Why you need a master task database in Notion

Summary

The video explains how to create a master task database in Notion to track all your tasks in one place. It shows how you can link this database to your weekly or daily agenda to filter and surface only the tasks you need to see at any time. This keeps your workspace organized, saves you time, and allows you to plan projects and assign tasks across your business or personal life while maintaining one unified view of your outstanding to-dos.

Takeaways

• 😀 Create a master tasks database to consolidate tasks from across workspaces
• 📝 Surface master tasks in weekly/daily agendas to focus only on relevant tasks
• 🔀 Embed master tasks database in various workspaces using linked databases
• 👥 Include personal, business, team member tasks in master database
• 🗂 Refine views of embedded database to show most useful info
• 📅 Assign master tasks to specific weeks for better project planning
• 📈 Filter tasks by status/assignee to customize task views
• 🖼 Show tasks in gallery, board, calendar to fit your planning style
• 📤 Archive completed tasks monthly to prevent master DB bloat
• ⛺ Create templates with default task views to save setup time

Q & A

What is a master task database and why is it useful?

A master task database is a central database in Notion that contains all your tasks across different areas of your life and work. It's useful because it allows you to view, track, and manage all your tasks in one place instead of having them scattered across different databases.

How does the author surface tasks from the master database?

The author surfaces tasks from the master database by embedding it in different workspaces like her weekly agenda. This allows her to filter and view only the tasks that are relevant for that week or day.

Why does the author archive completed tasks every month?

The author archives completed tasks monthly to prevent the master task database from becoming too large and unwieldy over time as more and more tasks are added.

What are some ways to filter the embedded task database?

Some ways to filter the embedded task database are by client, project, assignee, due date, tags, or any other database property. You can create custom views to only surface the most relevant tasks.

Where else can you embed the master task database?

Besides the weekly or daily agenda, you can also embed the master task database in individual project pages to show all tasks related to that project. Or in dashboards and any other pages where having task visibility would be helpful.

What happens to views when embedding the database?

Unfortunately, any views you've created in the original master database do not carry over when you embed it. You have to recreate any views you want for the embedded version.

How are tasks assigned to specific weeks?

When setting up her weekly agenda, the author goes through and manually assigns relevant tasks from the master database to that specific week. This allows her to see what her focuses are for the week at a glance.

Why create a template for embedded databases?

Creating a template saves time if you will be embedding master task databases in multiple places. You can set up the filters, views, and properties once and then simply spin up new instances from the template.

Can you embed the same database multiple times?

Yes, you can embed the same master task database multiple times, for example showing tasks for Client 1 in one embedded version and Client 2 in another.

What happens when tasks are completed?

When tasks are completed, the author will often move them from the embedded weekly view into her daily journal entry as a record of what was accomplished.

Outlines

00:00

📝 Overview of using a master task database in Notion

The paragraph provides an overview of using a master task database in Notion to consolidate tasks across different workspaces. It shows an example tasks database and explains that the full database is rarely accessed directly. Instead, it is linked or embedded in other Notion workspaces like the weekly agenda to surface only relevant tasks.

05:01

🗂️ Embedding and filtering a master task database

The paragraph explains how to embed a master tasks database in another Notion page using a linked database. It shows filtering and refining the view of the embedded database to only show certain tasks. Custom views and templates are also discussed to set default views when embedding the database.

Keywords

💡master task database

A master task database is a centralized database in Notion that contains all tasks across different areas of life and work. As described in the video, it acts as a single source of truth for tasks instead of having them scattered across multiple databases. The master database is then linked or embedded into different Notion workspaces like the weekly agenda to surface only the relevant tasks.

💡weekly agenda

A weekly agenda is a Notion workspace for planning and tracking tasks/projects on a weekly basis. As shown in the video, it contains components like a calendar view and embedded master task database to display only the tasks for that week. It allows consolidating information needed to execute that week's workload.

💡embedding

Embedding refers to linking a Notion database into another page or workspace, allowing its data to be displayed and accessed from multiple places. As discussed, embedding the master task database into the weekly agenda enables centralized storage while also surfacing relevant tasks in specific contexts.

💡task view

A task view refers to filtering or displaying the task database content (from the master database) according to certain criteria like assignee, due date, project etc. For example, the weekly agenda page applies a task view showing only the current week's tasks assigned to that person.

💡notion template

Notion templates allow replicating a pre-designed Notion workspace structure. As recommended, creating templates with embedded databases and desired task views saves effort compared to building each new weekly agenda from scratch.

💡data consolidation

Data consolidation refers to compiling information from disparate sources into one place, like the master task database consolidating tasks from across different life areas. This enables a unified view and simplifies accessing relevant data points.

💡workspace

A Notion workspace refers to a dashboard, page or structured set of databases centered around a specific goal or topic area. Workspaces like the weekly agenda contain related components and surface only the necessary information for managing that aspect.

💡surfacing tasks

Surfacing tasks means displaying only the most relevant tasks for the current context from the master database instead of all tasks. For instance, the weekly agenda surfaces the week's tasks by filtering the embedded database accordingly.

💡linked database

A linked database in Notion connects the same database content across multiple pages or workspaces. Changes made in one instance sync across all linked versions. Linking allows reusable, connected data components.

💡notion automation

Notion automation refers to using templates, linked databases, and other functionality to reduce manual setup work across conceptually similar workspaces. For example, linking the master task database avoids needing to recreate task views.

Highlights

Create one master tasks database that has everything you ever need to do across all areas of your business, life, etc.

The master tasks database is a big dump of data - it's not necessarily useful to see it all at once.

Surface master task data across different workspaces in different ways based on what's most useful.

The weekly agenda is where most time is spent plotting out tasks, focus areas, meetings, etc. on a granular level.

Embed the master tasks database in the weekly agenda to link tasks while keeping the view refined.

Create templates with the embedded database filtered how you want so new agenda pages have useful default views.

Pull tasks into the weekly agenda from the database so you can see at a glance what to focus on.

Embed the master tasks database in other areas like daily agendas or specific projects to surface relevant data.

Archive completed tasks regularly to avoid an overly large master database.

Client data, personal tasks, etc. are all stored in one master database and surfaced where useful.

Embed a database view showing only data for that specific project inside project pages.

Creating a master database allows calling data across multiple workspaces, saving time.

Refine embedded database views to only show the most valuable, useful data needed.

Update views on embedded databases easily to display info differently as needed.

Keeping a single source of truth in the master database avoids scatter and duplication.

Transcripts

I want to show you why you need a master

task database in your notion workspace

so if you have been using notion for any

amount of time and you've been creating

tasks for yourself and playing with the

different ways of organizing your

workspaces you might have asked yourself

how to start pulling data that lives in

different places into the same area can

I pull entries from this database in

this database and you know be able to

see all the tasks that I have to do

basically and the easiest way to do this

is to create one master tasks database

that has everything that you ever need

to do across all of the different areas

of your business your life what have you

so we do this at okie-dokie we have a

task database here this one's got some

test data in there to show you what this

looks like so this is basically a big

dump of 12-hour tasks very rarely if

ever do I go in to this task database

it's there's too much data in there I

don't need to see it it's not

necessarily useful for me to see it in

this way because it's got again business

personal Ben's tasks my tasks and I

don't always need to see that

information all at once so what I do is

I surface this information in different

ways across different workspaces the

most notable of which is the weekly

agenda that's where I spend most of my

time so I'm just gonna jump into my

dashboard my dashboard does actually

have a master task database embedded

down below I also got a lot of personal

information in this dashboard so I'm

just going to quickly show you what this

looks like to embed a master task

database inside of a weekly agenda so I

have this weekly database here and I've

got a template for creating new weeks so

I'm just going to create a new week and

if I click we it's going to pull up my

template open this as a page

let's see we're gonna do August actually

we're already in September now so why

don't we just set this up for September

9th to September 15th excellent okay

September 9th to 15th so this is my

weekly agenda for this particular week

and whenever I set up a new week usually

I do this on Sunday I will favorite that

workspace and that will get added to my

favorites up there which I won't show

you just at the moment I've got some

personal projects in there but so this

is my weekly template and this is where

I spend most of my time every day every

week I plot out all of my personal

projects drop them in here put my most

important things my big focus for the

week focus for the day and then below

you'll notice there's this gallery down

below so this is an embedded task

database so you can see it's got the

same icon it's got that little arrow so

it's showing that I can actually

navigate to this original database if I

want to go back there click on that and

you'll see them back in this database

again but we just want to go back to

this space that I've created open it as

a page again

and so to do that to do it from scratch

I'll just show you you can use this

command create link state link database

choose your database tasks there you go

and you'll see it just does a big dump

of all of the information in there and

then you can refine it to show only the

things that you want to show you could

show it in a Kanban board if if you'd

like I've got one set up here all tasks

by week and so basically that turns it

into a bit of a Kanban and you can

adjust these properties as well if you

want it to span span medium or large

size just to kind of get it to a line

with my calendar up above and the reason

I like to separate out my like very

quick to do's and little tasks and just

kind of notes and meetings and things

like that above and then these are

speaking more in-depth tasks but yeah

this is this just allows you again to

refine this view any way you want so if

you wanted to show this by personal or

different areas of your life you could

do that if you only want to show

specific clients you can have each

client kind of zone view there's so many

different ways you can surface that

information in a way that makes sense

for you and again you can refine this to

only show what's due this week and

anything that's not deferred anything

that's assigned to me I can show this in

whatever way I want by default there's

no there's no kind of default views

ready to go it doesn't translate the

views for example like we've created

these pre-made views over here

unfortunately those don't get translated

when you embed your master test database

in your area so you will have to create

your own view decide what you want that

to look like you know for example I

could I could view it on a calendar if I

wanted to and that will show all the

things that are due at the moment so

you've got a couple options in terms of

how you want to show it again for me

personally I've made this into a

template so if I show you what this

looks like I've already got the master

tasks database already embedded in this

template with the settings that I want

so if you know that you're going to be

doing this over and over again I would

recommend creating a template wherever

you're going to be using these master

tasks and just filter them by whatever

you want and for example maybe I'm going

to filter this and I'm gonna field trip

it just show these properties full size

there you go and so maybe I want that to

be my default now so anytime I spin up a

new instance of this weekly planner

you're going to see this as your default

view and again these are other options

as well so all tasks by week that can be

my default view if I want it to be I

just leave it on this gallery view for

the moment so just to go back to show

you here I think now I've got to to

master tasks databases and he

just to show you but what's kind of fun

too is you know you can embed the same

the same database but this one could

include just client one this one could

include just client too the options are

really endless in terms of surfacing

only the data that you want to see in a

given moment that's going to be most

valuable to you

sometimes when I'm finished one of these

tasks I'll also do a quick move and I

will move it into my journal entry as

well but that's neither here nor there

so yeah I I by default tend to always

include master TAS database right in my

weekly planner I do sometimes embed it

in my daily agenda and again the beauty

about this too is when you have a master

tasks database I can assign certain

tasks to this week so at the beginning

of the week on Sunday I can say oh I

want to do that newsletter strategy

project I want to you know recent

confirmation email these are just test

tasks so they're not actually my tasks

for the week but the beauty then is I'm

pulling those tasks from that database

so at a glance here I kind of know what

my project focuses and I can jump right

into those right away and jump straight

to information so that's really the

beauty of notion is that you can pull in

and you can surface only the data that

you want or need to see if it's going to

be useful for you in the moment so I've

just really designed you know my weekly

agenda to only show me what is going to

be helpful for me and what I need to see

on a weekly basis and I just want this

standard view of my tasks anything

that's assigned to me I want to see the

date I want to see what project it's a

part of but again I can I can change

that up very very easily just to show me

that information in different ways that

might be helpful so I hope that's

helpful for you I do this with every

single client project so all of my

client data all of my personal tasks all

of Ben's personal tasks everything is

stored in this master tasks database

every month once we hit a certain number

of tasks really I just go through

and I will select everything that is

marked as complete and I will actually

move that into the archive too and that

kind of keeps the master database

database from getting a little too

unwieldy and yeah that's that's been a

game changer for us is just to again

embed this tasks database wherever you

want or need it you can embed it into

singular projects as well which is

pretty handy so if I open up the

specific project I can just embed any

tasks that are associated with that

project and that only I hope that's

helpful

I hope that you'll be able to create

your own you know master tasks database

and embed it pretty easily whether you

use a weekly agenda or a daily agenda

whatever works for you but definitely

being able to call the same information

across different workspaces is just

going to save you so much time