Notion Task Lists & "Do Dates" (Viewer Q&A)

[@blackfiree91]

As I gormandize through this content every day - I am extremely appreciative of the fact that there are zero ads in the middle of these vids. I would happily skip through an ad at the beginning. However the fact that I can pause and rewind and fast forward and rewind again when designing my PPV system without interrupting ads; well it means that you are very considerate. Okay less typing- more gormandizing! Thanks!😉

[@jtipale]

This is the most brilliant system. A lot of times I was wasting my time doing things that weren't important for me at all. Now whenever I am thinking of doing something and I am adding the action to my system, I have to consciously think about how it is relevant to my larger goals and life pillars. It is a time-saver!

[@augustbradley]

Exactly jaldeep! You get it. 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!

[@marcschinkel3935]

**Video Summary** 0:00 Intro This video will answer another relevant question from the community that wasn't covered in the previous Task Database video on do-date implementation. What happens if you have some downtime and you want to have some options to fill it with? 0:35 When & Why "Do Dates" 00:38 [image] question from a user, what do you do with tasks without a 'do-date'? If a task is important it should have a do date. When you assign a do date, it doesn't necessarily mean you will do the task at that point, but some action needs to be taken with it such as rescheduling. This ensures you never forget an important task. This comes down to how important a task is, if you think it's meaningful give it a do date. If you come to that do date and you don't have time for it again, and this keeps repeating you will eventually begin to question whether it’s important or not. The whole point of a do date is to ensure a task is put into your schedule and gets deliberate consideration at that date. Letting time pass helps you filter out what you deem important. 3:55 example in Notion Add a new item to the daily task list and pick a date you want to reconsider the task The problem of never putting a do date on new tasks can leave you with giant lists that become unwieldy and emotionally burdensome. They make you feel like you're failing and falling behind. You need to be screening your tasks and don't add anything that isn't moving towards your higher-level priorities. 6:32 Ongoing Low-Priority Task List To answer the question there are times when August will go to a list that is an ongoing low priority list, however, this happens rarely as the daily action items are scheduled with high priority, highly aligned tasks. Sometimes it's nice to have a 'soft list' for some people and there is one built into the system 7:10 Jumping into the Action Zone dashboard There is a toggle from an ongoing low priority list These are tasks that you want to do, but there's no point at which it would be too late to do it. For a reading list, August will primarily use pocket, but that can get quite long and if there is something on there that he wants to read in particular that might get buried, he'll put the item on this list. If this list gets too long it will be cut down to size during the weekly review. When he has spare time he almost always goes to his pocket list, watch later videos on KZbin or the books on his reading list. This list is a way to list the priority between those items and which to tend to first. If you are someone who has a lot of free time and your action items and task database aren't keeping you busy, or if you're scheduling some downtime. You could have toggles within toggles of your low priority list to generate a hierarchy of tasks to do at your discretion. This should be part of your weekly or monthly review. A fundamental principle of most systems from GTD to this one is that if you have things you want to do you need to input them very quickly and get them out of your head. You could use a 'to schedule' list as an inbox for a simple/quick inbox, or if it's something casual then you can put it into the ongoing low priority list. If something gets pushed down too much it's a good cue that it really should be deleted because it's not that important to you. Putting tasks on your to-do list forces you to consider them more deeply if they really aren't that important to you. Alternatively, you could be consistently being thrown off your task lists by other items and it will force you to consider the value of whatever it is you're being thrown off by and what it is you hope to accomplish. 13:36 Projects on "Hold" Projects are things you want to get to, but you don't necessarily want to fill your task database with too many do dates that you have to keep shuffling. You assign those tasks to a project and then put the project on hold until. The project's database will be covered in a few videos. There you will see that projects can be active, on hold, or something to consider in the future. The way you assign the project will have an impact on what gets actively scheduled into the task database, impacting the number of tasks you need to assign in your schedule. The following videos will continue on with the building of the system The alignment dashboard is the next most important dashboard in the system because it contains the pillar to pipeline pyramid, aligning everything from the daily actions up to the projects, goals, values, pillars, and aspirations you're working towards and the person you want to become. After that, we will cover the project's database.

[@charliestarrett3900]

Thank you!

[@g-ann3527]

Timestamps Index 0:00 Intro 0:35 When & Why "Do Dates" 6:32 Ongoing Low-Priority Task List 13:36 Projects on "Hold"

[@f6yn1001]

4:23 Love everytime he takes off his glasses, it looks badass. This is a mentor everyone needs. I wish August was my teacher.

[@lexsodz]

He IS:) Isn''t he? We're watching his videos!

[@nathancarranza9860]

Some takeaways I got: - If something is important/meaningful, it should have a do date. - If you keep pushing something out and it never gets done, it might be a hint that you should delete it. - Try to screen out the things you know would be nice, but really aren’t that important to the values, life pillars, and objectives you have in life.

[@augustbradley]

With one small correction (fist one should be "Do Date" not "Due Date"), that's exactly it! Great summary.

[@nathancarranza9860]

@@augustbradley Correct! That's an important distinction; one I learned watching your videos. Thank you!

[@annezdesahntis9261]

August Bradley, you are a genius! I love these videos, and thank you for such a contribution!

[@stephentassell3531]

Another excellent and well-structured video. Your series is invaluable in leveraging the maximum benefits from this blisteringly powerful application. I am so pleased that Notion have recognised your awesome command of their application and made you a Notion Pro. You truly are an envangelist for Notion and instrumental in taking their superb product to the next level. As always, I am very much looking forward to the next installment in this powerful series.

[@augustbradley]

Thank you so much Stephen! That means a lot to me. Please help spread the word about the series, I'm new at publicly posting Notion videos so trying to get these out there. Thank you! Also, early tip that I'll be on the the Notion Office Hours live-stream April 17th hosted by Marie Poulin on Notion's Crowdcast channel (then posted on Notion's KZbin channel). Will be fun!

[@stephentassell3531]

​@@augustbradley I am so pleased that you will be joining Marie Poulin. Many months ago, Marie was the person that really convinced me that Notion was the way forward. I so like the way that she weaves a tapestry of knowledge in her system, by cleverly relating all her tables together in order to fully leverage Notion to its max. Before Marie came on the scene, so many people were just treating Notion like MS OneNote and building systems with disparate tables that did not interconnect and toally missed the awesome power of Notion. You and Marie have worked so hard, not just in developing systems in Notion, but also in sharing your considerable knowledge with the rapidly growing user base and taking this super-awesome system to the next level. Onwards and upwards!

[@augustbradley]

@@stephentassell3531 Very well stated Stephen, Marie is great and has innovated a lot and been super generous in sharing -- totally agree on all fronts! Onwards indeed!

[@CheyneStrong]

barrel collar game on point

[@TimOlsen66]

August, you just helped me understand what it is that turned me off about GTD. I agree it's a good system, but I was always overwhelmed with the huge laundry list I couldn't sort through very easily. My inbox never seemed to move! Thank you!

[@augustbradley]

YES! YES! YES! My feelings exactly. Perfect Tim.

[@loribigby]

Thanks August. I have been watching all your videos in order and it is really helping me figure this out. I did jump ahead and watched the Book Vault because I love your database for that. I started setting up one for me and messed it all up. I know you said it was easy....well, not there yet. But I did want to comment that the "do Date is really helping me focus. I didn't think it would as much as it did. I very often do a task that is not important in favor of one that is. So very helpful. I appreciate all the work you have put into this. Thanks!!

[@jenniferpape5715]

Thanks for another great video! This is the best notion content out there right now. Your mastery of the planning process is amazing. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[@augustbradley]

Thank you so much Jennifer! That means a lot to me. Please help spread the word about the series, I'm new at publicly posting Notion videos so trying to get these out there. Thank you!

[@danallen698]

Great videos! I really like the 'do' date concept. I'm looking forward to your project db series, as well as more information on the pillars and pipelines.

[@augustbradley]

Thanks Dan! Greatly appreciate the feedback, and awesome to hear the Do Date approach is helpful to you (it has transformed my life). All those other topics are underway in the pipeline.

[@markscheiner3952]

The series is continuing superbly August. Really adding value. Thanks again for sharing this. Looking forward to your flow diagram system layout episode and also your projects episode. One area I’ve struggled with is using Notion to plan projects that haven’t started yet. Your idea of a project on hold doesn’t bring the tasks into the action list until the project is activated sounds like the ideal solution.

[@augustbradley]

Thanks a lot for the feedback Mark. Yes, just like you add tasks to the task database as you think of them (so you don't forget), also add Projects to the project Database so you don't forget and have all the options together when you set your project priorities. Then in Monthly or Weekly reviews, select which should be "Active" for the upcoming week or month, keep others either in "Waiting" or if more distant, then "Someday/Maybe". If you start one but turns out to be too much to do right now, put it on "Hold" and come back to it later. The key is to have Weekly, Monthly and/or Quarterly reviews (or some combination), to ensure they get reviewed and not forgotten. Thanks for your feedback here!

[@nathancarranza9860]

I'm working my way through your series. Great stuff!

[@augustbradley]

Thanks Nathan, really appreciate the feedback! Much more in the way.

[@daiyrbekartelov6518]

Same here. I'm watching full "Full Notion Learning (In Order)" playlist.

[@augustbradley]

@@daiyrbekartelov6518 Excellent to hear this, tat's what it was designed for!

[@daiyrbekartelov6518]

@@augustbradley Thank you for putting it together. First I tried to watch short playlist, then did not understand what is going on, so I started from the very first video in the long playlist. Can't wait to see more, I hope you won't stop these series soon

[@augustbradley]

@@daiyrbekartelov6518 Thanks Daiyrbek! But stop soon? Oh no, we've just barely begun! 😎 Once the main overview of the system gets fully presented, we can do even more interesting things. So much more to come. Working on some cool new stuff for the channel and the community growing around it. Glad you've joined us. 🚀

[@alekseitiurin6122]

When I have free time, at first, I take tasks from next day/week or current project and only after - from Low-Priority Task list.

[@danielemoyon9044]

Thanks for putting this series together!

[@sandrinem.-z.6115]

Thank you for another great video ! I'm looking forward to the next ones. I've now watched all of the ones you've posted so far and have to say they've been real eye openers on how much more efficient I can be and how this efficiency can happen using notion. I wasn't sure I'd renew my subscription but after watching your videos, my enthusiasm sparked again (I mostly use Notion on my android mobile and I find it painfully slow, which is why I was unsure I'd renew my subscription) and I have even talked so much about Notion and how great it is and how there was this awesome youtube channel explaining lots of interesting things (yup, that's yours !) to friends / colleagues that enough of them have signed up for an account, allowing me to renew at no cost :D. So, again, thanks and I'll be sure to pop by next time you upload new content !

[@augustbradley]

Awesome Sandrine! So cool to hear the video series has been helpful so far. And really glad you're pushing it further, it can make a huge difference. Thank you for sharing this!

[@andymcdonald7533]

I have spent a lot of time over the years jumping from To-Do Apps to writing things down and jumping back and forth between different apps. I never found a way to stick at them until Notion came along. I just like the idea of having one workspace to store knowledge and tasks rather than a dozen apps that I need to jump between. I think having a simpler system and only seeing a handful of tasks for the day helps, especially as I tend to procrastinate a lot! One thing I found in to-do apps was that tasks would build up and build up and I kept pushing them to a future date. When that date came, I would push it again. So, hearing you say that if you keep doing this then you should delete it was interesting and something that I will try. I was thinking of adding a counter column to keep track of how many times I postpone a task, if that number starts to get too high, say 5 times, then it might be time to delete it - unless there is an obvious reason for it.

[@karliegaskins1629]

Again, perfect instruction of your system! I really appreciate it.

[@walkwithjaytee]

Great! Besides GTD, what other productivity systems have you used and even integrated into your current Notion system?

[@abdullahyahya2471]

I have few questions and if you could make a viewer Q&A video on them it would be great. 1. How Do you manage your thoughts, Ideas, Ruminations etc? (in your mind expansion dashboard?) 2. The biggest Question is that I don't see any context related information with your Action items. a. Workplace b. Home c. Outside(You have Errand under priority option, but what if one has multiple errands and wants to assign a priority to them. That's why I think it should come under context.) 3. There can be a slight problem that can arise if you sleep after 12 AM, I always sleep after 3 AM. So if I have some tasks in daily tracking that need to be checked, I will not be able to access them on dashboard, I found a way by adding a Yesterday view above Today view in your Action Zone Dashboard. What do you think about this? How do you plan to solve this? 4. Do you think there is need of adding Task Complexity ( or High energy, Low energy) tag with your action items? You have Quick Task as a Priority. But again you can't assign a priority to a Quick task in your System. What Do you think ? I mean a task can have variable complexity, priority and context.

[@augustbradley]

Will address thoughts/ruminations in future video. I personally don't use Context in my tasks, I blend my contexts together. But if you wanted to do that just add a "Single-Select" field in the database that lets you chose by work/home/car/etc... and either sort the view by that field or have separate toggles with different views filtered by that field. That sounds like a reasonable solution to the after midnight time issue, of course the other solution is to go to bed earlier :) (just kidding!). In you case you might do a 2-day "today" view filtered to include both today and tomorrow, then prioritize with tomorrow's items being a lower priority. Just thinking out loud here. I personally find no value in High Energy/Lowe Energy designations, but if you do it's easy to add and totally ok if it helps you prioritize throughout the day. Again, add a single select tag ( www.redgregory.com/notion/2019/12/3/the-difference-between-select-and-multi-select-in-notion )

[@HippieP629]

Hi AB. I really like the Following and Next in Line methods. I've set that up for a number of things. +thumbs up+ Thought... I want to practice something every day. Not the exact same thing but variations of visual scripting/coding inside a 3d cad program. I'm wondering whether to duplicate the original action/task a ton of times (with the "+" in front of each of course) OR add that action item as a checkbox in the daily habit tracking so it becomes more of a habit. Hope that makes sense. Tons of thanks for everything you're doing for the community.

[@augustbradley]

Great to hear Mark! If it's practice you're doing every day I would add it to the habit tracker and check it off every day in daily tracking, set aside a dedicated time each day to do it. Make it happen!

[@HippieP629]

@@augustbradley Thank you so much.

[@karinamack]

Wonderful, thank you August. This directly answers one of my ongoing questions I have had. As I am getting my head around how Notion works, I wonder if there is a way to assign a task to a different type of period of time, so rather than it being assigned to a "do date" day, can you assign it to a certain "do week" to look at, then to reassign to a day when you get to that point for review, or a "do month", to look at and assign when that review comes up, or even a "do quarter"? That way, you don't need to look it til that period of time, and you also don't have a pile of actions piling up on a particular day at the beginning of the week or month to look at during the review. And that way, you can see a day in the future for what it is (as in actual set scheduled items and priorities), rather than mixed up with possibilities. I apologise it you have answered this in a different way in any videos, but it isn't clear to me yet. The future is too unknown, and I don't want to deal with something til it's time to, til I have more info and certainty about the action. I don't always want/need to assign it to a set day, but rather a period of time to, then assign a "do date" or "do period of time" when it's closer and is time to review. This is a pressing question for me, and I hope it makes sense. Thank you, and I hope to hear from you asap.

[@amariusz]

Noone seems to notice similarities between August's "Do Dates" approach and digital GTD's tickler file/43 folders. Especially for tasks deferred less then a month.

[@danash968]

Brilliant concept!

[@fmeclarke]

HI August. Great Job on the videos you are the doing a great job and the best I have seen so far. One question that I do not remember seeing addressed was how to have a recurring task be generated. I figure it will be a formula but i thought i would ask you first cheers Stay safe

[@augustbradley]

Thanks Mike! I really appreciate your feedback here. For reoccurring tasks -- once a task has completed this cycle, I usually just reassign the next date instead of checking “done". If it takes a lot of time and impacts scheduling other events I would schedule out the upcoming year (or however far makes sense) so that as I glance at the calendar I know to schedule around it. Would be nice to have re-occurring functionality built into Notion, but this manual system is still very easy and takes very little time/effort. Not a big deal to me.

[@FollowTheThrone]

this concept makes me think of the "Someday Maybe list tasks" that GTD talks about

[@loribigby]

I do have a question actually. On your task list, do you put just the first thing from a larger project, or is the next to do in the project inside that page, OR do you link it to another data base? I guess I haven't gotten to the video about other data bases yet....watching in order. I'm setting things up as I go, but I am still using an app for my to do list because I haven't mastered this yet.

[@taisbarbaris]

August, thank you very much for this series! It is so inspiring! I would like to ask a question regarding the long tasks and if you have already answered something like this, could you please point me in the direction of that answer :) All your tasks have a "Do date" and you manage them on this date. What about the tasks that need more than one day? For example, I have a written assignment at the university and I would definitely need several days to write it but I don't know exactly how long it will take. It is not a project and I would not be able to break it down into smaller actions (I have no chapters, no prior research, just pure writing). How would you manage such tasks?

[@augustbradley]

Good questions Lyubov. If at all possible see if the task can be broken into parts, and if so make them separate tasks. If it's really just the same action that will take many days to do, I just schedule it for the first day and roll it over each day (or to each next Do Date when I can get back to it), and chip away at it until it's done. For a written assignment, break it into research, write first segment, write second segment, write next segment, etc... Define the segments as portions clearly pre-defined by your outline. Only apply a Do Date to thee first one, and line the rest up behind it as Dependent Tasks as I show in the Dependent Tasks video. Hope that helps!

[@jordangreen6653]

Thanks for the videos August. I've been trying out notion and following along with your videos. I'm anticipating the 'projects' video, as one issue I've had with notion, and your system of 'chains' of dependent tasks, is that planning out a project can be a bit opaque without some kind of visual indication of task dependencies. One question I have is how should one deal with making alterations to the 'chain'; eg suddenly you realize you have three other things that have to happen differently to the sequence you have set up. Is it a matter of manually going in and altering the 'following' fields of the relevant tasks, or is there some better way to do it? And would you recommend adding multiple dependent tasks to a single "epic" task, or is keeping a strongly linear 1:1:1 sequence important for the system to work cleanly. Thanks again, learning a lot from your videos, on both the software side and organizational side.

[@augustbradley]

Hi Jordan, good questions. The Projects DB video should be coming next week. With dependent tasks, in the Task DB or Action Zone there is an indication of when that task has another dependent task following it. In terms of inserting a new task into the middle of a chain, I find it best to duplicate one already there at the point of insertion, then just change the "Following" and "Next In Line" for those two (and rename the duplicate). Helps a lot if they're sorted in order in a view filtered just for tasks with a "Following" assignment (as shown int he Dep Task vid here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rZfIeKB4gM1srs0). If you're inserting many new dependent tasks, might be easiest to duplicate enough and change the titles to have each one represented, then arrange the sequences as you wish (manually dragging them into order), then change the "Following" and "Next In Line" to square up with the sequence you've arranged. I would not recommend in most cases to have multiple tasks Following a single task, since you can only do one at a time (unless you're batching them, in which case why not make the batch a single task to simplify). Hope that helps!

[@agathauy2709]

How do you deal with tasks that tend to get too big? And hence get stuck on the Today View? For example, designing this part of the website apparently needs to be broken further into smaller tasks? Fantastic video series by the way! Am going through it right now to setup this system on Notion :D

[@augustbradley]

Hi Agatha! If you can break it down into parts and combine them in a project, do so and manage the tasks from the project view as you work through them. If there's really one big thing that's all the same, plow through it as fast as you can rolling it forward each day as needed.

[@paolalainez3114]

Hey August, just wondering is there a way to connect Google Calendar to the Do Date calendar?

[@augustbradley]

Not until the API comes out.

[@b0red7]

can u do a guide for taskade.com next?

[@hekios888s6]

What about things that span several days?

[@augustbradley]

Either break it into smaller parts, or roll it forward at the end of each day it is not completed (until done!).

[@timbushell8640]

A nice twist for having a "hold" project... ... but an endless bucket as an "Inbox", I think using the GTD idea more - then it is 'just' another reviewable inbox, as it isn't a real "project" as projects are more defined - billable even, than say an ever-rolling "to be read list" that needs attention when time appears and so say vacation read packing needs to be considered. So far - it feels as if "inboxes" aren't used enough or flexible enough. Good stuff, and thanks for the vid.

[@timbushell8640]

And yes - I think I have caught up now - so an ad hoc minor item can get dropped off as "done" with no "do" or "due" dates inducing stress, etc.

[@anngozum9119]

can i lock my do date? how?

[@danash968]

August, how do we deal with recurring tasks? For example, if you are doing a report every single Friday? Is there a way for it to come into your task list every Friday. And can we tick off recurring tasks to repeat from due dates and from completion dates? Like if you watering plants every Saturday, then you want the task to repeat from completion date and when you doing a Friday report every week, you want it to repeat from the due date. Thanks in advance for your help. I really appreciate it.

[@augustbradley]

For reoccurring tasks -- once a task has completed this cycle, I usually just reassign the next date instead of checking “done". If it takes a lot of time and impacts scheduling other events I would schedule out the upcoming year (or however far makes sense) so that as I glance at the calendar I know to schedule around it. Would be nice to have re-occurring functionality built into Notion, but this manual system is still very easy and takes very little time/effort. Not a big deal to me.

[@danash968]

@@augustbradley, glad to read that it takes very little time to keep reassigning. I do hope Notion will come out with the repeating task functionality in the future. Can I ask what would be the easiest way to schedule out the upcoming year for a recurring task?

[@augustbradley]

​@@danash968 Sure. Say you want to send a rent check every month on the 20th. Click "New" task and enter the date for the first month. Then either hit duplicate or hit New again and enter a task for the second month on the 20th, and so on for all the months of the year -- "pay rent" tasks on the 20th of each successive month. Doesn't take long and now you;ll never miss a rent payment.

[@danash968]

@@augustbradley that is excellent, thank you so much! :-)

[@StevenMichels]

I see you use Evernote. How does that work into your system? Why not use Notion for that?

[@augustbradley]

Good question, I'll probably do a video on this at some point. But here is the summary: They're two different apps for two different purposes. I use them both, each in their lane. Notion has the much broader range of functions. Evernote is now more specialized and niche in my system, but still plays a role. I will never go back to Evernote for the 85% that has been replaced by Notion. Evernote is the dump-everything-in-without-thinking-about-it shoebox, just in case I might want it later. Evernote is good at bubbling things up through it's machine learning pattern recognition, and good at capture (with tagging) and has very good search. Notion is for anything I'm actively working on, knowledge & info management tied to active projects and life pillars. Notion is save it to use it now, Evernote is save it to maybe someday use it (at which point I would bring it over to Notion). This is just regarding info and media capture/storage, which is all Evernote really does. Notion of course does much more than that.

[@StevenMichels]

@@augustbradley I used to use Evernote, but have grown frustrated by their lack of innovation. Even the beta release of the new version (for Mac, anyway) seems outdated and even slower, somehow. Bah.

[@augustbradley]

@@StevenMichels I agree with all your points there. I use Evernote just for old school utilitarian stuff, and Notion covers the innovative more dynamic work (and 90-95% of my system).

[@f6yn1001]

I'm gonna call the Badass taking off glasses move the Knowledge Bomb Move or KBM.

[@m-108]

bruh, why people are not liking this?

[@Spacecortez]

I just noticed you're always wearing the same shirt, but in a different colour.

[@augustbradley]

Yes, it's a minimalist approach to avoid spending time and effort on such trivial choices like what to wear each day. Save time/thinking energy for more important issues!

[@ebertmahon8939]

@@augustbradley So true, I am working along the same lines. Great point!

[@neonsmores78]

just a tip, instead of saying for first time watchers blank you should put a caption or something else to say it

[@labulabuland]

🔖 2:35