The advantage of using software like ClickUp or Asana are their out-of-the-box project boards that require minimal customization. But if you’re a Notion user, or want to be, you can use its project and task templates to plan on the spot.
Not sure how it works? Here’s a quick start guide to help you get started.
Task template explained in Notion
The task template in Notion is essentially a to-do list organized by project. Projects appear as groups within the database, and the lines or pages that appear within the group are tasks.
Between the pages of tasks and projects, this is where you’ll be doing the bulk of the work. As you add new groups and tasks, they will appear on your Projects page along with any changes you make to existing data and properties.
The default properties on your Tasks page are Task Name, Status, Assigned, Due, and Project. Here’s a quick description of what each one does:
task name
The task name helps you quickly identify tasks, so you’ll want to be a bit descriptive and make them unique. You can also click on the name of a task to view or add relevant information.
If you don’t want it to open in split screen, you can change the Peek Mode of your page next to Open Page In in your database’s layout settings. You can find it by clicking on the three dots in the upper-right corner of the database. ,
status
Status gives a quick progress overview. There are several status options categorized by To-Do, In Progress and Completed. Completed tasks such as Done and Archive will fill the progress bar on your project page.
assign and payable
Assign Shows who owns the task. Shows due deadlines and allows you to set reminders. They are definite keepers if collaborating with others, delegating tasks, or creating an open task board.
Project
Project is a relation property that links a task to a related project. A task can only be associated with one project. If you find this column irrelevant because you’ve grouped your projects, click on its title and choose Hide in View to hide it. Removing it will break communication between the pages.
Perception’s Task Template View
At the top of your Tasks database, below its title, you’ll see Ideas by Project, Mine, and People. By default, you are in Project view, in which you organize your tasks by projects.
Mine View creates a to-do list of all your tasks, organizing them into a checklist. The only property that doesn’t appear here is Status, but if you look above your Checkbox column, you’ll see that it shares the same symbol as the Status column in the other view. And when you check something in here, it marks it as done everywhere.
The People view gives you a quick overview of the tasks you and your teammates are working on. It’s also an excellent tool for checking in with each other and making sure no one’s workload is too heavy.
Another way you can sort tasks is by using filters. You can find these under your view options at the top of your database and use them to sort by property. For example, viewing everything with a status of Not Started or tasks assigned only to specific people.
Conceptualized blueprint of projects explained
The project template is where you’ll find a quick overview of all your projects. It uses a more visual board layout where you can drag and drop items between positions.
At first glance, you can see some of the specifications and progress of your active projects due to their properties. If you fill these in, they will be displayed on the board.
If you don’t see the property you need, click on the board to open its page, and you’ll find its properties below the title. Here you can change its status, add people to the project, view the progress bar, and add or edit the timeline.
On the project page, you’ll also see its group of tasks, where you can add other information and data related to the project.
add properties to task page
To add a property to your task page, click the Add icon at the top-right of the group. Doing so will populate a list for you to choose from, and from there, you’ll click the one you want to add. Once it’s in your database, click on its title to give it whatever name you want.
change status on task page
To edit or add more options to your Status column, click on Task Status to bring up the menu and choose Edit Assets at the bottom.
In the Edit Assets menu, you’ll see three categories of statuses—To Do, In Progress, and Completed. You can either click on the current options to edit the name and color or the Add symbol next to the category title to add something new.