keep the project on budget. Color-coded workload charts show resource allocation, which makes it easy to see who is overallocated or underutilized and balance workload to keep teams working at capacity without threatening burnout. For more details, customizable reports on variance, timesheets, workload, status, portfolio and more can be generated with a keystroke. These reports are also easy to share with stakeholders to keep them updated.