Most people learning Airtable make the same mistakes. Here are the ones that actually matter.
Mistake #1: Building Everything in One Table
You've got a project tracker with columns for: project name, client name, client email, client phone, task name, task status, task assignee, task due date...
Stop. This is spreadsheet thinking.
Split it up. One table for clients. One for projects. One for tasks. Link them together. Yes, it feels like more work upfront. But in two weeks when you need to update a client's email, you'll do it once instead of hunting through 47 rows.
The rule: if you're copying the same information into multiple rows, it should probably be its own table.
Mistake #2: Over-Engineering Before You Start
You spend three days planning the perfect structure, researching field types, watching tutorials about rollups and lookups.
Then you build it, use it twice, and realize it doesn't match how you actually work.
Build a basic version in 20 minutes. Use it for real work for a week. Break it. Fix it. That's how you learn what structure you actually need.
Mistake #3: Fighting Airtable's Limits
Airtable isn't built for everything. It struggles with:
- Massive datasets (50,000+ records get slow)
- Complex financial calculations
- Document editing
- Anything requiring advanced permissions
If you're trying to recreate QuickBooks or Google Docs in Airtable, you're making your life harder than it needs to be.
Use Airtable for what it's good at: organizing relational information that multiple people need to access and update. Everything else? There's probably a better tool.
The Bottom Line
Start simple, build for real work, and don't force it where it doesn't fit.