There’s no one-click duplicate link for this template, and that’s deliberate. This page gives you the exact structure from our Notion task system guide, plus a starter outline you can paste into your workspace in about a minute. You end up with a task system you understand well enough to change without breaking it.
What you’ll build
| Component | What it does |
|---|---|
| Tasks database | Name, Status, Due, Project, Notes (five properties, nothing else) |
| Projects database | One property: Name. Project context lives in the page itself |
| Today view | Filtered to in-progress tasks and tasks due today (your morning screen) |
| Waiting view | Everything blocked on someone else, sorted by age |
| By Project view | Tasks grouped by project, for weekly reviews |
The statuses (and only these)
Not started, then In progress, then Waiting, then Done. No “Almost done”, no “Blocked again”. A task is either being worked on, waiting on someone, or finished. Anything finer than that is ceremony.
Build it in five steps
- Create the database. In Notion, type
/databaseon a page and choose Database – Inline. Name it Tasks. - Add five properties with these types: Status (Status), Due (Date), Project (Relation to Projects), Notes (Text), plus the built-in Name.
- Set the statuses to exactly: Not started, In progress, Waiting, Done. Delete the defaults Notion adds.
- Create the three views from the database’s view menu. Filter Today to Status = In progress or Due = today. Filter Waiting to Status = Waiting, sorted by the date it entered that status. Group By Project by the Project relation.
- Paste the starter outline (the download on this page) into a normal Notion page next to the database. Markdown pastes as a formatted page: headings, checkboxes, and all.
What’s in the download
The file is a plain Markdown outline: three sections (Work, Personal, Notes) with checkbox lines. It is a starter outline, not a Notion export file: paste it into an empty Notion page and it becomes a formatted checklist you can then link to your Tasks database. The build steps above are what turn it into the system; nothing is pre-installed on your account.
Why this structure works
- Fewer decisions per task. Five properties means you can capture a task in five seconds, which means you actually capture tasks.
- One entry point. You don’t need a dashboard; you need one view that answers “what am I doing right now?”
- It shrinks instead of growing. When it stops working, you delete properties instead of adding them. See the guide for the full reasoning.
The fine print
- The template and the outline are free, and stay free. No affiliate links, no email required.
- If you’d rather keep task capture out of Notion entirely, our Zapier + Notion workflows show how to push emails, forms, and Slack messages straight into this database, with no manual entry at all.
- Nothing here is permanent: the outline is a file you can download again, and the database is one you can rebuild in an afternoon.
If the invoice side of your admin is still manual, the free invoice template covers that in Google Sheets and Excel.