The best productivity system is the one that works for you. But most software doesn't let you customize it - you're forced to cram your system into a simple text list or cards on a Kanban board. What's more, these applications may exist outside of where your team is working, so you have to bounce between multiple pieces of software to see what you need to do (and then actually do it in another ). With Notion, you can create a fully custom system that helps you organize, manage and track everything you're working on. If your team is already using Notion, you can easily connect cross-functional work to your personal dashboard (we'll show you how). Here's everything you need to know about the best system to build your own personal work dashboard in Notion.
More introductory and beginner tutorials on Notion .
Track everything you need to do - big or small
At the heart of every personal work dashboard is task management - how do we keep track of what needs to be done and when?
The first step is to decide whether or not to use a database. While a database is great for managing workflows with multiple parts, it may not be necessary for a simple to-do list. It all depends on what you're working on and how you want to track it.
If using basic blocks :
- You like simplicity and speed.
- Your tasks are simple, more of a "did you complete them?"
- You love the satisfaction of ticking off your to-do list.
If using a database :
- Your work has many parts -- such as a project that requires its own set of subtasks.
- You need a way to sort and filter tasks by specific attributes.
- You are a visual person and want to see all your work by priority, due date, etc.
- You care about being able to revisit previously done work.
Our advice: start simple and build gradually. Start with basic blocks and convert them into task databases if your process requires it. Remember, the value your system provides should always be greater than the effort required to maintain it.
basic block
If you decide to start tracking tasks with simple basic blocks, the foundation of your system will be to-doblocks .
To create a to-do block, you can type /to-door [ ]. to-do blocks allow you to easily create checkbox items and give you a sense of satisfaction when completing tasks. From there, you can add due dates, and set task reminders (using @the symbol ).
A simple checklist where you can add and cross off to-dos
Another block that is helpful for simple task management is toggle block. To create a toggle block, you can type /toggleor >. Toggle blocks allow you to nest other blocks within them so you can neatly keep track of projects with multiple tasks.
You can neatly nest projects inside toggles for a clean to-do list
Here is a template that can be reproduced, built using basic blocks. We organize the to-do blocks into columns by clicking the "⋮⋮" symbols , then drag and drop the text so that we can create side-by-side sections. Optionally, enter /columnsto select the number of columns to create. You can also drag and drop to move tasks from column to column, and even into the Archive subpage to keep track of previously completed tasks.
Columns can visualize tasks side by side
database
If your task has multiple components or dependencies, a database might be a better option. The database allows you to filter, sort and customize attributes so that you can manage tasks in the most suitable way. But our advice is still to keep it simple and only add functionality when your workflow requires it.
We'll start with some task management database pillars that you can customize and iterate as needed.
If you need to quickly understand the database
Attributes
- Status — Set a
状态status that helps you track the progress of the task. Simply add an attribute to your database状态and you can choose from three default options: "Not Started", "In Progress" and "Completed". You can also customize it to whatever you want. - Dates — By using
日期attributes, you can easily assign and track important dates for each task. The most common we see is setting due dates for each task. - Choices —
选择Attributes allow you to create and customize how tasks are marked in the database. Any tags you create will appear as a drop-down list for you to choose from. We often see users leverage选择attributes to create tags for priority (high, medium, low) or item types.
You can customize database properties to match your workflow
view
Database Views give you the ability to customize how tasks are visualized so that you can see the information you need when you need it.
- Table view - Tasks are displayed as rows and related properties as columns. This is a great way to get a bird's-eye view of all your tasks in one place.
- Calendar view - Great for planning and viewing important dates, such as viewing all tasks at once
Due date(our marketing team loves this view for their content calendar ). - Board view - Allows you to group tasks based on attributes such as
状态or .优先级Users love the drag-and-drop functionality of the Kanban view, making it easy to move tasks from one status to another.
Database views let you quickly present any information you need
You can draw inspiration from this task database, or copy it directly to your workspace. The template includes the pre-built views we've outlined:
- Kanban view of status organization
- Kanban view of priority organization
- Tabular view of all tasks
- Calendar view of due dates
将公司范围的背景信息带入个人仪表板
除了跟踪任务外，您还需要能够将您的工作与整个组织的其余部分联系起来。Notion 可以轻松地添加跨职能团队的背景信息，以及将其他工具直接连接到您的个人工作仪表板中。
链接数据库
将个人工作与公司目标之间的连续性联系起来有助于建立一致性。您可以看到您正在做的事情直接归入公司想要实现的目标中，而将它们直接放在您的个人仪表板中可以帮助您更好地关注您的工作。
输入 /linked view of database 并选择要包含的源数据库。从那里，您可以使用过滤器和排序进行进一步的自定义。例如，这个公司范围的目标数据库可能有特定的营销、销售、工程等目标。但是，假设您在工程团队中，您可以过滤只看到工程部门负责的目标。
创建链接数据库时，请记住过滤器仅适用于您创建的链接数据库。然而，您对链接数据库中的内容或属性所做的任何更改都将反映在原始数据库中。
引入相关公司目标以确保你专注于最重要的事情
链接视图
通过链接视图的强大功能，您可以将所有最重要的工具带入Notion。链接视图允许您在Notion中直接查看链接的实时同步可视化效果。目前受到多个主要平台的支持（GitHub、Jira、Slack、Asana等）。
这样就可以在您的个人工作仪表板中获得来自其他工具的实时更新，因此您可以使用最新的信息构建工作流程。
例如，您可能有一些工作依赖于工程团队正在处理的正在进行的错误修复。您可以将来自Jira的链接粘贴到个人仪表板中，查看该任务何时完成，而无需进入Jira并检查错误修复的状态。
链接预览会持续更新，因此您可以与团队保持一致
如果您有任何更好的想法，请在评论区与我们分享！