The Perspectives Method - a BRAND NEW Way to Build in Notion!

In this video, I show you a brand new way of building in Notion called the Perspectives Method. This method allows you to build REAL applications in Notion without needing to download any template. Split into two halves, the first part of this video is a showcase of the method. The second half is a step-by-step tutorial on how to build your own applications using the Perspectives Method.
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TIMESTAMPS
-- Showcase --
00:00 - Introduction
02:44 - Terminal
04:36 - Inside an Application
07:18 - Perspectives Templates
08:35 - Atomic Perspectives
12:16 - Re-Ordering Perspectives
15:18 - Creating a New Application
18:39 - Landing Page
21:35 - Page Setup/Design
-- Build it Yourself --
25:04 - Begin Building
26:30 - Building Perspectives Template
31:17 - Building the Landing & Settings Pages
34:32 - The Template Button
35:46 - Making New Apps/Perspectives
38:25 - Workspace Navigation
44:23 - Closing Thoughts
47:17 - Outro
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AHOAMI - Summer Rain (Copyright Free Music)
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[@Banal1zada]

The sadness I felt when I clicked on your profile and saw there were no more videos... This is amazing and I can't thank you enough for taking the time to explain all this. This just made my freelancer life so much easier!

[@JoshRedd]

Oh man! Haha so sorry to disappoint like that! But I’m glad to hear you were interested in more, I’d certainly like to post more!

[@Banal1zada]

@@JoshRedd We'll be waiting!

[@lowkeyproducktvt2101]

same 🫠

[@handtattoos6901]

In a community where a lot of people use Notion to make very pretty themes/dashboards, this is the kind of practicality I've not seen enough of. Thanks so much for putting this together & spending all that time to think these things up. I wasn't able to keep up in the beginning so the second half where you build it really helped drill it home with the scalability of what I can do and how I can apply your method to my own systems. Thanks again!

[@JoshRedd]

Thanks so much! I'm so glad the second half was helpful!

[@guillaumedubuc_]

Great stuff and well thought-out !!

[@lex-rx7in]

I love you perfect timing and high quality❤

[@Kitfry]

Wow! What a great idea. Thank you for taking the time to take us through your Perspectives Method. I plan to 'stand on your shoulders' and build on your idea in my own database I use with my students. Thanks again

[@lukashuber]

Amazing! I love the way you approach this! Maybe it would be a good solution to give the settings page the number 99 or something, so it can always stay on the bottom whenever you create a new perspective 🤔

[@JoshRedd]

That's what I did back then but now I don't even use it anymore, I use synced blocks!

[@RELake17]

JOSH!!! This is your first video 😮 Way to go man 👍🏼 I am implementing this right away. You are awesome!

[@JoshRedd]

Much love, thank you! I’d like to post more! They just take a fair bit of work 😅 but I’m starting to think it will be worth it in the long run.

[@RELake17]

@@JoshRedd With your unique approach you will find your niche in no time. I am particularly interested in how you approach using this on a phone. Thanks again for building and sharing the perspectives method with the rest of us!

[@estebanvivas7441]

Thanks for sharing such a great method! Will be trying it, hope to see more!

[@JoshRedd]

Glad you liked it! I've been uploading more videos, hope you like them as well

[@SimonLanz]

this is absolutely ingenious!! thanks a lot!! 👍

[@JoshRedd]

Appreciate you!

[@esparra1014]

I'm fairly new to notion so your terminology (Apps, Vaults, Perspectives) got away from me in the beginning, but I watched the 2nd half first then the first half which helped me process your terminology & way of thinking better. I really like the concept. Thanks for sharing... looking forward to more videos!

[@Mr.clemclem]

This is insanely good, thank you so much 😍😍😍

[@Wildenfree]

Excellent work Josh! I really enjoy the breakdown, and even the double work showcasing the reason why process of thought behind each build is so important. I have constantly considered practicality & effective navigational use within Notion, and none of my existing considerations matched the efficacy, flexibility & cleanliness of your Perspectives approach. I like that it can be setup as an addition to our existing builds for a more atomic approach as you say. Overall, Welll Done!👏🏾💯✨

[@JoshRedd]

Such a thoughtful compliment, thank you!

[@GregoryTrinh]

Simply brilliant! 🎉

[@alarichaag5247]

Hot tip: Set the sort order of Settings to 9999 (e.g.) and it will always be at the bottom; and set each perspective's sort order in steps of 10 (e.g. 10, 20, 30) to make room for easy insertions (15, 23, etc). These can be cleaned up (renumbered) every once in a while...

[@JoshRedd]

That was my original approach after this video but I've improved on the method since then! You'd enjoy my more recent videos - I don't have to use sort order anymore, I just use synced blocks.

[@dyegoturl1373]

Josh this solution is simply FANTASTIC. It's simple and easy to use and powerful. I loved it. Congratulations and I hope your channels🚀

[@JoshRedd]

Thank you so much! Let’s go! 🚀 🌝

[@krystalpari]

Thanks a lot, Josh, for sharing your own global perspective of Notion setup :-) Useful... Waiting for the next episode

[@JoshRedd]

They're here!

[@harryreafor]

Just want to say that this is on par to August Bradley's PPV when it was launched, really appreciate the method.

[@JoshRedd]

This is such a deep compliment because its the core of my desire. Not to one-up August but to leave a mark like he did. He changed what I (and many others) thought possible which kept me curious for more.

[@PhysicsandProductivity]

Thanks so much! This is really good man!! ❤

[@JoshRedd]

Would love to see what you come up with over on Twitter!

[@mattural20]

More, please! Honestly, you could simply dive deeper, or use a different example of how your system works, and we’d be appreciative! Thank you!

[@daniellables]

This is AMAZING!!!!!!!!

[@candymujingawillems5521]

This method is great. This will help package Master templates or frameworks. Thanks for the tutorial

[@derkartoffelbaum3436]

I would be so happy if you would share your project and task management. Thank you very much for this genius video, I changed my whole Notion Setup because of it.

[@aprilschwarz]

Need more training on this PLEASE! 🔥

[@JimShingler]

Nice Work, ... Very Clean, ...

[@clementinesplan]

I’ve watched this several times. I was so sad there weren’t more videos. I cannot wait to see where you go next. When will we see more content?

[@JoshRedd]

long time waiting for this comment but I've put out some more videos! Hope you find them helpful!

[@joshgoertzen3229]

LEGEND

[@paulgunjal]

Looks really interesting. Would love a video to show how you use this day to day, to get a better understanding of how it works exactly. More content please 🙏 😢

[@JoshRedd]

My most day to day use is the perspectives journal, it's a new video I put out since this once. It's unique though!

[@Jan-jf4th]

this is great

[@iletyoucallmestevesy]

My man is in the Strike zone right now. hittin dingers

[@stephaniesaether7997]

Hi Josh, This is a really great and easy to set-up along the video! :) What I don't fully understand is with this method and the walkthrough of the setup - How do you separate the original database in a Vault, when the database is created within the HQ page? Each New Pack App (Strike Packs) is a new database, so you will be in the database when creating New Perspectives and from what I can see you don't move the original database to a secure place as a Vault and then use linked view. I'm thinking from a business perspective when you work with a team and want to have all original databases in an own Teamspace to use restricted permissions to reduce the chance of deleting the database etc. Looking forward to more great videos! :D

[@navi.voticie-nexus]

Thank you I hope you do put out that video I would like to use the striker system in the meantime I suppose I'm creating my own thank you

[@nowheretocatch]

thank you

[@aabakonyi]

Such a solid KZbin premier video, Josh. Well done, mate. I've been following your build along and tried tinkering with imitating your Strike OS group database view with the Day, Week, Month, Quarter, and Year, but don't have enough experience to crack the code. Let me know if it's easy via text in the comments. If not, maybe you can cover it in your next video with the Strike System. Best of luck with your channel - subscribed.

[@JoshRedd]

Thanks a ton Andrew. I call it my Chronos database, or "Time" database. Instead of separate databases for Days, Weeks, Months, Quarters, and Years, they actually all just live in the same database. I don't relate them at this point because I don't need the functionality that would offer. But It would make sense to set up once a year, just put in 10-15 minutes to fill in every one of those timespans and you're good for the year! I was actually playing with the idea of not using a date property at all and assigning tasks to a timespan. I think it's still a solid idea but I haven't given it more time to fully commit. Great question and thanks for the sub!

[@Notion]

🌟

[@jillmetcalfe1972]

Still absorbing what this might mean for my own workspace. It's a really interesting way of working. Just a thought - if you always want Settings at the bottom of the nav bar, you could give it number 99 or something.

[@JoshRedd]

That’s good thinking!

[@scarlett_j]

That's pretty nifty. As an alternative for lazy people, what I do is create an Index page, that is the first link with a sequential list of items that I would need. All the items on the index page are links to other pages which are categories, and inside the categories pages I keep headings with content, this describes the local content. Then I have for each general "todo" item a list of bullet point or checkmarks. Then some links at the bottom for relatable categories. Why this is ingenious, is because I also link the index page on each page as the first of the bottom links at each page. All pages linked to the index it will shape a natural hierarchy.

[@nickjanesdotcom]

Bro! I love this for soo many reasons but the primary one being that this is such a different way of designing and thinking than what many "creators" and "template designers" have been producing and regurgitating. Let me know if I can help in anyway as always! I will give this a go and think about some unique ways to implement this concept in workspaces and be sure to share with you.

[@JoshRedd]

Love this! Your compliment means a lot, I definitely want to blaze a different trail. Would love to see what you come up with!

[@ClaudiaHernandez-ro2uw]

Please make more videos! I would love to see your system in detail. Or is there a different place where we can see that or maybe buy the template?

[@JoshRedd]

More videos have come! I'm a little late but thanks for this comment!

[@derekhill4254]

👏👏👏

[@tayip6693]

Nice video man I really like the method you came up with. I see a lot of use in this method and how it can be used. Thanks for sharing your method. That being said, I have some questions which I can't quite get my head around: 1. Wouldn't it be better to use a synced block for the Home callout block in your HQ page, or in your cause Terminal, and insert that one in the Template page of the applications to insert new perspectives? That way you can just change the Home callout design or icon if you want, without needing to change them in all perspectives one by one. I don't know if there are any drawbacks attached to this method? 2. What would be the drawback of using a synced block for the perspective tab in the template itself? Instead of using Sort Order, you can just sort the perspectives by just dragging them and placing them in which order you want, that way you don't need to rework the Sort Order numbers every time you insert a new perspective 3. The 3rd question is kind of off-topic of what you explained in the video, but in your Terminal workspace, you got the callout block vault which are your databases. My question is when you need to pull the information of a database in a perspective in any application or multiple applications, do you pull the information from Vault, and is the Vault callout block your security place or your databases? For example, instead of making an inline database in the application, you made a page database in Vault and link the database with the perspective in the application right? I hope my questions are clear enough since English isn't my main language I speak. Again thanks for this amazing video and I am looking forward to your upcoming videos.

[@JoshRedd]

Great questions! 1. Yes you can definitely do this. I’ve done it as well but I have a mild aversion to synced blocks for no real reason. The red line feels like friction. I know it’s silly. But yes, it’s totally an option and even recommended if you foresee a change in the future. I’ll probably roll with it myself. 2. This isn’t a bad idea at all. It falls under the same preference as my previous answer but yes, that would work. 3. The vaults are in a callout on my terminal for aesthetics. In any perspective across any app, you use linked databases that pull from those main databases.

[@itsfuddah]

How you did the recurring perspective?

[@seancurrie-chicago]

This is awesome. I just started with Notion a few months ago and I yearned for a a side nav bar system and basically made a list of buttons on the right that opened pages and all those pages had a duplicate of that callout with buttons. It was for a guide that has about 6 pages. But I could feel as I scaled or wanted to do more it would not be as effectient or could get out of control. This is opening my brain up big time, love it. One question though, this is from a year ago should I watch any other videos or keep something in mind because of changes to Notion over the year?

[@JoshRedd]

Hey Sean, love that! Yeah I’ve definitely evolved it since then and am even in the middle of doing it again. It’s been coming out in some of my latest videos but I need to do a dedicated video on it.

[@lucasmpr]

Interesting. Quick tip about the ordering: do it in increments of 10 instead of 1’s - this way you can fit up to 9 in between numbers (eg: 11 comes in between 10 and 20) without having to manually change all the other list numbers every time you add something in between.

[@JoshRedd]

A good solution! I personally prefer to keep it airtight and it takes 5-10 seconds to re-order and then run down the numbers to update. And you only have to do it when you add a new perspectives as well.

[@srujangurram]

Cool, but why not use the default side bar on notion ? also utilising workspaces would allow creating various dashboards per type of work

[@JoshRedd]

The difference is that by doing it via database pages, its "dynamic" depending on which "application" you are in. So if you are in your task manager, you only see your task manager perspectives. Whereas, if you were in the sidebar, you would see all perspectives across all apps. Further than that, If you did it in the sidebar, you would have to manually link every perspective together. Since these live in a database, when you add a new perspective, it shows up across all other perspectives in that app.

[@DarshanShah10]

Impressive! Do you have a template I can pick up from?

[@JoshRedd]

Yes! I have them now at notionstate.com/templates and have some new videos out!

[@defypark4595]

Can I put two layers of perspectives? Like I put perspective on the first column and consecutive second perspective in the second column for more complicated, hierarchical structure?

[@JoshRedd]

Great question. With the way I built it in this video (using databases) I remember trying to find something but never did. I build Perspectives without databases now using synced blocks and haven't tried super hard to find anything yet. I think you can always manually make sub-perspectives but I wanted to maintain some sort of scalability so that's my threshold of success for it.

[@krzysztofomilian7295]

too good to be true

[@JoshRedd]

it’s true. and it’s good.

[@Nator77]

Excellent paradigm! I’ve already implemented it and it’s made all the disparate parts of my system feel unified and consistent. I hate using the sidebar as well so this fits right into how I like to do things. One question I have is, how do you adapt this on mobile? One issue I noticed was that you end up having to scroll through all the menus before reachjng the content on mobile.

[@flynnish5983]

You could try turning the menu into a toggle or have a quick link under home to the "main" header component.

[@JoshRedd]

Love the way you described how it feels! I created an app just for mobile, mostly quick capture stuff. in that specific app, I actually move the navigation to the right side of the page so it will load at the bottom of a mobile page.

[@JoshRedd]

this is a good idea as well!

[@esparra1014]

@@JoshRedd maybe in another video you can showcase your mobile version or how to create with mobile in mind!

[@jillmetcalfe1972]

Is there any reason why you don't have your Applications synced block set up like the Perspectives nav bar? I think I might have a go. I get stressed out when I see too much syncing.

[@JoshRedd]

I feel that. Something about synced blocks throws me off a little. But yes, you can’t put individual pages from separate databases into their own database. You could get creative but it takes away from the smooth interaction. The fact that one of the app perspectives also acts as the landing page/app itself - that’s what makes you have to link into it this way.

[@jillmetcalfe1972]

@@JoshRedd ah yes I see. Thanks!

[@zhouzh2]

I would thought linked page a better alternative for navigation bar than database based navigation, what’s your take for linked page?

[@JoshRedd]

linking pages works and that was actually my original implementation over a year ago when I tried this method out. but you have to manually add links and create the page. the database lets you create a new page fully templates and connected with one click

[@gorc1n770]

I have one question about my data/ the data when using notion? Where are the server and how secure are data? Crypted, encrypted.... Anyone may help or give answer?

[@JoshRedd]

Notion is secure. It’s not end to end encrypted and it’s not HIPAA compliant but it’s SOC2 compliant.

[@Jan-jf4th]

there is a correlation between bald men and good notion tutorials. You can also add a Sync Block for quick notes across the app or all apps.

[@Jan-jf4th]

Can use the sidebar for quick entries to the most common databases.

[@babamu1478]

I can understand it better by actually touching and operating the template and repeating the editing process. Do you release templates to the public?

[@JoshRedd]

Not for this since it’s not actually much of a template, it’s just a method. but I walk you through how to build step by step in the video! in the future when I release actual templates using the method, I’ll provide links.

[@babamu1478]

@@JoshRedd Thanks. The truth is, I watched the videos and made the same one myself, the first movie improved the usability of my TEMPLATE, so I look forward to future videos.

[@KidKerrigan]

Now if only we could update all pages affected by a template without having to delete all the data on the page, re-select the updated template and dump and organise the info all over again 😭

[@KidKerrigan]

Regardless of those limitations - I think you may have saved me from myself with these perspectives

[@mhession]

Curious why your post was removed from r/notion

[@JoshRedd]

It was a mistake and the mods re-established it.

[@shriefallam8866]

I know I am not smart, perhaps average, but I didn't understand a single thing of the video even though I am certified by Notion, what is the idea? you jumped into explaining something that you didn't fully address. Maybe it's just me I don't know. Thanks for the video nonetheless.

[@JoshRedd]

Hey fellow certified user, appreciate the feedback. My style probably isn’t for everybody, that’s for sure. I also have an updated video on this concept that might be more helpful!

[@willhelliwell]

Took me to 13 minutes to get how it works. Now my mind is blown. I’ve been putting off watching this for a while but I’m doing a Notion build for a client this month and want to wow them. Will of course being pointing them towards the mastermind 🫵🏻