8 Notion databases to help you focus on your tasks this week and pave the way for your career

Updates:

• Convert the “Checked” property from Checkbox into Status property.
  Well, there are some tasks that need to hand over to others or are waiting for approval, so the “Pending” status appears. And the magic of this new property is that it is exhibited in different ways in different pages.
  - In database views, it can be shown as Checkbox, which is more practical in most cases.
  - But in the page view of that task, it can be shown as Select. Hence, when the task is pending, select it in the page view.
• Update the formula property to show a sign if the pre-task(s) is done or not.
  Due to Formula 2.0 of Notion is released, the previous version does not work anymore. But I also delete one property to make it neater thanks to the update.

If you are interested in Notion after reading the post, you can use my referral link to register a free account which is super useful.

• https://affiliate.notion.so/jqt77x3qxmea

Also, feel free to ask questions if you have any. Thank you! No keep going, the below is the full instruction of my database set.

In recent years, various task management software and methods have emerged, and everyone has been sharing their own task management systems online. But based on the nature and content of the work at the time, as well as the customization capabilities of various software, I had basically summarized everyone’s experience and spent one or two months setting up a seemingly perfect system, then I gave up after no more than two weeks of use.

Until recently, when I switched to trade finance, the variety and quantity of tasks made me build a brand new system in Notion again. This time, I tried to operate in a pure recording way for three months before taking advantage of Notion’s new features to successfully connect several databases. This enabled comprehensive connection of task management, customer management, investment management, accounting management and knowledge management. To put it a bit grandly, I made them interconnect instead of being independent individuals. This is also why I have never been used to using individual task management software, such as OmniFocus, Reminders, Sorted 3, and Things 3, because I have never found the reason to retain these “dirty data”.

I have seen a comment from an entrepreneur before: the excellent employees around me use notebooks to handle tasks, not reminder software. This made me suddenly enlightened! The problem with task management software is that it only records individual steps, but more things here are the antecedents and consequences of these steps, as well as the people and things related to them. Improving efficiency and self-awareness is only one side, yet if you need to rely on it to save your life, you may be glad you made the decision.

1. Databases Preview

This article focuses on the content related to the task management system.

Task Management Database: 11 functional views have been created, with all important metadata recorded.

The timeline view can view:

• All completed or uncompleted tasks within the week, including subtasks and pre- and post-tasks, such as: Task A done on 01/02/2023, Task B undone on 02/02/2023
• Pre-tasks with subsequent tasks within the week, regardless of completion, such as Task C done on 20/12/2022 which yet has a post-task D in this week
• Tasks not completed in the past: Task E undone on 15/01/2023

• Monthly summary, meeting minutes, habit tracking

• Plan Database: Displays progress of the project based on workload or time period.
• Goal Database: Uses the P.A.R.A. method.
• Career Database: Classifies and organizes work.
• Resource, CRM, Company Database: External information needed.
• Note Database: Independent database to keep neat and motivate active organization. This method refers to What nobody tells you about documentation, classifying notes into 4 categories.

The task management database is the most complex and contains the most content, as it is the only one I use every day. However, this does not mean the system has a high cost of use. On the contrary, I left a lot of freedom, as I cannot reach the level of “one man is an army”. It only has necessary elements and some fields that need to be linked to other databases. Unless necessary, I don’t let them show relations in two databases at the same time.

Below, I will try to introduce how I set up and use this system as completely as possible. You can refer to creating a system of your own, or you can directly purchase my templates.

2. Database Construction

The principle of the whole system is to not increase entities without necessity. Everything starts from my actual work; some content may be redundant for some people, so please delete it.

Task Database

The timeline view can display three types of tasks simultaneously in the timeline view:

• All completed or uncompleted tasks, including subtasks, pre-tasks, and cross-week tasks
• Pre-tasks with subsequent tasks within this week, regardless of whether the subsequent tasks are completed or not
• Uncompleted tasks from the past

In addition to the parent task, sub-task, pre-task, and post-task fields, the following fields need to be set:

• A formula field to find the task end date
• Four rollup fields to find the start and end dates of the first and last tasks, respectively

Secondly, the post-task has a sequence, so two additional fields need to be set to determine if the pre-task is completed:

• A rollup field to find the completion of the pre-task(s)
• A formula field to display a flag as a reminder according to the previous field

In addition, you can view the following content in the system:

• Meeting minutes
• Monthly summary
• Habit tracking

You can also use plugins to connect the database and Google Sheet to create your own data visualizations.

Finally, to accomplish all of this, I created 25 fields, multiple preset (looping) templates, 11 different types of views, and some preset structures.

Don’t be intimidated by the number of fields; you don’t need to fill in every one, and about 10 of them are content that doesn’t need to be modified to work. You can also delete unnecessary functions, such as fields related to habit tracking.

Plan Database

Some tasks belong to certain projects, so I created a relation field between the two. Some projects have a clear deadline, so I divided them into two categories and displayed the completion progress according to the category.

Using it, you need to choose whether the project is based on a time period or the amount of tasks to display the completion status. If it is based on the time period, it will calculate the progress from the deadline to today; if it is based on the amount of tasks, it will count the completion status of all tasks belonging to the project; if you manually adjust the project to any completed sub-stages, it will directly display the completion rate as 100%. To do this, you need the following fields:

• Date
• Selection field to judge progress category
• Rollup field to look up completion task status
• 2 formula fields to finally achieve the above functions

I also set up a project template to help you organize all related content, including background, resources, results, etc.

Cell Database

For the Cell database, which is the goals in my opinion, I adjusted the P.A.R.A. method according to my own understanding, without using the common KPI or OKR, because I think these are too vague or idealistic for me. I can clearly see the abilities and directions I want to improve or go.

A template is also preset.

Career Database

The biggest difference between the Cell database and the Career database is that the Cell database allows for refining, while the career database contains specific job content. This database can be also added a field to select different companies, making it useful for a long time, but there is no concept of changing jobs at present. The biggest role for me is to report the specific results of each job, or modify the resume.

Company & CRM Databases

These two databases together form my customer relationship management system, which records customer information separately and links with task and project databases.

Resource Database

This database only has the function of information clipping. When executing projects, I need to collect a lot of information and output reports based on them, including economic data and industry news. Therefore, I will collect the information to Notion, annotate it, and copy and paste it into the report.

Note Database

For the permanent note database, it is recommended to directly view the first-hand information: What nobody tells you about documentation. The only modification I made was to help you set up the link between notes and topics in advance with the latest sub-task function of Notion, as well as create simple structures.

Home Page

Finally, this is my preset home page, which is also my work center.

3. Is it worth spending money or energy to build this system?

You may have seen that the content is getting less and less. In fact, if there is no need, you don’t need so much information. The subsequent databases are just a way of carrying information records in this big system for me. These databases contain many fields and preset templates, but you can set the corresponding fields according to your own needs, instead of reading my tens of thousands of words, otherwise you will make the same mistake I did in the beginning.

Of course, if you need a more detailed introduction, you can buy the template. It clearly explains the role of each field, the use of preset templates or structures, and my usage process.

Finally, this is the complete process of using these databases. This system did not help me successfully jump from the Internet to the financial industry, so don’t have unrealistic hopes. However, it did help me manage all my daily work. Its role is management rather than innovation, just like OmniFocus. If your work type and quantity are not much, don’t waste money or energy, put them in the direction that is really beneficial to you.

4. Template Links

You can also buy them from the following links if you are lazy ahaha. Enjoy your trip!

• Task Management System Introduction and Template: https://delmar.gumroad.com/l/jxaghh
• All Database Introduction and Template: https://delmar.gumroad.com/l/igcwm

5. My Referral Links

Recently, I successfully registered the latest Affiliates Plan of Notion. If this post helped you and you happened to like Notion, maybe you can try my referral links. Super appreciate it!

• Notion Account Registration: https://affiliate.notion.so/jqt77x3qxmea
• Notion AI Subscription: https://affiliate.notion.so/1en8gzzz5o0v-4y5a7

You might also interest in this Notion template:

Revolutionizing Task Management: The Ultimate Notion Setup Merged by OmniFocus 4