I really like the tip at 18:25 about sorting the automated task by "date created". The button feature also listed tasks in reverse and I never thought about this sorting idea. Thank you!
Something that I wanted them to add is putting a backlink to a page that was created by triggering a new page from another database. if you create a page on database [A] which resulted to creating a new page in Database [B] using automation. you should be able to choose if you wanted to add a backlink to it. this way tracing the flow is easier as you knew 2 pages are connected with each other via a backlink.
I applied the default tasks principle to automate phases of a project that I needed to show on a timeline and it worked wonders! In my timeline database, I used a rollup to pull pull the due date from the project page and the dateSubstract formula to configure the execution time and due date of each phase in relation to the due date of the project. Thank you for sharing your precious knowledge!
one of the best thing I figured out in automation that I'm so exited about is the Checkboxes. You can make checkboxes Act like a button. Trigger [ When Check box is edited ] Action [ Add page to another database Choose a template ] [ edit Checkbox to [] Unchecked ] with this you technically make a button out of checkbox. you can use this as buy button to add a new page to "Sales" database.
Excellent video! I've been using the button feature, so very manual. But this is a time saver. This is forcing me to use Project for more of my work! Thank you 🙂
Glad you enjoyed it! And I agree; feels like the next step over buttons. Still needs a lot of additional features to replace some of the Pipedream scripts I've built, but I anticipate we'll see those added over time.
I love your videos Thomas, thank you also for the "disclaimer" noting how this feature requires payment I've been looking forward for Notion to add automations, many of our organizational processed are automated using other applications and now we have a great opportunity to fully migrate to Notion - I love it 🔥
Glad you enjoyed the video! Hopefully I struck the balance well - I wanted to frontload that disclaimer without positioning it as an immediate turn-off
@@ThomasFrankExplains Your concern in well understood. Personally, I stopped watching after the disclaimer, but it also has an effect of increased trust and respect - these led me to write this comment. I hope those who leave like me do feel the same ☺️🚀🔥
Working on a new video now! It's just tough to get back on a content schedule at the moment because I'm basically a CEO and near full time developer right now. Currently onboarding my 11th team member and trying to get him up to speed 😅
Thank you for this! Channels like yours are essential for me to keep track of all the regular updates on Notion, and how I could use them for my own work and life :) Looking forward to the next one!
I noticed the little lightning bolt a few days ago and now this video pops up! Right on time!! I’m definitely integrating some cool automations within my professional workspace.
Great video thanks for sharing! Quick question...is there any way to pull property data from the database you're setting up the automation for to the new one that you're adding the date to? For reference, I am automating my sales into a sales tracker, but then want to link that sale, via relation property to my Master Client List, but I'm not seeing a way to do this. If I create an automation to add page to Master Client List, It's not giving me the option to pull the client name/data from the sales tracker, which is not very efficient.
Great video! I wish there was a way to make a template for default tasks instead of automations, it's easier to see what you are building with a template,.
I agree. Unfortunately, without Automations there's no way for the creation of one page to trigger the creation of other new pages. So if you were to add pages in the linked database within a template, they'd always be the same pages in each instance of that template.
@@ThomasFrankExplains Eagerly waiting for your comeback sir Thomas ! Your videos introduced me to an organized approach to life. Excel Sheets, Books, Video Editing, even Marshall speakers are all inspired by you. Have checked your Main RU-vid page, Twitter, Instagram and even this page for updates on your return. One thing I can say for sure, there are fellow RU-vidrs like you around who have been consistently posting and have great content, but you are different Thomas. You have created content on certain processes, Habits, Books, Techniques all of them years before they became mainstream. Thank you from the bottom of my Heart. Love from India. 🙌🏻
Is it possible to create a custom page title? So not a static value for the title but a value of your automation? I want to create a new page in another database when a new multi-select is added. Ideally, the new page title would be the same value as my added multi-select value.
Not just yet - Automations can't really pass context from the trigger to the action step yet. Hopefully they'll add that in the future, as there are countless uses for it.
Great video! So stoked about Time Tracking. Anyway you think you can get a "pause" feature for time tracking going (i.e. bathroom break, lunch, etc. that I don't want necessarily tracked into my final number) ? I'd love to see your thoughts on that.
I can't think of a way to do that right now. I think you'd need an actual timer/stopwatch feature to do that without a whole lot of friction. There IS a Toggl API, however, so it should be possible to build an integration between the two!
PAUSING A TASK Hey @Thomas, Thanks for the high qality and informative Video! I really like the setup in general, at the same time one from my perspective key element is missing: The option to pause the tracking and continue at a later stage.- At least I did not see this option yet. How would you approach this? I already tried the simple way with creating further autmations that "end" the tracking when the task is put "on hold". But once I put it back to "in progress" the tracker starts counting from 0 again. Do you get what I mean? How would you approach this issue? Thanks in advance
Thank you for doing this insanely helpful videos while being super nerdy with the examples! The way you explain tech is amazing and I learn a lot about teaching from your videos :) One question: is the vampire you found a friend because I got an invite? :) Who was it?
great video as always Thomas, thank you. re the reverse sorting, buttons to the same too if creating steps in a database, so I typically created steps in a button in the reverse order to how I want them speaking of buttons, it would be great if a button could be converted into an automation, as lets face it, lots us will have taken time creating buttons as a solution before the automation came along
I'm really pleased with the decision to take over the company "Automate". Being a past Automate user, I'm delighted to see how wonderfully Notion has blended their superb service.
Hi Thomas, thanks for the video, I implemented some stuff from here but I have run into some errors in Notion that you might want to adress. Among other things I use notion as a journal, sleep tracker and habit tracker. I have set up a daily repeating Journal entry (untill yesterday this was the case for the sleep and habits DBs too) I then set up an automation that whenever a page is added to the journal it should create a page in the sleep and tracking DBs and link them, it does not seeem to work. T.L.D.R.: Repeating DB entries do not trigger the "Page Added" trigger and that is a bummer because I want these things to work in the background
Ah yep, right now the recurring templates feature doesn't trigger Automations. They only trigger when a user makes a change. In this case though, creating the journal page doesn't seem like a huge lift since you'll need to write in it anyway! You could perhaps bridge the gap with a simple Pipedream automation, though I still need to test if edits by bot users will trigger these automations.
@@ThomasFrankExplains I tested with zapier and it does trigger the automation, another thing that does NOT trigger the automation is another automation. Let's say that my journal creates an entry in the habits db, the habits db has an automation that whena page is added it does stuff, that stuff is never done.
@@romainjacob288 It would, I know that can put a strain on Notion's backend but there must be a solution to solve this without giving users a limited feature. If one were to get creative I bet he would be able to create an infinite loop anyway. I would also be happy with a way to trigger buttons from Pipedream or Zapier
Great video. I have a question, though: Let's say I have a brain dump page and an official to-do list page. On both there is one database. The brain dump page has a database shown as a list, where I can create some to-dos, while brainstorming. (so I don't need to leave the page to create to-dos within the official to-do list page.) How can I create a “transfer automation” which does the following: I create a to-do within the brain dump to-do list. Ones that are created, it will be automatically depicted in the official to-do list. Until now, I was only able to create the following: ones I created a brain dump to-do, a new page was created in my official to-do list page, but the notes i wrote within the brain dump to-do are not transferred.
Hola Thomas, Thank you so much for always explaining things in a clear and understandable way, I have learned so much about Notion just from watching your videos, muchas gracias :) I have a question on one of the things you showed in your video, when you have a template for your "project" DB that has a linked view of the "Tasks" DB, how did you filter it and sorted it so that it would only show the tasks related to that project page? Thanks again and I hope you get to see my message .
First, you need to go on the Tasks DB and create a 'Relation' between 'Tasks' and the 'Project' DB. Once you created it, you can now edit/create your template "New project" where inside of it you put the linked view of the Tasks DB. Then on this 'Tasks' view, build an advanced filter where "Project" 'contains' the template title (which it is 'New project' in this example). With this setup, every time you create a new project and modify its title, the tasks associated with that project will automatically be filtered accordingly. And you can finally sort it as you wish! Hope I helped
Yep! You can start with my Notion Fundamentals playlist: ru-vid.com/group/PLzyqWC0hTxc-4cuvDjb1eTMes0OoFV2B_ I also have written versions for each lesson, and a ton of cheat sheets and other resources, here: thomasjfrank.com/fundamentals/
Isn't it possible to create a new database just for time tracking, and then having multiple start and end times for each working session. With rollups we could then "summarize" the time worked on a task. What are your thoughts on this?
Thanks for doing this! I try to built a kind of automated database and I would like to link a column to another one but with a selection. The column NAME contain the name of each program and I would like to built a column that show the program that must be done first before this one. So I would like to have a selection field but that is dynamic with the first column so if I add a new program (row in the table) it ll appear in the selection list! Is it possible?
If I create a new task within a project, is it possible to have certain properties within that task (like priority, area, goal, etc) auto populate to reflect those properties that are in the parent project? Similarly, is it possible to have this task auto relate itself to the parent project?
Ultimate Brain can work for both, but is designed primarily for personal use. If you're running a team or working with one, keep your eyes peeled - we're working on a Notion course for teams!
Hi, am I the only one experincing an error when I am playing with the content table? Every time the automation is supposed to create another page in the other DB, the automation goes into pause mode .... any idea what is going on?
Thank you Thomas. I have the ultimate brain and content creator template as well. Will your new updates be included or would I have to repurchase. PS - Are you using OBS? How do you go from the circle filter to full screen so seamlessly? You’re a legend!
Since these Automations require a paid account to build and edit, we aren't going to be adding any of them to our templates for the time being. The main reason for this is that while people on the free Notion plan can use Automations in templates, they can't edit them or make new ones. This means we'd have to ship all-new versions of the templates every time we added an automation, and free Notion users wouldn't be able to update their own copies of the templates. They'd have to migrate to a new copy every time we updated the automations, and migration is extremely difficult and time-consuming due to the way Notion is set up. Sadly, this is a Notion feature that just doesn't play well with large, frequently-updated templates. So what we're doing instead is building a playlist of tutorials in our community that will teach users how to build Automations into the templates: community.thomasjfrank.com/c/notion-database-automations/ Since you have UB, you should have access to that link! And if you're on Notion's free plan, check out our Notion automation hub as well: thomasjfrank.com/notion-automations/ - right now we're focused on creating lots of free automations using Pipedream, and we're getting close to shipping versions that require nearly zero manual setup. You'll be able to just copy the automations I've built into your own free Pipedream account without any manual setup.
@@ThomasFrankExplains I appreciate your thoughtful and quick reply Thomas! Thank you for your hard work and sharing your passion and gifts with us mere mortals. I’ll check out the link you provided. I am in desperate need of cleaning out my Notion as it’s gotten disorganized and unwieldy due to crazy work timelines and personal stuff. Hope you had an excellent weekend. Take care.
This is a great video. Thanks. I'm trying to duplicate tasks set up in my client portals into to my private master task db as a way of having a master workspace that is not exposed to my clients. I couldn't seem to find this functionality. I have been trying to go back to a master task DB for ages but can never seem to quite get there. Any thoughts on this or sharing tasks with clients without exposing an entire DB would be amazing. Thanks.
I've done this in a one-way fashion for our talent team at Nebula, but right now it requires using the API. I ended up building a JavaScript automation in Pipedream to do it. If you want to explore that route, this is a good place to start: thomasjfrank.com/notion-api-crash-course/ I'm really hoping Notion will give us more granular permissions tools to solve this in the future!
seems a bit limiting. i have a db with a date property and a relation to another db. In the other db every page is a month of the year. i wanted each time i edit the date on the first db to automatically change its relation link to the page that corresponds to the appropriate month. as far as i can tell its not possible. not with automations or formula 2.0
How is the filter working within the default page "Content Projects" to automatically filter for only the tasks created for the new project? When I create a project, and have it create automated task, within the project page, the database shows all pages in the task database..
That's done with a self-referential filter - you can learn about those here! thomasjfrank.com/notion-databases-the-ultimate-beginners-guide/#self-referential-filters
Excellent review as usual! Can you confirm that Notion does NOT allow an automated recurring template to serve as a trigger? I tried "Page added" and "Any property edited" with no success.
We do when we can, though usually not immediately. Updating a template is a huge undertaking - it involves making and testing updates, often re-doing documentation, and creating super-detailed upgrade guides for customers because migrating from an old template copy to a new one is extremely difficult and time consuming. So we always have to take a measured approach and decide if the new feature is worth trying to build in, or if we should just make tutorial content so people can add the feature in if they want. For this feature in particular, I mention near the end of this video that we won't be adding it into our templates directly for the time being. The reason is that Automations can only be created or edited if you're on a paid Notion plan, so it makes the issue of template migration even more severe. For any of our customers who is on the Free Notion plan, they won't be able to upgrade to any Automations we add. So instead, we're adding template-related Automation tutorials in our community. It's the best path we can think of right now - otherwise we risk essentially requiring people to be on a paid Notion plan to use our templates.
I was a little disappointed by this update, to be honest. Perhaps the best use case I have for this is that I have it create a task for me to check my client's check-ins when they create a new page in their check-in database. That's REALLY nice, but what would've been nicer would be just to send me a notification. But a lot of the other stuff this does can be done with buttons...
As an automation nerd, I definitely feel the limitations right now - but I’m anticipating they’ll add a lot more features over time. This is the kind of feature that really needs to be rolled out slowly and refined over time. That said: for your use case, could you make an automation in your client databases that sends you a Slack notification?
Yep, that could be pretty powerful! I'll note that I did test this out with Recurring Templates, but right now they won't trigger an automation. I'm guessing Notion needs to do some additional work on that combo.
@@ThomasFrankExplains oh I actually I thought it would, haven't tried myself. So the trigger has to be currently by users im assuming. Notion u listening?
@@irfanadamm5819 yep, exactly. I'm sure they considered letting recurring templates trigger automations as well, but a feature like this probably needs a LOT of internal testing for unintended consequences. Even this current limited feature set introduces some danger for inexperienced users!
It's limited for sure, but I can see the foundation for a lot of power once a few extra features are added. Primarily we need to be able to pass context through triggers and reference other property values when choosing action values. My guess is that those two pieces are going to take a loooooot of testing to pull off without a ton of bugs and issues. Fortunately, we've got the API in the mean time!
at 19:03, I don't understand how you can link all the Tasks inside the Content Projects row by automation? all I can think of is rollup, but even so, all the tasks will be in the same property unlike what you have. and I even have to do it manually, not by automation
The real magic behind that part is the Self-Referential Filter, which I set up beforehand. Here's how it works: thomasjfrank.com/notion-databases-the-ultimate-beginners-guide/#self-referential-filters
Is there anyway to remove the assigned user when status is switched to done? The way I see it I can just add a user in this system property or change it - but not remove the current one :-/
Right now, it'll just add a lot of hours - e.g. 157 hours if there were like 6 days between start and finish. But that could be improved just by updating the formula a bit :)
Thomas, can I use something like "Use Template XYZ" as an action? I've created a template in a database that contains a code box that I need and set that as a default. However, when a new row is added in that database via Zapier, Notion does not use that template. Is there any way I can make Notion use the template if the new row is triggered via Zapier?
You can choose a page template with this new Automations feature, but not via the API unfortunately. It's the only ability Automations has that the API doesn't, as far as I'm aware! Myself and other ambassadors have definitely requested that feature be added to the API, so hopefully we'll get it soon.
Thank you for requesting that! So to be clear: if I upgrade to have Notion automations, I can make all these new rows created via Zapier use my template, whereas if I don’t have a pro account to access the automation feature, I can’t?
@@dr.holiday you still wont' be able to apply the templates via Zapier, as the API just doesn't have that ability yet. Currently there are no paid features in the API - all of its capabilities are available for free. If you upgrade, you can use this Automations feature directly to make new pages with a template applied. Hope that helps!
@@ThomasFrankExplains So I just did the upgrade to use Automations and made it work that with every new page that is pushed through via the API, Automations creates a new page that applies my template. However, for that new page with the template, I haven't figured out how to set properties like page title etc. dynamically, meaning that they are equal to the page that I pushed via the API. Tried merge tags as well but that hasn't worked neither. Is there a way to do this?
Notion still is not done with the routines the right way - to do a task on a certain day each week for example. Can I use it for my routines? I have the column with the weekdates, can I use it to post my routine to a certain day(s) each week upfront for a month ahead?
What happens when you have one task list and let’s say you have a database of projects that you have setup with automation tasks that appear every time you start a new project in that database. If the tasks are all named the same thing each time you create a project, wouldn’t the task database be impossible to decipher which tasks go with which project? Is there a way to make the tasks unique in some way, or would you just have to manually edit the task name so you didn’t have like 5 tasks all named “write script”?
yeah but the automations only work with constant values. it would be great to have an automation do something somewhere with a value existing in a database property (ie a variable). for example a value, text, formula
Sounds like a great feature, but still waiting for offline mode. This kind of features look nice, when they first released and I think the minority of users will use them :(
I think they're definitely targeting business users with this. I doubt we'll see offline mode for a long time, if ever. There's an incredibly vocal minority that keeps asking for it, but Notion is architected as a multiplayer tool and their revenue comes entirely from teams using it. I'd love to see an offline mode myself, but now that I understand the architecture better, I understand why it's so hard. A tool like Obsidian is better suited to offline use, since it's built entirely around personal use and locally-stored files.
@@elij8852 in 2023 there are things to help with hair loss. Aging is natural and so is hair loss but I'm the same age as Thomas and THAT feels excessive. Plus I don't think him being bald will ever be a good look on him. Christ man 😮💨
@@wisdomtoast6751 a.) You're right that there are ways to deal with hair loss, but solutions like Rogaine are temporary if it works at all (it's better suited for balding at the crown than at the hairline) and Finasteride has some potentially life-ruining side effects b.) He has a strong jawline and a proportional head-size/regular cranium shape, so he can make it work c.) His hairline isn't receding that much, especially for his age (33?). If yours is better, than good for you, but it's common for white men to see some recession by their early-mid thirties. If he styles his hair like he does in the video, it's virtually unnoticible.
