Notion just released a huge update — Notion Calendar, a standalone calendar app with modern UI, delightful user experience, and powerful capabilities. Notion Calendar is the next development of Cron, another Calendar app that Notion acquired a few years back. Though it feels and works like Cron, Notion Calendar comes with some super useful features for power users like you and me. In this blog post, you’ll learn everything you need to know about the new Notion Calendar and how it can level up your productivity in no time!

NOTION CALENDAR IS HERE! Start Using It The Right Way

What is Notion Calendar?

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Notion Calendar is a standalone Calendar app like Fantastical or Apple’s built-in calendar that has all the functionalities you’d expect with the addition of a few particularly powerful features. Most importantly: it comes with a native Notion Integration. You can connect any Notion Database with Notion Calendar and show your Notion Database Items alongside your Calendar Events. Yes, you heard it right!

It can now show any database item with a Date property inside the Notion Calendar. You can set the item as a full-day event or you can assign a specific time. All these date and time adjustments will sync in real time with your Notion Database.

How to get started with Notion Calendar?

To use Notion Calendar, you need to have a Google account. If don’t have a Google account or you’re using Outlook or Apple Calendar at the moment, time to create a Google account now. A free account for personal use is more than enough.

Then go to calendar.notion.so and click on Sign in with Google. After signing up, you can use it on the Web or download the desktop or mobile app. It’s available for both Windows and Mac. So, you can use it wherever you like.

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How to import Notion Databases into Notion Calendar?

Importing a Notion Database into Notion Calendar is super easy! All you need is a Calendar view on your Notion Database. Very important: you need to create that view on the original database. Creating a Linked Calendar View of a database won’t work yet.

Not sure what the difference is between the main database and a linked view? Check out this in-depth Notion Tutorial to learn more!

To do that, go to the main Notion Database page and click on the plus (+) icon. Now select Calendar as a view option and you’re good to go. You can add any filters here to show the preferred items and that will reflect on the Notion Calendar too.

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Now go back to the Notion Calendar. Click on your image to view Profile and select Settings. From there, click on Notion under Integration and select Connect. This will open a new page that will ask you for permission. Just allow those and your Notion workspace will be connected with the Notion Calendar.

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If you have multiple Notion workspaces, you have to connect them one by one even if all your workspaces fall under the same Notion account.

One important thing to note here. Until now, Notion Calendar doesn’t have a two-way sync with the Google Calendar. Your Google calendar events won’t sync natively with any Notion database yet and vice versa. It means, that if you create a Notion database event, it won’t be synced as a Google event and any Google event you create won’t be visible inside the Notion Database.

However, you can see both the Google events and Notion database items stacked together on Notion Calendar. They just won’t sync with each other. That’s the catch here!

How to use Notion Calendar?

So, you already know what Notion Calendar is and how to set it up. Now, let’s explore the UI of it. As I’ve already mentioned, Notion Calendar is the upgraded version of Cron. It has all the functionalities and features of the Cron app plus the added Notion integration.

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Like Cron app, Notion Calendar has 3 sections in the UI:

Unlike other calendar apps, Notion Calendar comes with powerful keyboard shortcuts and a Command Menu. You can navigate, add/edit events, and do all other tasks without touching the mouse. This will definitely boost your productivity in the long run.

What are the best features of Notion Calendar?

Notion has a long history of amazing updates. And Notion Calendar is no exception. Since it’s the next evolution of Cron, you can expect everything you’d want from a modern calendar tool. Here are a few particular highlights:

Modern UI & Shortcuts

Notion Calendar is a very well designed. From start to finish, you’ll discover tons of little design decisions that just make sense – and give you the feeling that someone who really cared about calendars created this tool.

For example, it’s clearly designed for power users, thanks to the ton of shortcuts that make navigating Notion Calendar a breeze.

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The most powerful shortcut in Notion Calendar is cmd + K (or ctrl + K if you’re on Windows). This will bring up the Command Menu, allowing you to access pretty much any action without ever leaving your keyboard.

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The Command Menu also offers additional help and support. Just type in “Shortcuts” and you’ll see a list of all the other keyboard commands you can use.

My favourite shortcut has to be the scheduling snippets that appear when you press S – but more on those later.

Next-Level Team Collaboration

Notion Calendar is great in single-player mode – but it also has a ton of features if you need multiplayer for modern teams.

As you’d expect, you can overlay your teammates calendar to quickly find a common time to meet. Just press P and select who you want to see. You can then also pin that teammate in your left sidebar, among your own calendars, to have even quicker access in the future.

To schedule a meeting with a teammate, you can simply drag their icon onto a free slot in your calendar (or add them manually as a participant, but where’s the fun in that?).

Activate the Menu Bar for Notion Calendar

While setting up your Notion Calendar, I definitely recommend activating the Menu Bar. To do so, go to settings and then opt for the Menu Bar section. Here, you can toggle it on.

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After activating it, you’ll see your next upcoming event in the menu bar of your computer. You can also click on it to see your whole schedule without opening Notion Calendar, join a meeting with one click or see attached Notion Pages.

Speaking of Notion Pages, let’s explore the first closer integration of Notion and Notion Calendar.

Add Notion Pages to Notion Calendar Events

With Notion Calendar, you also have the option to share a Notion page with all the participants in a meeting.

Just click on an event and look for the Docs and links option in the left context menu, right below the conferencing options.

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The attached Notion Page is sent as part of the calendar invite to all participants. And if they use Notion Calendar too, they will also see it pop up in the event reminder and the menu bar for quick access.

If any participant doesn’t have access to the specific Notion page that you attached, you’ll also see a popup asking you whether you want to share it. If you confirm, Notion Calendar will automatically add the other participants as guests to the page so that everyone can review it ahead of time.

Schedule your next meeting using Scheduling Snippets in Notion Calendar

One of my favourite features of Notion Calendar that I can’t live without anymore is Sharing Availability.

Simply press S on your keyboard, highlight a few time slots in your calendar and have Notion Calendar create a scheduling link that others can use to book a meeting with you.

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It’s an amazing feature to cut back on all the back and forth of arranging meetings. Just keep in mind that each link is only single use, so you can’t replace a scheduling tool like cal.com or calendly completely (just yet).

Tip: scheduling snippets also don’t respect other events at the moment, so if you just highlight your whole day, you risk getting double booked. I hope they fix this soon, but for now, you need to highlight the actual gaps in your calendar.

Seamlessly work across different Time Zones

Another cool feature is Setting Time Zones. Let’s say, you have to work with people and companies across several time zones. You can now set multiple time zones inside the main calendar UI. So, even if someone lives in Japan and you live in Germany, you can set the best time for a meeting or wish them good morning/night at the right time. This is truly amazing.

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Tip: if you don’t want to add a timezone permanently to your calendar, you can also press cmd + K, type in “Time Travel” and then the location. You’ll see a red overlay of the local time that disappears once you press Esc.

How to view Notion Database Items as Calendar Events

Finally, you can now view your Notion Database items natively in a Calendar app. You can import any Notion database with a calendar property and view them inside the Notion Calendar.

To do so, you first need to have a calendar or timeline view created on the original database.

It’s not enough to have only a date property or to create the calendar or timeline view on a linked database view. You need to go to the original database and create the view here.

Next, you can either click on the Open in Calendar option that will appear on your Notion Database or press O in Notion Calendar to pull up a search menu for all Notion Databases that can be imported.

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Once done, you will see the exact view in your Notion Calendar – which means you can use filters in Notion to select the type of events you want to show!

Tip: You can even create several different calendar views of the same database into Notion Calendar, allowing you to tailor the experience to your exact needs. Want to hide all done tasks? Easy! Show only events assigned to you from a big team database? No problem!

Once imported into Notion Calendar, you can then set the event duration, change the time & date, or make it a full-day event.

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All these changes will reflect on your Notion workspace too. And, any changes made in the Notion Database will reflect on the Notion Calendar app.

Just keep in mind that while your events sync within Notion and Notion Calendar, they won’t sync to your Google Calendar. So if you open your Google Calendar with a different app, no Notion Database items will show up.

Nonetheless, this feature alone is powerful enough to transform your Notion workflow.

Should I switch to Notion Calendar?

You might be wondering, how good is Notion Calendar? Is it good enough for me to start using it? Hell Yeah! I would say, it’s almost perfect. Don’t forget, the Notion Calendar is the revamped version of the Cron Calendar and Cron was already a very well-designed calendar tool.

What are the limitations of Notion Calendar?

While I absolutely love the new release, it’s not a perfect app (yet). Here are some drawbacks to be aware of:

These are not some major drawbacks of Notion Calendar. However, if Notion solves or fixes these issues, Notion Calendar will be the perfect choice for anyone who uses Notion in their daily routines.

What are the best Notion Calendar Workflows?

Here are a few ideas on how to start using the Notion Calendar if you just installed it and were wondering where to start:

Notion Calendar Workflow 1: Time-Blocking Your Tasks

If you want to be productive, you should start time-blocking your tasks. But, you already know how difficult it is to time block in Notion. It involves so many clicks and steps. However, with Notion Calendar, time blocking has become super simple. You can just shrink or expand the Notion Events to change the time duration of any tasks. So next time, when you’re planning your day, time block your tasks using Notion Calendar.

Notion Calendar Workflow 2: Scheduling a meeting quickly

Although it isn’t a full-fledged scheduling tool, if you want to schedule a call quickly, you should use Notion Calendar. You can either press ‘F’ to quickly schedule an instant call with someone or press ‘S’ to share your availability to let others book the call. Besides, Notion Calendar is great for scheduling meetings across multiple timezones too.

Notion Calendar Workflow 3: Leveraging Widgets on your Phone and Desktop

Notion Calendar also comes with helpful widgets that you can place on your Phone and Desktop. These widgets let you have a bird’s eye view of your day and all your upcoming events.

Notion Calendar: Final Thoughts

Is Notion Calendar perfect? Not yet. Is it any good? Definitely. Should I start using it? Heck Yeah!

If you use Notion and are not locked into the Outlook or Apple Calendar universe, definitely give it a try.

It will transform the way you use Notion in your personal and professional life. Of course, it’s not perfect yet. But even with the current version, you still get an amazing, well-designed and thoughtful calendar app.

Time-Tracking in Notion is a great way to level up your productivity. Whether you want accountability on where you actually spend your time or need a robust time-tracking setup to invoice your clients, you can quickly expand your Notion workspace with this feature. In this article, you’ll learn about the 2 best methods for time-tracking in Notion. The first method is built 100% in Notion and utilises Notion’s game-changing Button feature. The second method integrates Toggl Track via Make with Notion to create the perfect Time-Tracking Setup for Teams.

Read on for the step-by-step tutorial, watch the video for a walkthrough or jump to the bottom of the page to download the free Notion template.

Time-Tracking in Notion using Notion Buttons

You can do Time-Tracking in Notion without the help of any third-party tools by using Notion Buttons in three easy steps:

  1. Create Your Database Setup for Time-Tracking in Notion
  2. Add a Database Template with Notion Buttons
  3. Use Roll-ups to calculate the total time spent

It’s a powerful yet simple setup and great if you need time tracking for an individual. However, it won’t support multiple timers running at the same time. If that’s something you need, check out the second method.

Let’s take a closer look at the individual steps.

Create Your Database Setup for Time-Tracking in Notion

To track your time in Notion, you’ll need two databases:

For a super simple setup, start by creating a core database with the following properties:

Then, create the helper database and add these properties:

You can of course customise this setup to your liking or use any pre-existing databases or task managers that you already have in Notion.

Add a Database Template with Notion Buttons

Create Notion Database Template

Next, add a new template to your core database.

Then, create a linked database view of the Tracker Database in the body of the page and set up a self-referential filter to only show the entries related to this page.

How to set up self-referential filter in Notion

Tip: Not sure what a self-referential filter is? Check out the Database video in my (free) complete Notion Tutorial.

Now add a Notion Button to the page called Start Tracking. The button should trigger this workflow:

Use Button for Time-Tracking in Notion

Then, add a second Notion Button to the page and title it Stop Tracking. Pick the Edit pages in option, select your Time Trackers database and then click on the grey All pages in Time Trackers drop down on the right to set up a filter. It should only apply to entries where the Tracker Status is set to Running.

Stop running tracker

This step shows the current limitation with this setup. Since we cannot yet use self-referential filters within the filter setup of Notion Buttons, it’s not possible to only stop timers connected to the current page – instead, clicking the button will stop all running timers. Effectively, that means you can only have one timer running at a time. If you need to work in a team environment with several trackers, check out the second method in this post: Time-Tracking in Notion using Toggl Sync

With the filter set up, configure the workflow to

Notion Time-Tracking with Buttons

Last but not least, add a column to your template to align the two buttons next to each other.

Align Buttons for Notion Time Tracking

Your Time-Tracking setup in Notion is now able to record start and end times whenever you work at the click of a button.

Use Roll-ups to calculate the total time spent

To calculate the total time spent for your Notion Time-Tracking Setup, you need to add a few more properties to your setup.

Start by adding a formula property to your Time Tracker database and paste the formula below:

dateBetween(prop(“End”), prop(“Start”), “minutes”)

This will automatically calculate the minutes for each time entry.

Then, create a roll-up in your core database and roll up the sum of the formula property you just created. That way, you’ll see the sum of all time tracker entries.

Calculate total time spent using Notion Time-Tracking

Last but not least, you can add another formula property to your core database to turn the tracked minutes into an HH:MM display with the formula shown below.

(prop(“Total Minutes”) / 60 == 0) ? “00:00” : (format(floor(prop(“Total Minutes”) / 60)) + “hr ” + format(prop(“Total Minutes”) – floor(prop(“Total Minutes”) / 60) * 60) + “min”)

If you want to take this setup one step further, check out my guide on how to get charts in Notion and easily visualise where your time is going.

Time-Tracking in Notion using Toggl Sync

You can connect Toggl to Notion for a more advanced Time-Tracking setup with these three steps:

  1. Set up your database backend in Notion
  2. Build a first automation to sync your Notion entries to Toggl
  3. Build a second automation to sync the tracked time from Toggl to Notion

While the setup is slightly more complex than the Notion Button method, it supports multiple timers running at the same time, which is great if you need this for a team. The one downside? You need to be on the first paid plan level on Toggl to support the full workflow.

Notion Time-Tracking Using Toggl Track

Set Up Your Database Backend for Toggl in Notion

If you use Toggl to track your time in Notion, you only need one database with the following properties:

Here’s the formula for Sync to Toggl?

empty(prop(”Toggl ID”)

And here’s the formula for Sync Time to Notion?

and(empty(prop(“Tracked Minutes”)),prop(“Done?”)==true)

Of course, you don’t need to limit the setup to one database. For example, you could easily connect this database to a larger project database and roll up individual entries to calculate the total time spent on the project. See the first method mentioned on this page for a sample setup.

Build An Automation To Sync Notion Entries To Toggl

Sync Notion to Toggl Track

My automation tool of choice is Make – a powerful no-code automation builder with a great free plan. After creating your account, click on the New Scenario button to build your automation.

Next, click on the big purple plus icon in the centre of the screen to add your first module. Search for Notion and opt for the Search Objects option.

Add Notion Module to Make

This will open a context menu with various options to configure the module.

Set up filter to pull in new time entries

Then, click on OK in the bottom right corner to close the setup. Right-click the model and select Run this module only to test your setup.

Before doing this, you should add at least one test entry to your Notion Database

Test your automation

You should see a small bubble pop up. Click on it and inspect the results. As shown in the image below, you should see at least one output.

Check Output for Notion to Toggl Sync

Add a second module to your automation by clicking the grey half-circle next to your Notion Module. This time, search for Toggl Track and opt for the Create a Task Module.

Map information from Notion to Toggl for Time-Tracking
Notion Time-Tracking using Toggl

Then, hit OK to close the setup.

Test everything before moving on to the next step by clicking on the big purple Run once play button in the bottom left of your screen. Afterwards, you should see a new task created in your Toggl Account based on your test entry in Notion.

To finish the setup, add a third module to the chain. This time, opt for Notion and select the Update a database item option.

At this point, you’ll see both black Notion entries and pink Toggl entries when mapping information. Make sure to grab the information from the right app

https://track.toggl.com/timer/start?wid=TOGGL_WORKSPACE_ID&billable=true&pid=TOGGL_PROJECT_ID&tid=TOGGL_TASK_ID

This will automatically generate a URL in Notion. Once you click the URL, it will open Toggl and automatically start the timer for this task.

Automatically start Toggl Track Timer from Notion

Then, hit OK to save the setup.

Test your setup one last time to make sure everything is recorded correctly in Notion.

To do so, delete your first testing entry and create a new one with a different name. In Toggl, Tasks need to have unique names per project and you already created a task with the first entry, so you need a new task name or it will throw an error.

Build An Automation To Sync Tracked Time From Toggl To Notion

Sync Time from Toggl to Notion

All that’s left now is the second part of the automation: once you check off a task as done in Notion, we want to sync the total time tracked back from Toggl to Notion.

Start by creating a new scenario in Make, add a Notion Module and pick again the Search Objects version.

Set it up just like before with only one exception. Instead of filtering for the Sync to Toggl? checkbox, you now filter for the Sync Time to Notion? checkbox.

Check for done tasks

As always, test your setup quickly to see whether it pulls in any data.

Prior to testing, make sure that you have a test task in your Notion Database that you’ve already synced to toggl, that has an ID and URL in Notion and where you tracked at least a few seconds in Toggl.

Then, add a second module to your scenario. Choose Toggl Track and opt for Get a Task.

Not much to set up here. Simply connect your Toggl Account, choose the right Workspace and Project and then map the Toggl ID value that you store in Notion to the Task ID as shown below.

Look up task in Toggl Track using API

Test your setup and then add a third module. This time, it’s again a Notion Module. Pick the Update a database item option.

Toggl tracks your time in Miliseconds, but Make still shows them as seconds in the context menu. Dividing by 1000 and 60 gets you the tracked minutes, but you could of course also use any other time interval

Notion Time-Tracking Setup

Here’s the full setup:

Free Notion Template for Time-Tracking

And that’s it! Test your setup one last time to make sure everything works as intended.

Congratulations – you now have a Notion Time-Tracking system that connects Notion to Toggl and allows you to run several timers for different team members simultaneously.

And while you’re building out your Notion Workspace, why not add some advanced AI Use Cases to Notion?

Get The Free Time-Tracking in Notion Template

You can download this Notion Template plus another 21+ other free templates here:

We live in a complex world.

With hard problems to solve.

So we look for a complex system to increase our productivity.

But we have it backwards.

Instead of making hard decisions, we look for a hard process to match the problem.

Here’s why you should care a lot less about productivity and a lot more about your priorities.

Minimal Viable Productivity

Learning more about productivity is certainly good and important. You need to know the basics or else you stack the deck against you.

And if learning a few good behaviours can have such a profound impact on the way you work, why stop there?

Soon, you get the intriguing idea that if you just learned more about productivity, found that one hack no one has figured out yet or switch to the latest tool everyone is talking about, it would finally make all your work problems go away.

Which, unfortunately, is not the case.

A recent call with David Allen reminded me, that the basic recipe for productivity and Getting Things Done is actually fairly simple.

Our brain sucks at remembering information, in particular if it’s incomplete or unclear. So the first step, born out of necessity and our mental limitations, is to write everything (important) down.

Your mind, after all, is made for having ideas, not keeping them.

Then, from time to time, it’s a good idea to go through the list of items and figure out: what do I actually need to do to move this item forward? What is my next action?

Because all too often, we only think “of” a problem (taxes!) and not about it (what’s the next immediate action I can do to get this towards the finish line?).

If it’s a quick thing that can be done in less than 2 minutes, we might as well just do it.

And for everything else, it’s as simple as looking at your list of well-defined next actions and ask yourself:

Which of these actions would have the biggest impact?

Minimal Viable Productivity.

And here’s where the problem starts.

Simple but scary

So the basic process for a more productive life:

  1. write stuff down
  2. define what exactly you need to do to get the stuff done
  3. pick the most impactful stuff and work on it

Why is it then that we try to build uber-complex workflows, jump from new productivity app to new productivity app and read the 10th article about Elons Musk’s secrets to success?

Because of three scary truths:

  1. It has to be YOUR decision
  2. You might not like the biggest impact
  3. You will never, ever get it all done

Let’s take a closer look.

It has to be YOUR decision

In his book and during the call, David Allen pointed out that ultimately, you’ll need to trust your gut.

When looking at your list of things to do, it’s up to you to decide which task will have the biggest impact.

And that’s scary.

How are you supposed to know what’s right? How important is this task? Why do you have to take this responsibility? Isn’t it possible to outsource this decision to some external system?

Just as with careers, it’s much easier to have clearly defined rules to follow than to define your own parameters for what makes an important task.

So what do we do? We look for more and more complex systems to make the decision for us to hide the fact that we are ultimately responsible for picking the task.

And just getting better at productivity, doesn’t help you uncover your priorities.

You might not like the biggest impact

You look at your to-do list.

You know what you should be working on right now.

Yet, you just can’t seem to get yourself to actually do it.

Which means one of two things:

And while it’s tempting to hope that implementing a more complex productivity system, finding a new tool or watching another video on time management might magically trick you into doing it either way, it probably won’t work.

That’s not to say that exploring different angles to a task can’t help. Quite the opposite. But you need to be aware that you’re trying to solve a different problem (”I need to be more productive” vs “I need to find a way to enjoy my work”).

And of course, this also doesn’t mean you should not work on hard things. Or give up at the slightest sign of resistance. But if you keep finding yourself looking for a new productivity systems, maybe it’s time to reconsider what you actually want to use all your productivity for.

You will never, ever get it all done

The worst part about getting more productive: you realise how little you can possibly get done.

Our time is ridiculously limited. And regardless of how productive and efficient you become, there will always be so much more on your to-do list than what you could possibly cross off.

Which means that productivity is a lot less about getting more things done and a lot more about getting the right things done than I’d like.

Because that means making decisions about what’s really important to you and accepting that you need to say no to the vast majority of other things.

Oliver Burkeman sums it up best:

The real measure of any time management technique is whether or not it helps you neglect the right things.

Unfortunately, nothing (not even GTD or that cool Notion template) can give you unlimited time.

So sure, have fun trying out productivity methods, changing up your systems now and then and experiment to see what works for you.

But remember to not chase the perfect system just to do the wrong thing.

Dynamic Project Templates Method for Notion

Project Management in Notion just got a lot better. No, Notion did not ship an update, but I found a new way to leverage a hidden Notion quirk. In this post, you’ll learn how to use something called stable meta data to create Dynamic Project Templates in Notion. And if you’re looking for a Notion Project Management Template, I’ve got you covered too.

Read on to learn more about Project Management in Notion or scroll to the bottom to claim your free template.

You're probably doing it wrong - Project Management in Notion

How to create Dynamic Project Management Templates in Notion

One of the reasons people say you can’t do project management is the lack of templates.

Sure, you can create template buttons to replicate content on a page and you can create database templates to replicate database entries.

But is there a way to set up a project, complete with relevant documents and all the required tasks and duplicate it over and over again? A blueprint for all your Youtube Videos, Coaching Clients or M&A Due Diligences?

There is. But before we can understand the workaround, let’s first take a look at the limitation of most Project Management Setups in Notion.

The Problem With Project Management in Notion

A good and efficient workspace in Notion is based on databases. The simplest setup for Project Management consists of one database for task and one for projects. You then use a relation to connect the two. This plus a few dashboards & views is all it takes to turn Notion into a simple and free Project Management Software.

(more on how you can create this simple setup in the next chapter)

Tasks & Projects

There’s one big drawback though: you can’t create dynamic project templates.

Ideally, you want to create a project template, assign the typical tasks to it and then duplicate it over and over again.

A simple example would be to film a Youtube Video. Project Youtube Video requires the following tasks:

If you create a new template in your projects database for Youtube Videos, you can’t really assign these tasks. Duplicating the Project Template would not create new copies of your tasks – instead, the new Youtube Project would link to the same old tasks as the template.

Project Management in Notion Illustration

Ideally, you could tell Notion to set up a template across several databases. If you duplicate the template, it would create the required entries in both the projects database (new Youtube Video) and the tasks database (brainstorm ideas, write script…).

Unfortunately, that’s not yet possible. The current solution would be to resort to lazy checkboxes: instead of creating tasks in the tasks database, we simply write our to-do’s in the body of the project.

A recent feature release of Notion has actually improved the situation. Thanks to Notion Buttons, you now have a second method besides the workaround explained in this blog post to create proper Project Management in Notion.

Use Checkboxes for Tasks

That way, we get “fresh” tasks every time we duplicate the project. But we’ve created another huge problem: our tasks no longer live in a database. And once you stop using databases in your Notion workspace, you lose most of what makes Notion so awesome.

Now, you could obviously go ahead and manually create new tasks in the database based on your checklist every time you duplicate your project, but who wants to do that?

Nobody has time for that

Luckily though, there’s a better workaround. Introducing the Dynamic Project Template Method for Notion.

New Notion Trick: The Dynamic Project Template Method

The Dynamic Project Template Method uses a hidden Notion feature (or quirk). Stable Meta Data. Sounds complicated? Don’t worry, here’s what I mean.

If you create a database entry and fill out properties, you assign meta data to the entry.

Using Meta Data for Tasks in Notion

In this case, I’ve assigned a tag to my Notion task.

Now, you probably knew that you can just drag the database entry out of the database and into a different part of the page to create a new block outside the database.

But did you know that you keep the meta data alive when doing this?

The Trick behind the dynamic project template method

Even though you won’t see the tag outside the database, it’s still there. And if you move the entry back into the database, you see the tag again.

Here’s where it gets interesting.

The same is true if you duplicate the entry outside the database.

Duplicating database entries keeps meta data alive

That means we can solve our template dilemma!

Instead of creating a project template and assigning tasks to it, we do the following:

Use Notion's self-referential filter
Tasks in Notion
Setup for Dynamic Project Templates

Congratulations, you’ve created a Dynamic Project Template in Notion!

Now, whenever you want to start a new project based on this template, simply use the template as usually to create a new entry in the projects database, drag the tasks from the body back into the linked database view and you’re good to go!

(make sure that you’ve set up the self-referential filter in the linked view. Otherwise, your dragged & dropped tasks might not be connected to the right project).

And if you like this cool Notion trick, then you’re gonna love the hidden variables in Notion or my automation to quickly add images to Notion.

Supercharged Dynamic Project Templates in Notion

It gets even better. Now that you can create true Dynamic Project Templates, you can streamline your workflow even more.

How awesome would it be if Notion could automatically calculate the Due Date for your tasks?

Automatic Due Dates in Notion

Well, with the Dynamic Project Template Method, you can easily do this.

Add the following properties to your Project Manager Template:

Use this formula to automatically calculate the Due Date:

dateSubtract(prop(“Project End Date”), prop(“Days before Completion”), “days”)

Now, while setting up the tasks for your Dynamic Project Template, fill out the Days before Completion property. How many days before the end of the project should this task be done?

Once you create a new project, filled in the Project End Date and dragged the tasks back into the table, Notion will automatically calculate the Due Date for you.

And again, I have also a video that walks you through the whole process:

You're probably doing it wrong - Project Management in Notion

Too complicated? You can get my built-for-you free Project Management Template for Notion at the bottom of this post.

How to set up Notion for Project Management

Curious how to build your own Project Management setup in Notion? There are endless possibilities, here’s the most simple & efficient setup.

Project Management in Notion requires three core databases:

Holy Trinity of Project Management in Notion

Create your databases and add the required properties. Here are some recommendations for your minimalistic setup. I’ve included the property type in brackets.

Projects

Tasks

Documents

As you can see, both your Task and Document Database should be connected to Projects via a Relation Property.

Use the Last Edited (Last Edited Time) Property in your sort and pick descending. That way, you always see the task / project / document on top that you used last.

In your Project Database, create a template for new projects with a simple dashboard. Use self-referential filters to automatically pull in the tasks and documents relevant to the project.

Now all you need is a main dashboard to showcase the most important information. In the next chapter, you’ll find some inspiration for a dashboard that I built for my free Notion Project Management Template.

How to use my Notion Project Management Template

Learn how to use this free Project Management Template for Notion and upgrade your workspace.

Meet Your New Project Management Dashboard in Notion

Notion Project Management Dashboard

The Dashboard of the Template shows you the most important information at a glance and acts as the central page of your Project Management.

On the left, you have a global navigation menu and a Quick Capture Section to note down any thoughts or tasks that come to mind.

In the Status Report, you can

(You can add more stats using The Checkbox Method)

Down below, you get quick access to your current projects with additional views for ideas and the “On Hold” Projects.

Lastly, even though this template is primarily geared towards Project Management, it also comes with basic Task Manager functions (for more, check out this template focusing on Task Management)

Powerful Projects in Notion (with Dynamic Project Templates)

Manage your projects in Notion

The Main Project Page shows all your projects and provides a Kanban Board to track the overall status.

All Projects have their own mini-dashboard.

Project Management Template Notion

Easily Manage Your Tasks

Simple Task Manager in Notion

The separate Tasks Page contains an Inbox that will help you process any inputs quickly (inspired by the famous productivity method Getting Things Done).

You also have various views to quickly see your tasks for today, tasks that are overdue or due soon, delegated tasks and a list of everything you’ve ever done.

Pre-built Sections for Docs & Meetings

In addition to Projects and Tasks, there are two more databases to store all your documents and meeting notes.

Both come with pre-defined templates to organise everything quicker. Plus for meetings, you’ll also have a mini-dashboard to help you run actually helpful meetings (and not just time-drains for everyone)

Take Meeting Notes in Notion

Extensive Setup Guide For Dynamic Project Templates

The Dynamic Project Template Method is at the core of this Notion Template, so I’ve included an extensive guide on how to use it.

This will be particularly helpful if you’re just getting started with Project Management in Notion and are not exactly sure how to implement the method yourself.

Guide for Dynamic Project Management Templates in Notion

And if you’ve got any questions after this, don’t hesitate to ask me anytime (you can find me most often on Twitter)

Customise Project Management in Notion to your needs

Unlike with other productivity tools, you don’t need to follow a narrow system. Instead, Notion allows you to take inspiration from others and build your own perfect system.

Once you start doing Project Management in Notion, consider expanding the functionality with a few of these ideas:

Get Your Free Project Management Template in Notion

Ready to start doing your Project Management in Notion? Here’s your free template.

How do you spend the first two hours of your day? Are you working towards your goals, ticking off one important task after another, continuously making progress? Or do you get swept away by a whirlwind of urgent things that just seem to have magically appeared on your to-do list? In other words, what’s your morning routine like?

One of the most impactful habits that I’ve adopted last year has to be this one: protect the first 25 minutes of your workday and dedicate them to your most important work. Here’s why you should do this and how you can get started:

This article is part of my Habit Challenge 2022 series – where I try out one new habit each month and create a Notion Template around it.

Why protecting your morning matters

Here’s why you should care about your morning routine.

The Planning Fallacy

In my work days, there’s a harsh but simple truth. If I don’t get it done by noon, chances are, I won’t get it done at all.

That’s partly because I am most definitely not an afternoon person and even though I don’t get sleepy anymore thanks to naps and a good sleep routine, I am far from being productive.

The second and much bigger factor though is something called the Planning Fallacy. It describes our inability to adequately guess how long a certain task will take. It’s why we keep putting 10 items on our to-do list even though we KNOW from experience, that we usually get 5 done at best.

In other words, the later you plan to do something in your day, the more likely it is that you’ll run out of time by then. Unexpected problems pop up, other tasks eat up more time or you simply get tired until you get to them.

If something is a priority, do it first (or as early as possible) in your day.

A better state of mind

Onto the benefit that surprised me the most, but that makes a lot of sense in retrospect. In the morning, you’re simply in a different state of mind.

Your brain is fresh from a night of rest and it has not been bombarded with inputs yet. Benjamin Hardy refers to this as a “slow state”, where your train of thoughts hasn’t picked up his full speed yet and thoughts are lingering for longer.

If you could look at your brain chemistry, then you’d notice higher levels of Norepinephrine, epinephrine, and dopamine – which will make it more likely for you to push through friction and work on hard tasks.

The most important thing however, isn’t so much how fast you get to work after you get up. It’s what you do in between that matters.

If your first instinct in the morning is to grab your phone to “quickly check the news” or just scroll a bit through your feed, then you bombard it with input.

Instead of associating freely or letting your subconscious wittle away at some problem, you’ve given your brain something very specific to care about. Something, that you probably don’t really need to think about.

The result? A much more noisy, chaotic and chattery brain.

If you do mediation, try this fun little experiment. Meditate first thing in the morning. Now do it once after scrolling your phone for 10 minutes. The difference is – quite literally – mindboggling.

1% better every day = 37.78 times better after a year

Lastly, 25 minutes might not sound like much, but you’d be surprised at just how much you can get done if you work on it for 25 minutes each day for a year.

That’s because we have a hard time understanding the power of compounding small gains.

Sure, checking your emails each morning for 25 minutes most likely won’t amount to much.

However, learn a new skill, start a side project or think about how your life is shaping up and your growth will massively pick up speed.

The difference between these two kind of 25 minute activities?

One of them focuses on the urgent; the ever present stream of tasks that seem to never stop – in other words, on surviving the short game.

The other tackles the important. Things that pay off later, where small benefits accumulate over time to create something bigger. You’re playing the long game.

How to get started with your new morning routine

Great so now we know that it’s important to protect our mornings. But how do we actually do that?

There are tons of morning routines out there on the internet (and one day I’ll surely write about mine). We’re just getting started here though so let’s focus on just one thing: how to protect the first 25 minutes of your day.

Need help with your morning routine? Here’s a free Notion Template

Protecting the first 25 minutes of your day can be hard. If you’re used to grab your phone first thing in the morning, then this will be a hard habit to change.

One easy trick that can make things easier is the use of a habit tracker. That’s why I designed a super simple Habit Tracker in Notion Template, that you can download below. Ditch your phone and be more present during your morning routine.

or

Diminishing Returns vs Compounding Gains

Ever since I started writing my blog last year in September, I spent the first 25 minutes of my day working on it. I continued to do so while studying full-time for my bar exams the past 4 months. I only stopped two weeks ago, the day before the start of my exams. Why?

Well, first and foremost, it‘s a lot of fun. And from my experience throughout 8 years of law school & bar exam preparation, it helps tremendously if you have something fun to do during times of intense studying.

Secondly, my early posts covered various aspects of how to study more effectively. My hope was that writing in public about learning strategies would help me reflect more and force me to actually apply what I was reading about – in other words, putting insight into action.

But apart from it being a fun activity & maybe even a facilitator for studying, there‘s one more aspect to it:

Spending another 25 minutes a day preparing for an exam that takes most of my cognitive attention anyway has very little additional benefit.

It‘s a case of greatly diminished returns.

What‘s more, those 25 minutes could have a big impact if used for literally anything else.

Tiny improvements, done regularly over a long period of time, compound to massive gains. James Clear illustrates this well in his book Atomic Habits with this graphic. Improving something by 1% every day means that it will be 37 times better by the end of the year.

So how to find these activities where additional time will compound instead of diminish?

That‘s a good question and I haven‘t found a clear answer yet. But I found some aspects that these areas of compounding effects have in common:

So next time I‘m thinking: „ah, I‘d love to do that but I really don‘t have time for this“, I should instead ask myself: „How much time would it actually take to do so? And what do I spend this time on right now? Does that additional time compound or diminish?“.

It doesn’t mean that efficiency and ROI are the only two metrics that count when I decide how I want to spent my time.

But it‘s a helpful framework to help overcome the illusion that „I just don‘t have time“.

You want more resources on how to improve your learning, waste less time and get more out of your study sessions? Check out the Effective Learning Hub.

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