Question

I am a new user of Notion. I have a big exam coming up, and am looking to hold myself accountable with a habit tracker inside a calendar, via checking off tasks (as checklist properties).

One huge component I'm struggling with is creating templates unique from each other within that calendar. For example, I want a template for a "study day" and a separate template for a "work day", each template with different properties depending on the day.

With each new template I make, it seems they override all previous templates I made, creating the same exact list of properties, which is really frustrating.

Is there a simple workaround for this issue?

Answer 1

No. That's not how Notion, or databases, or spreadsheets in general, work.

If you create Database in Notion, for example a "Task" database, with the following Properties (columns):

• Task Name
• Type
• Status
• Priority
• Due Date
• Project (Relation to Project Database)

Every record (Task) will have those same Properties (columns) but can have different Values for each Property.

You can also have different content in the "Details" section below the Properties.

Templates are used to pre-populate the Values in the Properties and/or the content in the Details section.

So in your example, if you created a "Study Day" template, you could pre-populate the "Type" Property with "Study Day" value. And in the Details area you could have notes, sections, links, etc. specific to a Study Day.

You create Database Templates to pre-populate Property and Details area with values that are constantly used for that type of Entry.

If that doesn't yet make sense, perhaps this basic template video from Thomas Frank will help:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOy6uVrSjuA