I feel like I’ve been shuffling through many task management applications for years. And, I came to the conclusion that task management in Notion is the home run for me.
I used Trello to manage my undergraduate workload and my research work while keeping my personal tasks in Any. do… Although these apps did a fairly good job, it was all a bit scattered, and I really needed a centralized place where I could manage everything.
I have been using Notion for managing almost everything from the beginning of my undergraduate life. So, I also wanted my tasks and projects to be able to seamlessly connect to my daily journal, my project database, and to all the other relevant places.
Clearly, I needed to move my task management into Notion. And after months of experimentation and testing, I’ve finally accomplished that with my “Master task database” for Notion.
After managing all my tasks in Notion for more than a year, I came to the conclusion that, if you want to manage everything in one place instead of wasting your time shifting through many apps, task management in Notion is the best way to do it!
At this point, it was obvious to me that having a task management system that you can completely customize to meet your needs would be the ideal task management solution. This is where most tools available for task management are lacking to fulfill your needs.
After using so many task management tools, I realized that the most powerful features of those apps might be a great weakness for someone.
Right now, there isn’t much in between list-making tools like Reminders and project management/task management tools like OmniFocus, Things, or Todoist.
For people who don’t need or want the features that make these apps unique (Recurring tasks, Notifications, Project structures & statuses, Defer/start dates, etc.), task management in Notion might be the home run.
Notion provides you the ability to build your own task management system based on your lifestyle.
Besides, You have the full authority to make it your own. You can also use the excellent features of Notion to keep track of everything, everywhere. So that you will not miss anything, ever again, I’ll show you how!
First off, understanding the basics of task management is essential before diving into creating a system of task management in Notion.
One of the amazing features of the Notion is that it allows you to “Filter” the database content.
This was game-changing for me. Because, I was able to see my daily, weekly, and monthly tasks separately when I was updating those sections. And also to add tasks from anywhere with tags which helped me to sort and filter tasks as I wanted.
Ultimately my linked tasks database has become a neural network that enhanced my productivity.
Because you don’t have to go to a specific place to add or see the tasks assigned for any given day, week, or month. You will see your tasks everywhere!
This is where that so-called concept “Creating a second brain” in Notion comes into action. The main points of task management in Notion are,
1. Creating a master task database
This is where all of your tasks (You can add tasks from any of your linked task databases) will appear. You don’t have to visit this page often unless you want to track your progress or to check how you handled your tasks over time. I just happened to come to my master task database after 4 months to take this screenshot!.
Because you always see your tasks where you want them to appear. This is another indication for task management in Notion is more efficient.
I use some fancy equations to generate visual progress bars. They are important when you are tracking tasks every day. Because you will not have time to read everything.
These track bars show your progress visually, and you can figure out where you are by a quick glance. This makes your task management in Notion much versatile. You will find all of these features in the free template.
2. Creating routine tracking databases
If you have already dragged most of your life into your Notion workspace, Why not create routine tracking databases?! It will come in handy when you combine those databases with the task management database. You can simply develop databases and track your daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly progress.
This is where I realized task management in Notion would be the best idea for me to thrive in my personal and professional life. I visit my journal every day and make sure that I do not miss anything. And, I add my daily tasks from there (See the screenshot below).
I usually check in to my journal page in the middle of the day sometimes, in case I feel lost. So that I can take a glance at the assigned tasks for the day from there. I never ever change my schedule and tasks in the middle of the day. This way, my tenderness to procrastinate decreased drastically over the last few months.
At the end of the day, I visit the journal and track my progress.
3. Creating Linked Databases from the master task database on each page
If you have separate projects going on, you must have some tasks assigned to those projects. You do not need to go to the master task database to create a new task for that.
It can be filtered and linked to your project page to add tasks directly from there. This makes task management in Notion much more effective. It gets better than that, filters can be used to automatically assign a tag to your tasks. (You can add your project name as a tag). And, the sorting will be done automatically by Notion.
4. Creating filters for each page from the master task database
You do not have to link your master task database directly to a different page. The new page you are connecting to your master task database could be your journal, weekly schedule, or a project page, as mentioned earlier. It would be better if you can sort tasks for each page/database.
So that you can see the tasks relevant to that specific page/database. As an example, for your journal, it would be better to only see the tasks assigned on that particular day. Otherwise, it is hard to concentrate on the tasks because you will see the tasks assigned yesterday and tomorrow. Maybe you completed them already. So, no point in seeing them today.
Unnecessary entries can be filtered out by using the filter function. By applying filters, you can see what you wanted to see on a given page.
5. Free template
Apart from a master task database, this template includes project planning and routine tracking databases and a project management system.
Like nearly all of my Notion templates, this task and project manager template is 100% free.
However, I’d love it if you entered your email in the field below and joined my Notion tips email list so that I could let you know when I release new Notion templates.
If you want to learn how to get the most out of Notion, I believe you’ll really enjoy this list.
The project management system is influenced by the exciting article written by Thiago Fortes, “Building a Second Brain.”
6. In Summary
Not only does the Notion have tremendous potential to be the best task management app, task management in Notion is also already more efficient than other dedicated systems developed for the same purpose.
Task management in Notion, can be compelling because the app itself can connect disparate sources of essential tasks, documents, etc. in one place.
Comment below to share your thoughts on managing tasks in Notion!
Images courtesy:
Business vector created by gstudioimagen – www.freepik.com, Idea vector created by stories – www.freepik.com, Calendar vector created by pch.vector – www.freepik.com, Notion Icon by Alex Martinov on Iconscout , Image by Freepik
Hi Aruna!
Just working through your article and examples. I’m still learning Notion, sometimes it seems so easy and other times it is truly frustrating and I’m not sure what’s going on.
I’ve been mostly working with the idea of creating two basic items; a daily journal where I create a new item for each activity I’m working on, phone call, meeting, just notes. In one view I create a review entry that creates a journal item that contains a db that pulls the past week of journal notes, within the note I just created.
My problem is that I don’t know how to create a consolidated view of tasks that are in all the notes. I’m looking at your article to figure out how to do this.
The second is a dashboard, that just has things that need to be top of mind for work, personal and family items.
Thanks for your article, I am motivated to try to make this work.
You’re welcome, Greg! Notion might not be the most comfortable platform to get used to. But, to me, that’s the whole point. Once you grab the basics, there will be no limitations!🙂
In your case, My suggestion is to use a note-taking database and a task management database (As I discussed in this article) and link it to your journal. This is what I do. And it works perfectly!
Please let me know how things progress, and you can always reach me over email anytime too! Good luck!
Hi Aruna –
Thanks for the great information. Very helpful, as I just started in Notion three days ago and am trying to figure out a workable task management system.
I’d like to use your template if it’s still available. Unfortunately, after filling out the info in the fields and submitting the form above, I’m not allowed to access the template. I realize this is almost two years later, but would you still be willing to share the template? Thank you.
Hello,
You’re welcome! Thank you for letting me know about the accessibility issue. You will now have access to the template😊
Good luck in creating a system that works best for you!
Referring to step 1. “This is where all of your tasks (You can add tasks from any of your linked task databases) will appear. ” Do you have to add your tasks on vary databases and products to this Parent task list or is there a way to have the automatically generate on to that list.
Hello Lulu,
This system is designed so that you can add a task from any page, including the parent task database. It will automatically filter the task and appear in your ‘sub’ level task databases.
It’s done by adding different ‘filters’.