Dependent Tasks in a Notion Task Database (aka Master/Sub-task or Parent/Child Tasks)

[@samuelitooooo]

Note: relation setups changed in 2022, so all you want to do is enable "separate directions" to get your two properties. You get to label both right in the "New relation" pop-up.

[@kslifter1]

Thanks for this update, I was planning on setting this up today.

[@neerajkamra]

Just to be clear, I would create a relation to 'Action Items' and Label it 'Following'. Then enable 'Separate Directions'. and then a new field pops up - 'Related property on Action Items'. Re-label this to 'Next in Line'. The Diagram should look like this (as best as I could do in KZbin lol) -------------Following----------- | | | | Action Items Action Items | | | | -------------Next in Line----------

[@g4ster1]

Thanks king

[@thechristhetics]

Thank you! I got confused because it's not the same as before. Very helpful!

[@Conorstew]

7:00 You know August is driving the point home when the glasses come off

[@danielemoyon9044]

This is what a masterclass is expected to look like - an absolute game changer! In my system (inspired by Augusts), I find that the fields/properties "following" and "Next in line" don't quite do it for me. I have had to adopt "Preceding" and "Succeeding" respectively. I also find that appending two plus (++) signs at the start of a dependent task item is a more intuitive way of notifying me at a glance that the task has both a "preceding" and a "succeeding" task in the sequence. In this same vein, the last task in the sequence will have a single plus (+) sign since it only has a "preceding" task and no "succeeding" task. With the amount of clarity these training videos have provided me, I can confidently say it is the single most important gem I have found on YT. This series is what most paid productivity courses pitch and fail to deliver on. Thank you August for putting this COURSE together. I'm most grateful.

[@victormungai]

I'm just going to say, "Oh my goodness!!!!!!!" This is better than binging TV shows!!

[@kristoffdubose]

7:01 swiftly takes glasses off to make a BIG point... Love it!

[@guhankrishna1557]

August! You are the Albert Einstein of Productivity. I give an applause that I cannot imagine anyone else getting anything higher.

[@augustbradley]

Ha! Thanks so much Guhan, very happy you've joined us. Thanks for your support!

[@g-ann3527]

Timestamps Index 0:00 Intro 0:51 Dependent Task Overview 5:17 How the Dependent Task System Works 7:30 How to Set Up the System

[@RhettReisman]

This series has more value than most college classes I took (that cost thousands of dollars / class). Free internet content > college. Thank you August.

[@samlodge9030]

The terminology for "Epic" is borrowed from agile methodology, e.g. software projects managed in Jira. It's worth looking into and understanding. Thanks so much for this content!!

[@andrepemmelaar8728]

And the reason it is called an "Epic" is because it is a collection of user "stories" that the developer progresses through to complete the "Epic" which is very much like linked tasks that follow after the other.

[@dagorenouf]

I'm amazed that this content exists.

[@augustbradley]

I am here to amaze! Really happy to hear you like it. Please help spread the word about this channel! Thank you 🙏 Dagobert for the feedback.

[@avoidantbehavior]

For free too!🤯

[@FUSSBALLTUBE]

What a man you are August - you give me light in the dark ages of clickbait bullshitting. Wish you all the best my man, greets from Austria / Vienna

[@thalissacarvalho4109]

I’ll leave a like and a comment on each video as i watch them just for engagement. This is such valuable content. Thank you!

[@augustbradley]

Thank you, Thalissa! I’m very happy to hear you are finding them valuable.

[@kahayler]

I have been impatiently refreshing youtube much too frequently waiting for your next videos. I am a bit of a recovering perfectionist and if I don't feel 100% confident in a system or methodology I will hesitate and just be stuck. Notion felt different right from the beginning, I felt boxed in by other project management softwares (even clickup, where I'm moving from). Being able to clearly see and customize with your system is amazing and I can't wait for more. Thank you for everything you continue to share! With that said I have two questions I hope you'll find the time to elaborate on for me. 1. What is the difference between value goals and outcome goals. I've gathered enough info from your previous videos to really grasp pillars down to goals and into projects and tasks, but the value goals still stump me. 2. What do you do when a project has multiple, quickly changing tasks within it. For example, if I have a project mapped out for what I think the steps will be into tasks in the task database but my boss comes in halfway through and throws an addition into the plans - do you update the list and all the dependent tasks? I guess my question is do you get to a point where updating the database is more of a hassle than just doing the work? Especially if it's short notice change and the project has an extremely short timeline/deadline (say two days). This may also be due to my lack of proficiency, being new to notion. Perhaps as it becomes more ingrained that update won't be a difficult thing to adjust and throw my day out of whack as it would now? Your thoughts are much appreciated!

[@augustbradley]

Hi Hayley, you're clearly thinking deeply about all this. Great thoughts and questions. I hear you about perfectionism, I struggle with this too. Don't let it prevent you from moving forward, no analysis paralysis. 1. Good question on the two types of goals. I will of course have a video that will addresses this in greater detail when we get to Goals, but quickly here: Value Goals vs Pillars: Value Goals are specific things you would like to accomplish. Pillars are ongoing constants in your life (or for long periods of your life). Value Goals vs Goal Outcomes: Value goals are the softer, more aspirational side of your goals, and link directly to Goal Outcomes (which are more tangible, specific and measurable). It helps me to think asprirationally about my goals first, then nail down the measurable outcomes to represent those aspirations. So Value Goals are a way of getting to and shaping your Goal Outcomes -- the two types of goals are part of a process (Value Goals first, leading to Goal Outcomes second). Starting with goal outcomes can create too much of a disconnect from your life values and become too transactional if not shaped by your guiding principles. Value Goals are a link between your personal values and your Goal Outcomes, making the connection more clear and explicit. More soon on that. 2. Depends on how big of a task the additions are. If they're quick I would just que them up as standard quick tasks and not add them to the dependent task series. But if they are each going to take a while, a day or more, I would add them formally to the dependent task chain. Depends at what point they become complex enough that you might forget about what needs to be done where in the series. Quick tasks I apply less formality to. Hope that helps.

[@kahayler]

@@augustbradley That helps tremendously, thank you so much! Value goals are exactly what I expected them to be, but the explanation of why they're needed for that connection makes complete sense. Regarding using quick tasks, I hadn't even thought of that (probably making myself work harder than necessary) - but that's a great solution. Thank you again, and I can't wait to continue the series.

[@HippieP629]

@@augustbradley I had the same / similar thoughts. Thanks so much for the explanation,. August.

[@ramonroyo1008]

Your enthusiasm is contagious and the value you are giving in this series is both incredibly generous and life changing. Thank you so much August!

[@augustbradley]

Thanks for the feedback Ramon, it makes me incredibly happy to hear it has been valuable!

[@walterterry9970]

Pardon my french, but this training was EFFING brilliant. That whole thing using Following to create dependent Actions... I'm nearly speechless. The word "masterclass" gets thrown around a lot (too causally). These trainings on creating a Notion system -- true masterclasses each and every one. Once I grok how to relate my Master Task Db to your Action Zone page, my next stop is this training video and creating those dependencies. If anyone has ever tried doing that in Trello (as I have) they'd soon realize the mess on their hands. As did I. Everyone should dig in to these training videos (I refuse to merely call them videos) b4 you come to your senses and start charging for them.

[@augustbradley]

Awesome Walter, love your feedback! Don't tell anyone, but secretly this is indeed a course :) . This is project right now is get on the map with a splash, I have even bigger plans once we get things rolling here!

[@walterterry9970]

@@augustbradley WowWowWow! I am so glad to hear that! Please, message me privately with any suggestions as to how I can use my platform to help get the word out about you, and I will happily do whatever's w/n my power. It's the least I can do for all of the value you've given me/us and the Vision you've laid out for a total Life Operating System -- for FREE. Dude, the word needs to be gotten out about what you offer and how you train and why it's different from everything else in the Notion field. NOT surprising given your background in neuroscience. I've spent many hours gritting my teeth as millennials "umm-ed" and "ahhh-ed" and wasted viewer time with stream-of-consciousness videos, and used "like" as if it's a noun and verb modifier... bc "you know, it's sorta like..." Grrrr. And me... trying to extract actionable info and not shout at the screen, 'Don't tell me what "it's sorta like". Tell me what it IS!' [turning off the snarky font] And in all fairness, I think a lot of those videos are not for entrepreneurs and business folk, but I didn't know that until I was able to contrast with the way you train. I am a rockin' fan of your 'simple is best' approach instead of the way so many of the other 'popular' voices in the Notion arena create these multiple dbs and complex formulas to make it all work.

[@augustbradley]

@@walterterry9970 Many cool things coming soon, the patch will be clear my friend!

[@walterterry9970]

​@@augustbradley Thanks for the heads-up. Respectfully, slightly disagree, boss. The patch may help and, it's the training... YOUR training that makes the difference. Several times I've looked at Notion's updates page and either went "Meh" or "WTH?" And then you release a training video and I go "Ooohh, that's what they meant." Context is everything.

[@moneypeek]

August, the term "Epic" comes from the Agile Project Methodology as it is a concept of a small logical group of tasks. as Sub-tasks are as the word states, sub activities in a Epic. The Epic concept is multiple Epics make a project - divide the big elephant into small parts (epics) ;) - hope this helps.

[@Redrivercity]

"Epic" is a term mostly used in software project management systems.

[@siahwya]

9 of 48 completed.. started at 4:30am... I'm so thankful and excited for this playlist.

[@climabhi]

Hey August, Such an elegant system. Wanted to humbly suggest that Epic and subtasks come from agile software development. Hope to see a lot more of you over the coming years!!

[@no.daveed]

The power of this alone is ridiculous! Superb!

[@augustbradley]

I kind of feel that way :)

[@griff7533]

Haha, well I just exclaimed “hell yes!” at 11:55 when the Next in Line had self-populated. Great stuff! So helpful, thank you.

[@lefrax762]

As you started to show how to do dependant items, I was like "Nooo, he's openning the relation dialog, so it must be possible to link to the same database?" And then, BAM! You do exactly that! It blown my mind, because firstly it's so logical. Why create a tool to lint to a row in the same database while you can link a database to itself? And secondly it's clearly intended for this exact purpose, creating tasks dependant from others. Although you clearly have a better view of this particular problem than even the Notion designers, because your solution permit to retrieve easily both ends of the sequence. Also I love how your system is designed to counteract human faults. As someone with memory issues, it's pretty hard sometimes to review a project even a week later without having a hard time recalling its structure, so having relation between sequential tasks clearly stated like that is pretty useful, not even counting the very principle of not assigning do date to dependant tasks. I'm very happy having found your channel since you have concerns about organisation I can relate to :)

[@ianmoldubey]

You are a diamond mine. Your subscribers are gonna explode oneday. Thank you for everything.

[@byamberkri]

I've been using notion with master tasks for several months now but I am just MINDBLOWN at how you do yours. I was really struggling with due dates vs GTD next, later etc ... this will really help to improve my workflow! Thank you so much for taking the time to put this together :)

[@augustbradley]

Awesome Amber, great to hear this approach is helpful for you. Thanks for sharing this feedback, lots more to come!

[@mkthebk]

Dr. Evil is dropping some knowledge bombs on this one 🤘🏼

[@alexbentsonmarketing3316]

Echoing everyone here, mind blown!! This is exactly the kind of system I have spent YEARS thinking about creating for my Personal and Work tasks. I'm a marketer and something important to me was to have an email campaign "send date", a "review date", and a "resend date". And I'm convinced Notion is the only tool that can really achieve this effectively! Way to go August, keep doing what you're doing!!

[@projetosdabru]

Gratitude, extreme gratitude for sharing this beeeeeautiful content! Now we're talking, THANK YOU!!

[@jotaro.tanjiro]

This feature is reason enough to totally switch to Notion as my task management app! Thank you!

[@AyurvedaWithChitra]

Thank you for this service. You offer so many useful pieces of information about Notion. Most important is you are also teaching how to think from an organizational perspective without the extra fluff. Keep up the good work.

[@augustbradley]

Thank you Chitra, really appreciate your feedback and support here! You have discovered the secret element here, it's not just about Notion but also about how to implement better beyond the software and improve one's life across the board. The software is just the starting point for the conversation. Very happy you are finding this valuable.

[@David-sg1yi]

This is really cool. I set up dependent tasks in my action database and it worked. This is better than setting tasks up as parent-child or parent task-sub-task because this actually shows me what needs to come before something else and I don't have to remember or write a special note, etc. Thank you doing this tutorial!

[@abdullahyahya2471]

Going to watch all your videos.

[@augustbradley]

Thanks Abdullah. Hope you find them valuable, let me know what you think!

[@lalitsuresh]

August I must say you are a true genius in building the Productivity System. I got to know about Notion 2 weeks ago (from Today) and was viewing multiple videos on YT(KZbin) and all the videos were great in themselves (No Offenses meant for other content creators) but no one showed how to build a Productivity System from the beginner's point of view. While searching for a productivity system, I bumped :) into your video and trust me...I have completed 8 videos (at this very moment) and I am confident of building my productivity system basis yours August. I have enrolled for your Newsletter and Weekly Mailer and also have downloaded the templates. I am excited and waiting to go through other videos in this series and confidently build my system. Hope to see more from you Einstein :)).

[@MrApolloIII]

QUALITY CONTENT!!!!! Thank you so much for these videos! Just started using notion recently and you’re blowing my mind with how intricate things can be.

[@adnansaeed1055]

Epic is a term used in Product Management specifically in Jira to encompass multiple small sub-tasks.

[@EmilyMcFarland747]

You are the best August! Thank you so much.

[@augustbradley]

Thanks, Emily!

[@jerroldnikolaisen9363]

Hi August, I am going through this series with you - building it as I go. I have to tell you, that I have been building this system in my head for years - trying innumerable apps and services trying to make it work. And I am really excited. Once I get this working - I'll take it to my workplace and we will integrate it. As that is the task that has been awarded to me. To get an operating system in place. And this is definitely what we are going to use. As for this particular element, I have to note that one of the 2 things that do disappoint me in Notion, is the select from relation pop-up. It would be really helpful to be able to filter and sort it. (The other thing is the formula pop-up window. It would be nice for it to tell you what character your cursor is floating at. When telling you that there is an error at a specific character spot.) For this reason, I have tested that rather than creating a new Action Item and then searching for the Item that preceded it - is starting from the previous. So when I need to make #7 I start from inside #6. When it opens, I select the Next in Line field. For which there is nothing to search for so you have to create the new one. It ends up in the proper sequence on the table as well. August, thank you so much for sharing this. I intend to join your program after completing the series.

[@jacopowilliamdedenaro1603]

I love this material. Since I'm studying interaction design rn, seeing your video and seeing how much you feel fullfilled by the knowledge given by seeing your system gives me the meaning of therm "Data Awareness"

[@augustbradley]

It is extremely fulfilling. Thank you Jacopo, really appreciate this!

[@hernanroperto]

This playlist is getting more and more amazing video after video!!!. I'm amazed. Thank you August!!

[@augustbradley]

Awesome to hear this Hernan, really appreciate the feedback!

[@alzibaba]

Awesome, just what I've been looking for in Notion, thank you! Being able to relate a database to itself is such a cool feature and opens so many possibilities. Great tutorial August, thanks a million 👏👏👏

[@Enacaus]

Dude, you are basically the human version of the inception movie. I can't, this is........ I CAN'T LOSE HOPE!!!!!!!!!

[@augustbradley]

Ha! I love it, Thank You 🙏

[@joshkalsbeek]

Thanks for the brilliant and valuable work you have been creating in this series August! It's incredibly inspiring stuff! I'm just starting with Notion and doing a deep dive with your approach from the beginning. It's so good! So grateful I found this "Full Notion Learning" series at the beginning of my Notion journey! Thanks again for all you are doing!! Here is some (hopefully helpful) additional perspective on why I think Notion built in Epics & sub-tasks. Commonly in software development teams, as other comments have stated, epics are high level categories. Basically a set of tasks grouped together. A basic business level view of the hierarchy then is: Biz Goals>Initiatives>Feature>Epics>Tasks. In a Kanban view this makes sense since chains of tasks are not linked together with dependent tasks in terms of the order they are completed. The developer can just move whatever task is at the top of the backlog/to do into the active/doing column. But what you're doing here it seems is linking together tasks in a logical, sequential order, which seems to work great as well! You're convincing me to try this method over a kanban approach. 🙏🏽🙏🏽

[@willd0047]

Wow! Thank you for making this free. It is greatly appreciated!!

[@JohnMazz]

Thanks again for the series, I've been watching through each before jumping into Notion myself. Hoping you keep up the series!

[@augustbradley]

Awesome John, that's the right approach!

[@dravennow8948]

Hi August, thanks for sharing your experience using Notion's relation. In your example, you use the relation to build relationships for the orders, it looks like an elder brother and a younger brother. As Notion mentioned in 10:13, Notion uses this function for epics and subtasks, their relationship is like parents and children.

[@CameronCox_1969]

What Walter said LMAO that was head shrink worthy and I jumped the gun and made mistakes but I got it rocken now. thank you August

[@augustbradley]

Thanks Cameron, lots of trial & error and R&D is the normal process to make it all work!

[@patrickdonabedian3323]

Inspiring how much thought and effort you put into all these. Soooo helpful. Truly a master at your craft.

[@augustbradley]

Thanks Patrick! Awesome to hear this was helpful. Lots more to come, working on some cool new things for the channel and the community growing around it. Glad you've joined us!

[@RachelOber]

A note about what "Epic" means, it comes from Agile Product Development Methodology that is common in software development. An Epic is a container of tasks with a common outcome. In "big 'A' Agile" teams will usually have "sprints" of 2 weeks that might cover an "Epic" with multiple Tasks. I assume the creators of Notion originally developed this tool for software teams and that's why they used the term "Epic" here.

[@augustbradley]

Good to know, thank you Rachel!

[@carterboyle947]

I’ve been watching for about a week now and Your Video on Notion and Roam sold me on Notion (I was looking at how to apply roam). After learning the basics of relational databases in Notion on my own your videos have shown me what can be possible. I’m breaking out the MIRO board this weekend to start my full development. Wish me luck!

[@chaitanyareddy4463]

THE BEST !!! You are really awesome. I can't believe someone hit the dislike button for such an amazing piece of content. Thank you, August.

[@jessicaharkley5286]

You are amazing August. Brilliant process thinker.

[@augustbradley]

Thank you Jessica!

[@neerajkamra]

Leaving this up here for anybody that is building this after Sep 2022 (the UI/process for building relations looks different from this video): Just to be clear, you would create a relation to 'Action Items' and Label it 'Following'. Then enable 'Separate Directions'. and then a new field pops up - 'Related property on Action Items'. Re-label this to 'Next in Line'. The Diagram should look like this (as best as I could do in KZbin lol). -------------Following----------- | | | | Action Items Action Items | | | | -------------Next in Line---------- I tested this and works exactly how August outlined in his video.

[@wawrzyniece5825]

This series is EPIC August ;). Thank you for that, for sharing this and helping people all around the world. I've tried many apps and many ways to organize myself and thanks to you I feel I'm finally close to achieve that. Warm greetings from Poland!

[@augustbradley]

Excellent Wawrzyniec, means a lot to hear it is connecting with you. I got to this through a very long process and a lot of testing with myself and others, so it has evolved into the system presented here. We can all learn and grow together as we develop new approaches. And Poland sounds awesome, wold really love to visit some day!

[@wawrzyniece5825]

@@augustbradley I agree August. I have artistic background and I'm unorganized person by default. But right now bohemian times are over and I'm in business and I'm a father and husband, and building a house and a lot more... Notion and your lessons are things that help me to be the best possibile me for sure. Btw, USA also sounds great, and after these epidemic I will certainly visit your country. I will let you know if I will come to California:) And also - please let me know if you will be going to visit Poland, I could show you beautiful and unknown places. Take care and have a nice weekend!

[@augustbradley]

@@wawrzyniece5825 Absolutely Wawrzyniec! That would be awesome, either way.

[@ginajin2941]

All the system is exactly what I want. Thanks a lot for your sharing.

[@augustbradley]

Excellent to hear Gina! Glad you have joined us.

[@KevinFeatherstone]

Epic - That term comes from Scrum (which is borrowed from film/literature). It's like a large project that can be broken down into smaller tasks.

[@nfr352012]

Fantastic!!! Thank you for this great system!!! so damn good!

[@augustbradley]

Thanks for the feedback, awesome to hear it's been helpful to you! Lots more to come.

[@stephentassell3531]

Yet another super-awesome video. I had no idea that one could create a Relational Link back to the same database, and what a game-changer this will be! You are clearly thinking outside of the box, and for me this is where the incredible raw power of Notion is fully unleashed. Your videos always convey powerful ideas in such an easy to understand way. Congratulations on being such an effective communicator. I am very much looking forward to your next tutorial.

[@augustbradley]

Stephen Tassell : Awesome Stephen, really appreciate that! Yeah, I too think this is a cool technique. Funny the things Notion nerds like us get excited about :)

[@paoloap.]

August, my approach to learning notion has always been “do it yourself” but with you I had to hit the pause button and enjoy some amazing video content! I’ve seen the initial videos of the series and what surprised me the most so far, is the complexity of functionalities you can get introducing a simple concept like the DO date - it’s absolutely brilliant and inspire to look for more untapped functionalities which notion enable. Basically, which such a simple trick you make notion better than 95% of project management software out there. There are a couple of elements in my approach to notion as a life operating system where I still have doubts. These are more conceptual than about the set-up and I’m sure your insight could really be illuminating: 1) How do you manage projects with different sub-projects which run simultaneously? I guess the real question here is: since the “following task functionality” that you implement can be implemented to avoid dividing a project into subprojects, when does it make sense doing so? My eternal doubt is whether sub-project classification is nothing more but reductionism kicking back again and again 2)I can deduct from your setup that you manage tasks as units which are either done or not in pre-determined units of time, correct me if I’m wrong but, how do you manage tasks which span over several days? I deal with a lot of last-minute requests, so I spend half of my time juggling within tasks.

[@augustbradley]

Isn't it amazing how a seemingly little/simple thing can have such far-reaching capability? (1) I would not use sub-projects, it's just too many layers at that point (unless you're using this in a large organization). Either have a larger number of tasks in the project, well -organized by Status (could have more status levels to help organize/sort the larger number of tasks), or break your Project up into smaller parts and have each be a separate Project - with one Active, one Next Up, and their others with Status set to Future. (2) If I don't finish a task, I move it to the next day -- just drag it on the Calendar view. Things that don't get completed are often slid to the next day to finish. The Do Date is an intention, and an outline of the week's plan -- not set in stone. Hope this helps!

[@Aiyara_AoC]

Awesome Video August, thank you. I do have a question about the Following rollup property. Do you know how to configure it so it counts how many tasks there are before it ? I couldn't find a formula for it

[@evraya1]

It's like long term unfolding into short term. Russian Matryoshka doll. Though to see how to implement it from a mere view - takes genius

[@marcschinkel3935]

**Video Summary** 0:00 Intro This video is a quick follow-up to the previous video which was about task databases. This entire series dives into individual components of a comprehensive integrated Notion LOS This video will cover dependent tasks which is one of Notion's strengths when compared to task management apps. In August's system, each item in the tasks (Action Items) database has a Do-date with the exception of dependent tasks because they follow other tasks that do have a Do-Date. 0:51 Dependent Task Overview You can have one dependent task, or a string of them sequentially linked. As the first item is completed it gets checked off and the dependent task moves up with a Do-Date and is the head of the chain until you reach the end of it. (1:41) this is the database, not a dashboard. This is not where you typically interact with it, it's usually interacted within the daily action zone dashboard. There is a 'dependent tasks' view of the database which is a view that is filtered to only show items that have the following field is not empty; meaning they are following something. Looking at the first item you can see the following and next inline fields. This means this particular action item follows the action item in the following field and precedes the action item in the next-in-line field. 5:17 How the Dependent Task System Works There is a little '+' symbol added to the start of action items that have tasks following it. When a task is completed the following task is opened and assigned a Do-Date. (5:42) The first action items in a chain are not visible in this view because they are not following anything, but if we select the first items in a chain we can see they have a link to the first item in the chain that has a Do-Date assigned. The problem with having every item have a Do-Date and not setting up these chains is if the first one gets bumped then you have to reschedule all of them and it becomes hard to keep track of what is dependent on what. You cannot do this in most To-Do apps. Only the most complex apps for organizations have this functionality. 7:30 How to Set Up the System It's not immediately obvious how to set this up. Changing to the view of the master table filtered for tasks today. (7:40) Three tasks are batched together with the same priority rating. These tasks are sequential, setting them up as a chain of dependent tasks can be done by opening the second task up. (8:18) add a property and change the property type to relation. Set up the relational database link to the same database you're in. Not only can you set up relational links to other databases, but you can set them up to the database you're in. When you do this you get a different option than when you set up a link for a separate database to either create a new property (sync both ways) or use the same property (no syncing). The difference is, one will set up 2 fields and one will only set up one field. If you set up one field, it's just like linking to another database; you will choose a task elsewhere in the same task database and link to it, and both tasks will have 1 field and each will link to the other. That's not what we want in this case. We want to create a new property (additional field) and sync both ways. What will happen is one of them will be the following field and the other will be the next in line field. (10:46) Property will be the first field you added, and it adds the second property. Rename the first to 'following' Rename the second to 'next in line' Choose the item you want to follow (can use the search function to find it), if you then go to that item you will see in the second field that it will automatically enter the reverse. You can repeat this for the other tasks in the chain. Changing the view to only show items with the following field not empty will show you the dependent tasks. It will list the tasks backward, so you need to manually sort them in this view. This can be organized in the dashboard for how everything is viewed and how you can immediately see what the sequences are. This Notion action item database isn't particularly fancy in how it works. It's elegant with how it interacts with the system. You will really see it when we start looking at the whole dashboard for the Action Zone and how we start rolling up the pillars-pipelines pyramid to see how everything interconnects and how you get a view and understanding with an internal comprehension of everything in the chain. The next video will cover daily tracking which is the next component of daily tracking. Then will look at the Action Zone dashboard where you will put the tracking and the Actions items database all together in terms of how you execute your tasks minute by minute, hours, and days.

[@anandavanderwesthuizen1484]

Absolutely brilliant. I’ve been looking for this type of feature for my projects without coding and formulas. Thanks so much

[@dvanarsdell]

Is there a way to setup dependent dates, so when one date changes, the dependent dates update too?

[@Londya]

no it doesn't seem like it. And there isn't even a way to sort them based n this either. Like if I wanted them to show up in order based on the dependency field. The only way I can think of how to do this is if you sort by a date, not the dependency field...

[@martinolsson5239]

For the "Dependent Tasks" view you can also display the first task in the following sequence by using the new "Add a filter group" function. My filter criteria: Where "Following" Is not empty Or "Next in line" Is not empty. And Done is unchecked. I find this way I have an even better overview of the sequential tasks.

[@augustbradley]

Great suggestion Martin! This video came out before that new feature, but you are 100% correct it is a great application of that expanded filtering capability.

[@timjeffries79]

@@augustbradley Is there a trick to the sorting? I noticed in your video that you don't have a sort on those tables. Are you manually ensuring they're in the right order? Thanks. 🙏🏻

[@augustbradley]

@@timjeffries79 Hey Tim, yeah you have to sort manually. There just isn't any logic-based criteria in Notion to apply here. But it is quite easy, each Following or Next In Line field tells you what comes next -- just look at them all in the dependent Task waiting view. And once in order, they stay in order forever (unless you change them). The nice addition since this video is the new grouped filtering feature, you can filter for Following field is "not empty" OR Next in Line field is "not empty", so you get the first in the string as well now. Then just line them up manually, based on the "next in line" property listing.

[@timjeffries79]

thanks mate, I was wracking my brains trying to think of a way to do the sort automatically. It’s something of a relief to know there isn’t an obvious one. 😂

[@crawlinginfilm9683]

Presumably automatic filtering would be possible if the task had a property for "number in sequence" (for the given parent). For tasks that had only one parent that would surely be possible. But for multiple-parent tasks, would have to store that property in a parent-specific object (possibly the parent itself or possibly some intermediary object). Just wondering.

[@skaya6838]

Amazing content, looking forward to implement my own system with your guidance. The term epic comes from software management programs like JIRA where there is an epic theme that the tasks relate to, but in this case I rather use following/next in line. Great job!

[@augustbradley]

Fantastic, thanks Larizza! Good to know. Thanks lot for your feedback.

[@sabineoligschlager3797]

JIRA uses the term epic because it usually refers to a rather big chunk of work, so usually a group of tasks that form a logical entity (and then those in turn can have subtasks). the purpose in those settings is then usually to form hierarchies of tasks that can branch out. It didn't occur to me before that this could be used to automate tasks serially that have to be done in order rather than going from big to small in terms of what each tasks contributes to. So thanks @@augustbradley for sharing this! It opens up a lot of new options for me:)

[@timjeffries79]

Hi August, many thanks for your work here. You've encouraged me to try some tweaks to my current approach and I'm grateful for the time and effort you've put in. 🙏🏻 I am interested to know how you make the next item in a dependant chain pop up? Do you have to manually go and find it to make sure it gets a Do Date? I'm concerned I'll not see the next item in a dependent chain until I go and do a review of the project if I don't give them a Do Date. Thanks again.

[@jenniferpape5715]

omg you can create relational links to the same database 🤯 game changer!

[@augustbradley]

Very cool, right?! Opens up lots of possibilities.

[@paoloap.]

@@augustbradley trying to think of any business/organization situation which would require or would be better managed by the “same property” relation and can't find any meaningful one. As far as my understanding goes so far, the “same property” is useful where the relations you want to map doesn’t involve a hierarchy aspect. In this perspective, one could take advantage of this property to build mind-map in notion… Your opinion on the 2 aspects of my comment greatly appreciated.

[@augustbradley]

@@paoloap. There are a lot of instances. Say you have a master asset database (for funnel or web page creation or other complex creative efforts). And some of the items in the database are using other elements in the same DB -- you could link to all the other assets int he same database that are connected. Its; all about internal connections (in the same DB).

[@7Bloodfire]

Two new columns would have helped automate the sorting of tasks. "Project #" and "Task Order." Then sort the table according to Project # >Task #. Can hide both columns in any views you don't want to see them. I also like to sort my "pillars" (categories, and thus any sub items or groups) into "00:01 LABEL" names. So anything with a "01" is part of Group A, and anything with "01:01" or "01:02" or "01:03" would be sub groups or sub items. Applying that to the labels of certain views or tables would further allow groupings and more intense organization. I do this with Trello as well as other systems.

[@YanTougas]

Absolutely FANTASTIC!!! Thank you!

[@augustbradley]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@mitchrosefelt5671]

Linking within the same DB is cool! But for a long list I'd suggest devising a strategy in which changing the order is more flexible, else you have a lot of work each time priorities change. Perhaps you could link the before and after to a priority or position in the table.

[@BorcoECD]

It has been very interesting this video! Thanks a lot for your explains. Best regards!

[@augustbradley]

Thanks for the feedback Paco! I greatly appreciate your support.

[@Inheritancetaxadvice]

I am VERY VERY impressed with this - Thanks for the effort it is much appreciated. I am following each video one at a time and watch them slowly with many pauses the second and third time to set up my Notion account. After many years of using Evernote, Trello, Dropbox, Asana, Slack and Google Calendar I am excited to think that eventually I will be able to roll it all up into one. I like to believe I am a bit of a systems thinker too and your video finally convinced me to make the jump to Notion. Keep up the great videos. - Charles

[@augustbradley]

Welcome to the new world Charles! Thanks for your feedback, means a lot to me. Lots more to come.

[@Inheritancetaxadvice]

Yes working through your videos one at a time to set up the whole system before starting to input tasks and information.

[@augustbradley]

@@Inheritancetaxadvice Once you have the task database, project database, daily tracking and the Action zone set up start using it for daily actions while building out the rest!

[@Inheritancetaxadvice]

@@augustbradley Thanks August - I have a strong system in Trello and Evernote and Asana and so I am slowly going through all your videos one at a time and setting up my system first. I am however also working with a colleague who is an experienced Notion user on a separate joint more simple workspace and he is taking me through some of the fundamentals.

[@augustbradley]

@@Inheritancetaxadvice Good luck in your Notion journey, so many possibilities. Think holistically, rather than in component parts (Systems Thinking 🙂).

[@UMCPB]

I join the list of fans. Your videos are packed with just huge amounts of content, that I do have to go back and watch several times. I am working my way through the videos again. My question on dependent tasks is there a way to create these as recurring? I use a writing system for developing my sermons, so the dependent tasks make sense, but I can't imagine having to spend time making that list each time. Should I create a Template page that lays out all the steps?

[@marketrooper6473]

Hi August! I'm so glad I found your videos! I find them so informational, actionable and inspirational! I was wondering if it's possible to create a template of a group of dependent tasks that occur frequently for recurring clients or processes that would be quick to line up and customise without having to create each individual task repeatedly. I feel like this would help me greatly to keep my tasks consistent between recurring projects. Just wondering.. Thanks again!!

[@podcastmarketingacademy]

Awesome stuff August! Loving this series!

[@DustinMillerPolyInnovator]

I'm sure that by the end of the playlist I'll have more of an idea. However I am having a hard time adopting this all, partially because I have remnants of PARA, Second Brain, My own airtable DBs that I migrated, and even more than that. That I am trying to combine all together, and I really do want to. I think that if I can take your PPV and combine it with some of my other stuff, especially my content pipeline I created (you'd love it), there would be some really interesting complex systems on top of what is shown in these videos. I freaking love these vids.

[@pollyrockstar8652]

Thank you so much for sharing. I was wondering how to set up recurring tasks or repeated tasks.

[@augustbradley]

Check out my video in this series called “Recurring Tasks”. That covers it!

[@antoniodemarcus9614]

Grazie August ho il corso è interessantissimo.

[@sandrinem.-z.6115]

Thank you very much for this game changing video !!

[@augustbradley]

Awesome to hear you like it Sandrine! Really appreciate the feedback. Lots more to come.

[@d6h597]

Hello Sir August Bradley. This is brilliant. Thank you so much for doing the work and teaching us. I have a question. What do you do with the tasks that are done? Especially the little tasks....do you delete them? Or where do you let them live after done? Thank you. Many greetings from Diana from Germany

[@augustbradley]

Thanks! Really appreciate your feedback. I don’t delete “done” tasks. All views of the database that I interact with screen/filter to remove completed tasks from views. The advantage of keeping them is that in the Weekly/Monthly/Quarterly Review database pages, each of those is filtered for the tasks in that cycle -- so nice to have the historical record. But not that important. No need to delete them unless the database gets so big it gets slower, which I have not seen yet (but in general can happen with databases). If that did happen, I would either delete the old completed tasks or move them to a separate "Archive Task Database" to keep the main Task Database more lean. But only if necessary. I Have seen no sign of databases getting large enough to impact Notion system performance.

[@martinolsson5239]

@@augustbradley www.reddit.com/r/Notion/comments/d5g3ku/notion_database_size_is_there_a_performance/ Supposedly Notion can handle quite a lot. Stated in the reddit thread is that tables with 50 k + entries are fine as long as you filter your views. Thank you for an amazing series.

[@augustbradley]

@@martinolsson5239 Good to know!

[@billie7725]

August, thanks for sharing such a huge productivity way. But if you can make a video, where you are building your actual databases, it would make sense - at least for me. Because I am creating an operating database by being inspired by you and also I am a new user for Notion but I am not new to planning stuff. So if you share this, it would be better. 🎈 Other content suggestions would be rollups and formulas. Thank you 🏹

[@markdarwinbalaswit646]

If something in the sequence, the "Following" and the "Next In Line" will be messed up. What is the disadvantage if you just put general description of the Parent Task and then put a checklist inside? Then when you check out an item, you adjust the "Do Date". Would really appreciate if you could enlighten me on this one. Because I like your method but it has this con that can't always be avoided. Thanks, August!

[@crawlinginfilm9683]

Exactly what I wondered. What are the pros/cons. And how best to implement it. I imagine a parent (Project?) pointing at their (multiple) children and those children pointing back at their parent(s), possibly multiple parents (eg getting screenshots could contribute to both a blog and a video). Then there's the nodal graph concept - why restrict tasks/subtasks to being in a purely linear sequence - especially when team members may be (conceptually or actually) working in parallel ? Like the Gantt chart (I just now found) here: ugc.futurelearn.com/uploads/assets/8d/00/hero_8d004f59-9716-4cf2-938e-0c5fd920001f.jpg. Or as in natural rivers: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anabranch. I don't think "waiting on" can have more than one value (Action-Item/Task). Discuss?

[@jack.k5721]

Awesome work!

[@AndrewNottage]

makes a lot of sense thank you! changing the field name to following and next in line is a great bet. any advice if you have multiple items dependant on a single one?

[@SimonSteeleMusic]

That's awesome!! Thank you for sharing.

[@augustbradley]

Thanks Simon. Really appreciate the feedback. Glad you found this helpful!

[@SimonSteeleMusic]

@@augustbradley I really appreciate your breakdown and overall design and thinking this makes the most sense to me.

[@augustbradley]

@@SimonSteeleMusic I love finding like-minded people, that's part of what makes this channel and the community forming around it exciting.

[@isabelmattos8793]

Thank you so much for your GREAT videos August. I'm assuming that when you mark he first task in line as "done" you have to change the following property of the next one so that it is not following any task and becomes the next "master" task. My question is: you have to do this manually, there is no automatic way to "unfollow" a task from the moment it is checked as done, right?

[@augustbradley]

Correct, has to be done manually. But it's super quick to do. Thanks for the feedback! Lots more to come!

[@IntegralEarthling]

You are awesome! Much Love!

[@augustbradley]

Thanks, you're awesome too!

[@thabangramodipa]

I've been looking for a solution like this for so long!!! This is one of those Holy Grail KZbin videos. If I then have a task with multiple follow up tasks, can I make a template of the chain?

[@augustbradley]

Thanks! Awesome to hear this was helpful. You can certainly use database templates with any dependent tasks.

[@SpaceFairyness]

🤯Mind blown!!!

[@drmelhopperkoppelmandac6834]

I'm thoroughly enjoying your in depth tutorials on your absolutely mind blowing set up. This area of dependent tasks is the only one that's given me a little pause. You mention that other task managers don't handle this well but my current task manager, OmniFocus, handles this extremely well. What's missing in OmniFocus is the link to the big picture higher level organization of life. This set up feels like a really good hack to get Notion to do what you need it to do but OmniFocus at present is doing this elegantly and natively and their iPhone and iPad apps are very nicely designed. I'm wondering if there's a way to get OmniFocus and Notion to integrate so I can continue entering things at the project level in OmniFocus and use Notion to make sure that the higher level vision and lower level action items are integrated. Or if I just need to get over my initial discomfort and get used to this system so that everything is housed in Notion.

[@conlomerate4841]

How do you handle when there is a dependent task but it is broken down the line? For exampe; Tasks A>B>C all following each other. But you've got D and E they both follow C. Then F only follows E. So task D is a child of C but D is not a parent.

[@MartinSchabbauer]

Genius !!

[@productivity7089]

Thank you for this mindblowing masterclass! I have a question regarding the 'Dependent Tasks' view. If I try to filter by 'Following is not empty' I get all tasks that have a Following tasks, but also the tasks that are being followed, if that makes sense. The only way I can get your view is to filter by 'Following Count > 0'. I wonder if you or anyone has this issue and what I could be doing wrong.

[@ranilevinson3972]

Thanks for this! You have a "following count" property that is a number field. Can you explain what this is for?

[@augustbradley]

Ah yes, I forgot to comment on that. Good question. That is a calculation of the quantity of other Action Items (tasks) this Action Item is "Following" (dependent upon) -- created as a Rollup from the same database calculating the total # of items in the "Following" field for that task. The purpose of this is to reveal whether each task is just dependent on a single Action Item, or whether two or more Action Items need to be completed before this one should get a Do Date. You could see the same info by looking in the "Following..." field, but in table view the column is usually cut off so its harder to see without fully opening the task. This is an easier glance for that info. It's very rare I have more than 1 task any dependent task is dependent upon (so this number is virtually always 1, and not usually important). Hope that helps.

[@ranilevinson3972]

@@augustbradley Yes, makes a lot of sense - thanks!

[@energyeternal]

Awesome video! Quick question- how does creating a dependent task fit the workflow? So I have task 1, then 2 dep on 1, 3 dep on 2. 1 is assigned to today. I finish and check off 1. Then what happens next? The system does not set action 2 for today. Am I supposed to keep track of that? I love the idea of dependent tasks but I am having a hard time to get it to flow in notion even after following these instructions. Thank you for the awesome content!

[@danielemoyon9044]

Hi there, you need to set the do date for the next in line task before you mark the present task as done so it populates either for the same day or at the preset time in the future. Hope this helps.

[@VanessaMartinaSilva]

LOVE YOU

[@mesalesme7501]

Must be an easier way to create dependencies, a drag and drop thread of dependencies with a start period.

[@kiaschaos8818]

Hi! How did you make that property that relates the Project, Goal & Pillar? Wouldn't that mean that you also had a Database for your Projects, Goals & Pillars? If yes, I seem to have missed it? I don't recall seeing you make one, or even mention it.

[@MaHmoodOom]

Wow

[@manuduportu]

Hi August, I find great the dependent tasks because it doesn't add some unrelevant noise to your views. But how about when you have to schedule your employees on a whole week and have to get a view of their overall load of tasks. Not having Do date prevent you of having this view. I can't do day-to-day planning in this case.... What do you think?

[@nightborngod]

The stuff here is great. I wonder if there is a way to create a string of tasks when building out a project so that they automatically become a string of dependent tasks. Is that possible? Thanks. This stuff is amazing.

[@augustbradley]

Not possible to do it automatically in a template, but they can be set up quickly. I think we'll get more automation features like this over time. Thanks Andrew!