Notion’s New RECURRING Templates (and 5 more features you missed!)

Notion just released a major new feature: recurring templates. In this video, I'll show you how to use this new feature, along with 5 additional recent features you might have missed.
🧠 ULTIMATE BRAIN (Full Second-Brain Template - use FALL50 at checkout):
thomasjfrank.com/brain/
📚 NOTION FUNDAMENTALS (Free & Complete Notion Beginner's Course)
thomasjfrank.com/fundamentals/
⌚ AUTOMATED RECURRING TASKS IN NOTION (full tutorial):
• How to Create AUTOMATE...
🛠 MORE COURSES AND RESOURCES:
thomasjfrank.com/templates/
thomasjfrank.com/courses/
💪GET STARTED WITH NOTION:
thomasjfrank.com/usenotion/ - (this is my referral link)
🐦Connect with me:
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⏱ TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 - Intro
00:25 - Recurring Templates Overview
03:34 - Recurring Template Limitations
04:32 - How this Affects Notion Automation
05:13 - Journaling/Habit Tracking with Recurring Templates
07:10 - Multi-Column Width Controls
08:26 - New Relation Display Options
10:24 - Bulk Apply Property Changes in Table Views
11:36 - Expiring Public Page Links
12:38 - Better Board View Editing Tools
14:14 - More Learning Resources
14:47 - Ultimate Brain Overview and Discount
🎞 SPECIAL THANKS
Select video clips supplied by Getty Images
💰 I'm fortunate enough to earn enough money directly from my work, so I don't use Patreon or any other crowdfunding service. However, if you'd like to support a worthy cause, consider donating to help more children get access to a high-quality education: fundraise.pencilsofpromise.or...

[@jeremyjoslin1624]

Yesssss! Recurring automated pages is a huge addition, and you know full blown recurring tasks within Notion are just around the corner from this. Thank you for all you do Thomas!

[@trangnpt]

Remember when I started using Notion, I had to spend many days to think of a way to workaroud the recurring tasks. Finally come the feature so many of us have been waiting for. Thanks for the video!

[@MrSchneider1408]

Same! This was one of the biggest things we had to work around

[@robertomedina734]

Thomas thanks for doing amazing videos, just keep it going, your quality is amazing, I just discovered notion thanks to you (1 week ago) and i love it. You and "in a nutshell" are the only youtube channels i cant skip a second. Cause every second is true value. Thanks!

[@paramvirsingh5640]

Whenever you add a background color to a heading, add a single space before the first character, it makes the heading look like really nice banner. 'Title' becomes ' Title' looks really nice

[@rayganrambles]

Sticking properties in the body of the page is super helpful! Thanks for keeping us updated!

[@blacksheep_77]

The man! Thanks for this update Thomas. I just don't pay attention to updates so to see all these in one spot. Perfect! Editing kanban cards IN the card!?!! Wha?! the amount of times I have smacked my head at having to go into the page to edit those....such a great level up.

[@CourtneySpronk]

I've been waiting for your video on this! Ooo didn't know about all those other new features - so cool! 🤩 Thanks for another great video!

[@user-jz7lt5po9f]

Thank you! Love your videos. I've been using Notion for a while as a student. Now that I'm working full time I am using Notion to keep track of work tasks. I rely on your videos to learn the more advanced features of Notion so I can stay on top of everything.

[@manager-businessdeniserdrc7018]

Yay! Recurring! Thank you for showing us! I love the new properties too!!

[@chuntoon1]

I took your ultimate brain and turned the daily notes into a data tracker .. The recurring feature is going to really be helpful. Thanks as always!!

[@colineckert]

Lol really appreciate the little “boing” sound effect when opening a side panel. Great video!

[@ThomasFrankExplains]

I was very amused after putting that in lol

[@outofdarts]

Fantastic. This is such a great feature. Thanks for the video update!

[@JeffSu]

Excited to see how the recurring templates feature evolves and expands; absolutely LOVE how they're bringing Google Sheets/Excel functionalities over! One small thing that drives me crazy is the comment hotkey in Google Docs is CMD+OPT+M but that same shortcut minimizes the Notion window 😅

[@ThomasFrankExplains]

Lol yep, remembering app-specific shortcut differences is always a pain - especially when they actively conflict! (Looking at you, Loom)

[@adam_churchfront]

@@ThomasFrankExplains You don't have to remember so many shortcuts if you use a stream deck!

[@wemersons]

The little clip at the end is just gold

[@TeacherCast]

HI Tom, Great Tutorial! Thank you for keeping us updated.

[@mikejaydavies]

I got your Ultimate Brain template at the turn of the month and I used this video to give the Daily Journal section an injection of habit tracking. I’m really pleased with the base template and how I’ve been able to build on it with further learning!

[@Canneverdoit]

Would you mind demonstrating it? :)

[@imr4nkhan]

Old but cool video. New to Notion so was binge watching tips. Thanks for your effort!🔥👊🏻

[@luke_electrik]

Seriously good timing mate. I just saw the post on twitter and went to yours to see if you'd posted about it too

[@aaaryansharma]

Thank you so so much Thomas , I tried everything possible to get free useful template but apparently it wasn't free. And then I accidently came across your channel and got the template which will immensely help me in future. You got a new subscriber man!

[@lucreziacimino]

Amazing video as always, this new recurring templates feature is awesome! Thomas, maybe for another video, it could be super interesting to deepen the implementation of recurring templates and habit tracking (you mentioned relations and roll ups etc.) into UB!🔥

[@ThePlantParadigm]

Incredible emails as always that gets me excited about organising my second brain!

[@watchuslead]

Was looking for this!!

[@MostWantedAlien]

Thank you for sharing this with us.

[@GuitarronChido]

SO MUCH GOLD!!! Thanks Thomas 🥳

[@preparewithme101]

Great video Bro👍

[@littledottie0]

Sounds great for my journal and my weekly/monthly review.

[@manchineel]

You videos are great.

[@unotwotriquatre]

I feel extremely lucky for discovering notion 3 months after this feature was introduced lol. I'd only intended to use it for creating a monthly check-list of bills to pay, but after watching this video I'll definitely use it for habit tracking and/or daily journaling as well! Also, does anyone know of a way to create recurring reminders? From what I've got from the video, it shouldn't be possible, since it's impossible to reference the template itself in reminders.

[@SiraEkabutPlus]

Really useful one!!

[@IAmKenArts]

Wow, your video quality is amazing! Sick Setup!

[@ThomasFrankExplains]

Thank you!

[@kfa2513]

GREAT VIDEO BLESS YOU ♥️

[@spacesaver4063]

Finally! Recurring features!

[@ma7t392]

One of my biggest wishes for Notion, is just a small one. I would love, if it would be possible to move shown properties in the list view to the left side of the page title. That would be very nice for a done checkbox in a todo list e.g.

[@user-hh3sm8zf8l]

흥미로운 설명 감사해요 ^^

[@YanTougas]

Thank you for this video. I already made some changes to my workspace. I use a habit tracker, which rolls up to a weekly report. Now I don't have to remember creating a new page every day.

[@danielacubero3572]

Love your videos, I’ve learned a lot from them 🙌🏻. I saw in this one that you have a progress bar linked with certain tasks with a checkbox, how can I do that? I’m assuming once you check a task the progress bar goes up

[@gerarbendfeldt]

I am glad I jump in yo notion and understand it when it was simpler. If I would start right now it would be very difficult to learn. I am affraid to skip a notion update and then not knowing what to do with my notion system.

[@ZpecialClippingGrillogoDept]

Geese I can't keep up with all these amazing updates! Have to update my templates and everything again!!!

[@kuntalgo]

Definitely a turning point in the Notion dev roadmap. Likely same code with minimum customization can be applied to the date property too. But one thing is still buggy! For leap years, monthly repeating tasks set on 30/31st may show a flawed output. Any update on that fix?

[@Pykeproducts]

Ultimate Brain is the BEST second brain template out there! It’s so worth it y’all! Go get it!

[@AdiEditz_0162]

I had been waiting for this video Cuz it's hard to understand it until you explain it Btw I liked The Boingg... Sound Effect You used While opening the page 😉

[@alecclews]

The recurring DB template is awesome. When I have these types of recurring templates I set the default value of the title field to @today. Then it automatically gets a friendly date when you create a new row

[@joslin2005]

How do you do this? I’ve wanted a journal feature that automatically makes my title the date, haven’t been able to get it to work.

[@alecclews]

@@joslin2005 In the DB template put @taday as the title. Caveat -- I just made the template recurring and it did not work as anticipated. Hopefully, a silly error by me and not a bug when you use @today and recurring templates

[@alecclews]

It works fine

[@CFH298]

Time to implement GTD’s Weekly Review checklists with automated pages! Nice!

[@jonny2085]

This is HUGE for recurring tasks. I was looking for a way to log my meals and calorie intake daily.

[@geoffreyriveros4648]

I was missing your videos

[@IvySaskia]

Excelent as always💯

[@kdrcvk4018]

Thx

[@Gaaravify]

Awesome for school classes

[@sevenup19945678]

Thanks for this Thomas! May I know how to get those boxes or borders around your texts in 1:27 ?

[@katsmith8263]

Oh, wow, i waited just for.... FOUR YEARS FOR THIS

[@MartinDeHill]

The EXACT thing I was missing from notion.

[@mik9228]

Great video, as usual! I have been waiting forever for the recurring tasks feature. Right now, is there a way to set a reminder/notification for when a template is automatically populated on the calendar? The Created Time property doesn't allow that.

[@ThomasFrankExplains]

Unfortunately no - hopefully in a future release!

[@aliciakitts3193]

I’m not a wedding planner but my job has some similarities in that it’s similar big projects over and over. I need a project list that will automatically date the tasks based upon the big day. I need to be able to see tasks due today from all of the open projects.

[@benm8201]

Are there any ways to use this (or Thomas' "Automated Recurring Tasks using the API") to have the recurring tasks remind you each time?

[@jacksonfolly]

Studio Tour Please!

[@4444hash]

is there a way where I can do recurring tasks with a habit tracker?

[@silvermushroom-gamifyevery6430]

This is a great step for Notion, but with the lack of ability to filter / search the template menu if I'm not mistaken, you'll still have to scroll through a over a hundred templates if you're tossing all of your repeated tasks in there, depending on usecase.

[@ThomasFrankExplains]

Agreed, and for that reason among others I don't think this is a good solution for recurring tasks. It's more useful for things like recurring meeting templates and journal entries.

[@IQuickscopeCA]

is there a way to automatically archive the previous templates?

[@marcolopes1180]

Anyone tried to compute a roll up based on relations of instatiated repeating pages? It seems that the relation/rollup does not see the automatically generated instantiations. If I create an instantiation manually or remove and add back the relation to the ones generated by the repeat function, then the rollup takes them in consideration.

[@sabinoramirez2600]

Are we able to stop recurrence based on some condition? I have a task specific journal that spans one week. A new journal for the task gets created every Monday. Can I have the journals stop recurring once the task is complete?

[@crackepack]

I think it can be used as trackers for digital bullet journal 🙃

[@JustLovely821]

the width tool is really great for multi-column layouts, but it's a shame that you can't do it if the multi-column layout is in a synced block...🤔

[@SeeressAspasia]

Can I/how can I apply this to the task manager in Ultimate Brain for recurring tasks?

[@ThomasFrankExplains]

Hey Allie, Unfortunately this feature doesn't work very well for recurring tasks. It only creates a new row at a specific time, and it can't dynamically set a due date. So you can't really look ahead and see when a recurring task would be due in the future. Due to that, we still need to use the same recurring tasks workflow my team and I developed earlier.

[@therealjugzor]

How did you get the cleaner state icons for your tasks?

[@ThomasFrankExplains]

Do you mean emoji? Emojis look different on different devices, and on Windows the circle ones have that flat, clean look.

[@thatsokeesh]

I just watched your task management video and there’s a recurring/one-time column you did. Does this new reoccurring feature eliminate the purpose of that column (from the other video)?

[@ThomasFrankExplains]

It doesn't - this feature just creates a new page on a schedule. It can't set a Date property yet, and you also won't see it ahead of time (which you'd want for a recurring task in a task manager!)

[@Sugges64]

Thomas, I purchased your Ultimate 2nd Brain, although I figure out how to set up a recurring template. Do you have a video or written instructions

[@ThomasFrankExplains]

Yep, it’s in our beginner’s guide! Feel free to post this in our support community and Alex can send you the direct link.

[@Sugges64]

Ok, thanks Thomas for the quick reply

[@GonzaloGDiezyt]

Hi Thomas! Great content as always! One quick question, do you write your blog posts in notion and then somehow get them to wordpress? Do you have any video or post of how to do it. I can't figure it out yet. Thanks in advance!

[@ThomasFrankExplains]

I sometimes draft things in Notion, but mostly I write directly in Wordpress. That said, you can copy from Notion and paste into Gutenberg - it works almost flawlessly as long as you're not using lots of custom block types (e.g. Callouts, linked db's). On the wordpress side, I coded my own CSS class called "callout", and I add that on specific blocks in the Gutenberg editor if I want a paragraph to stand out.

[@GonzaloGDiezyt]

@@ThomasFrankExplains Thank you so much, I have been having a hard time with toogles, callouts and images. Knowing that even you don't do it, it's a relief and I can't stop searching for that haha.

[@GonzaloGDiezyt]

Not sure if it's in the scope of any of your channels, but it would be great to see how you do this, either video or blog post

[@zoezhuyan8527]

Hi Thomas,thanks for your video, I recently encountered an issue about repeat template , when I set a 3 -day task repeat, it will automatically display WITHOUT date in my database, I wonder did U experience as well? Would you elaborate further? Thanks in advance 😊

[@zoezhuyan8527]

And I add property as date in my database

[@martinmaremae4561]

How to get the kanban cards themselves to be colored like seen in the last tip segment? I'm only aware of the native "Color columns" option that adds this faint hue by columns. Have I missed something?

[@ThomasFrankExplains]

Are you using light mode or dark mode? I'm just using "color columns" here, but I think the colors are more prominent in dark mode. It's also possible that my recording software's color profile makes the interface more vivid than it really is (though not on purpose)

[@martinmaremae4561]

@@ThomasFrankExplains Yep, it's the dark mode. I thought I checked that in Notion before asking, but must've missed it somehow. Seems a bit strange that the name of the feature and its appearance in light mode (columns) conflict with the dark mode appearance (columns AND cards). Thanks for taking the time to answer!

[@milasannon5361]

Thank you Thomas for this great update! However I noticed a little bug with your ultimate tasks mixed up with this new recurring template feature whenever we set the new recurring date and the interval is 1 and the unit is day(s), the next due date is always september 28, 1998. It updates correctly for the rest of the units (weeks, months, years and even if you set the days unit at 2 or 3) But not 1 day(s). Also, the projects don't update when a new recurring tasks comes in. Do you know how to fix both? Thank you in advance!

[@ThomasFrankExplains]

Are you trying to combine this new feature with our recurring tasks feature? Unfortunately that won't work. As for the 1998 bug - are you sure you're looking at Next Due? I just tested it, and it's working as expected when when set to 1 day(s). (I see November 19 as the Next Due date). The 1998 dates should only be showing on the four "Base Date" properties, which are used to reduce the amount of code present in Next Due.

[@milasannon5361]

@@ThomasFrankExplains So the recurring templates feature from Notion doesn't work with your Ultimate task is that what you're saying? Also, in order to get reminded everytime of the task, can I tag in the title @today 8:00 AM and everyday it will remind me because I set it to ''Today'' and not any other specific date?

[@milasannon5361]

@@ThomasFrankExplains on my phone it says otherwise, it's weird.. I don't know if that would be possible but if we can create a formula which code the date and the reminder we set, can it work?

[@XeiDaMoKaFE]

All I wanted is to turn my text entries to be tags , I have save to notion , and I have to pick 10+ tags every time I race in a game , and those tags match text in the page , so either I have everything in notion with text , or I have tags but I have to pick them manually every time which sometimes not to bother I even delay my racing , I've been trying everything but nothing seems to work , can you please help with your notion knowledge ? Can't do with formulas , Can't do with relations or rollups , Can't do?with templates , hat can I do

[@w0mblemania]

When I add new row to a table, is it possible to automatically fill in a date? There's creation date, but let's say I have a flexible property like "Date of Entry". Right now, if I create a new entry with the blue New button, I have to fill in the date manually, for every record. Is there a way to have New records automatically populate with the current date?

[@ThomasFrankExplains]

Yep! You can do that with forcing functions: kzbin.info/www/bejne/i2rXlYqfZdV2hJY Though note that you'll need to use the "New" button at the bottom of the database view, not the blue New button in the top-right corner. That latter button doesn't respect the filters you have set in your database view.

[@w0mblemania]

@@ThomasFrankExplains Thank you.

[@olovstener618]

The recurring hell is over, long live the happy days!

[@auxanelabanane]

I don't quite undertsnad. I'm looking to make a simple school schedule since my current online schedule is laging, sometimes erasing what I noted. Can I do that with that feature? I've never used notion for other thing than taking notes, writting my homeworks and establishing a list of documentation to watch, so I'm really confused about how this recurring thing works.

[@ThomasFrankExplains]

I would personally use a calendar app for a school schedule right now. I've been pushing Notion to implement the same kind of event modeling that calendar apps use for recurring events, but it's not here yet. And a school schedule is pretty much nothing but recurring events, so it's the one thing I'd still do in Google Calendar.

[@tyronjayherrera3208]

I'm still hoping for google calendar sync :)

[@valkon_]

Recurring template doesn't work for calendar view, any suggestions?

[@lulusplannerlifegmz1202]

Is this feature on the FREE version thomas? Thanks for sharing

[@ThomasFrankExplains]

Yep! I did the initial demo in a free workspace.

[@HoriaArabul]

I have one problem. How can I make a recurring task notify me every week on tuesday for example, because the recurring task is just appearing, but is not notifying me. And if I try to set this up in the template itself I can't set up notification without a date and that date does not update itself, am I right? I would really appreciate your help or anyone's help :)

[@m.b.4504]

what about your journaling tracking repeat. How do you set a date on today with a template ? I mean, if you set a reccuring template, you need to set a date on today no ?

[@ThomasFrankExplains]

Currently, you can use date mentions in the template's page title - type @today and choose the option that says "date when duplicated". As for Date properties themselves, currently you can't add dynamic dates to them in templates. However, the Notion team is working on this for a future release (hopefully sooner rather than later)!

[@foood]

I do not know if you aware of this: To me this was new, and I discovered it only coincidently. When opening a block of a database you see all of the properties, one underneath the other. Well, using the three dots in the right hand corner, you can custoize your page, determine which of the porperties you want to see etc. However, if you want to see a property, it will take precious space since it takes a full line of your screen. Now, with the last update/release, a new function was introduced: OPEN AS SECTION. At least relation properties can be opened now as separate sections on the page. First, I thought that's great, then I realized that the section takes even more space; and I was quite disappointed. Until today: I tried to show a (relation) property as a section. Then - and this is important! - you can click on the property which is now a section and determine which other related properties shall be shown aside in this separate section. In my Food Court platform, for instance, I am connecting recipes (in one db) with sources (the books, videos, etc.) in another database and the sources again with creators in a third database. These databases include relation properties which produce the recipe, source, language, creator (but this takes four rows !). If you now move back (ie click on the section and say: "show as property", the section disappears, as it should, but the property now shown again in the classic view shows all of the related content. All you need to do now is to assign "hide always" to the respective properties and you have saved (in my case) 3 to 4 precious rows.

[@Belcam12]

One thought for now - each newly created instance of a recurring template will have it's created date as [Today]. Could you not add a tag property to your template which is only applied to instances of a recurring template and then add to your today's tasks filter a filter group for DB items with that tag and created today? That should incorporate any recurring tasks into your today view at least.

[@EliseGarcia]

I thought about it, too, and maybe a formula property could do it. If the formula returns, let's say, two days from the created time, this could be filtered easily.

[@ThomasFrankExplains]

Yep, you could do that. I probably won't, since I already have a truly functional automated recurring tasks system (kzbin.info/www/bejne/nXm5hX2NfqdlhNE), but it would work. However, it still won't auto-fill the date property. So your filters would need to read "Due is Today OR Created is Today" - and then if you don't get one of the latter done, it'll disappear. Overall it's messy, so for now I think this feature is best suited to things like recurring meetings or journal entries. That said, the team has stated that this is intended as a launching-off point for more automations and recurring features. So I'm betting we'll get dynamic date properties in the near future. And hopefully down the road we'll get proper RRULE integration for displaying recurring events in calendar views, like most actual calendar apps have.

[@Belcam12]

@@ThomasFrankExplains yes, I had forgotten that you would need to complete it or it would disappear and you are right, your automated recurrence method works perfectly.

[@barbarina012]

How do I create a template for a page ?

[@ThomasFrankExplains]

If you're talking about creating a template for a non-database page, you can use the Button block to do it.

[@ErinVainsalu]

I tried creating a small habit tracker with reccurring tasks and relations. Has anyone tried this? I don't know if it's me or it's a bug but somehow the relations are broken. I can see that the relation has been created in one database (where rows were added with reccurring templates) but it doesn't show up in the other.

[@ThomasFrankExplains]

Make sure your relation is set to Show On the other database! thomasjfrank.com/notion-databases-the-ultimate-beginners-guide/#how-to-create-a-multi-database-relation

[@ErinVainsalu]

​@@ThomasFrankExplainsYes, I did that while creating the relation. I can see the relations that I create manually but not the ones that are created with recurring templates. drive.google.com/file/d/1GmdWDgNbd5SfzUkIfUPExXEesq_3w6yE/view?usp=sharing The first row in "Kalender" was created manually using a template. The second row was created automatically with the same template. The second row doesn't show in "Harjumused".

[@murulishamanna909]

Thomas, no new video updated on your main channel from last 8-9 months. Has it become dormant?

[@stephanieyagn9213]

Once the recurring task function gets better, I can quite TickTick, but now it is not good enough...

[@Aliocantinea]

When are you going to start uploading to nebula again? Can you not just have the same video on both? Sorry if there is a more complex answer to this

[@ThomasFrankExplains]

Videos are typically uploaded to Nebula and KZbin simultaneously, but this video required an incredibly quick turnaround. I was in the office quite late and only had time to upload to KZbin, so the Nebula version will come later today.

[@Aliocantinea]

@@ThomasFrankExplains totally makes sense, thanks for the explanation and effort you and your team put into your videos!

[@wcchristian]

yo

[@shouldershift]

Do people really not just drink when they get thirsty?

[@VivekShuklabiku]

Hey Tom! Just wanna say I feel like the main channel is dead and you are one of my favourite creators. This notion stuff is great but the Lamas are missing the GOAT of productivity!

[@michalis9]

No hate but is this just a notion channel now?

[@ThomasFrankExplains]

It's been a Notion channel since the first video!

[@michalis9]

@@ThomasFrankExplains your old videos were cool

[@maxgromann7346]

@@michalis9 You are probably searching for the "Thomas Frank", not "Thomas Frank Explains" Account 😀

[@jimmythepagina7989]

not really useful, tbh you've become very greedy in the past period, what a shame

[@ThomasFrankExplains]

You spend 12 years making tons of free content, but the moment you stop making what one person specifically wants, now you're greedy Sorry I'm not a free fountain of exactly what you want anymore