The Problem


On my 🏠 Home page, I have a basic "To Do" list... which is really just my inbox or catchall for anything. Each item is a simple checkbox block, but they usually end up in three categories.

  1. πŸ“ GTD To Dos "take shower, refill water filter, clean out car"
  2. πŸ“ Work To Dos "research marketing technique, research website platform X"
  3. πŸ“ University To Dos "research paper draft for 441 due next monday"

Because of these trends, I created three official databases for task management:

  1. πŸ—ƒ GTD Tasks Properties include Category and Status.
  2. πŸ—ƒ Work Tasks Properties include Client, Project, Priority, and Status.
  3. πŸ—ƒ University Planner Properties include Course, Type, Due Date, Status.

When I would migrate the To Dos into their specific databases, I started to notice that a majority of the "To Dos" I added would fall into not only these three categories, but fall into specific properties as well.

  1. ☺️ GTD To Dos would usually file under Personal and Up Next.
  2. πŸ€” Work To Dos would usually file under Medium and Up Next.
  3. πŸ€“ University To Dos would usually file under Homework, Due Date, Up Next.

I didn't want to have to continuously fill in tedious information, reformat data, or switch to a new system. This was until I found out that blocks held their properties even if they were moved or transformed.

The Mechanics


When a block is created in a database, properties can be assigned to that block. Those properties aren't based on just the name of the column, but specific to the database in which it was created. However, when a block is removed from a database and made into its own page, those properties are not lost.

This means that you can remove a property-given block from a database to create an independent page, drag that page back into the database, and it remembers all of the previous properties. As all of the information is forever assigned to that block, you can transform the block and it still holds those properties. Even if you move the block to a new database and assign it more properties for that database, it will still remember the properties it once had in the first database.

The Solution


https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/91a4105d-a04c-40e8-8efc-70e0d00584b9/Screen_Shot_2019-07-24_at_6.32.06_AM.png

https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/313efd9b-3ee5-4b5f-b250-999ce18d34bf/Screen_Shot_2019-07-24_at_6.44.39_AM.png

https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/400116e6-3185-4e32-9750-dc63b8775829/Screen_Shot_2019-07-24_at_6.47.26_AM.png

  1. Start on your first use case, which for me is the simple Personal GTD Task
  2. Create an πŸ“ Example Task (don't worry about the title) in your GTD Tasks Database
  3. Drag this πŸ“ Example Task out of the database to create a new page
  4. If this is the only use case you're using, skip to step 7
  5. Drag your πŸ“ Example Task into your secondary database, which for me is the Medium and Up Next Work Task
  6. Set the necessary properties and go back to step 3 for each additional use case.
  7. When you've added all of your use cases, drag your hefty πŸ“ Example Task onto a new page to create a page of its own. Now would be time to finalize your emoji or icon.
  8. Change the block's format from a page (unless that's convenient for you!) into your block of choosing: To-Do, Bullet, Number...
  9. Create a new Template Button, name it how you'd like, and insert your loaded-up block into the dispenser section.
  10. Link the databases you'd like to insert your tasks into for easy drag and drop destinations using Link to a Page or just a database on the same page as your button!

Congratulations! πŸŽ‰ Your To-Do list scribbles can now be autofilled with properties depending on where they're imported to!