Notion Database Relations & Rollups + System Updates

This video is an introduction on how to do database Relations & Rollups in Notion. Then I show several system updates demonstrating new uses of Rollups across the Life Operating System.

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Related Videos in this Series:

Timestamp Index
0:00 Intro
1:54 Database Relations
5:49 Database Rollups
10:24 System Updates: New Rollups Implemented

More from August Bradley 😎

[walterterry]

Ahhhh... August you BEAST! TWO meaty trainings in less than a week?! We are indeed blessed. And even tho I'm feelin' the time crunch, my heart holds only GRATITUDE for you, my friend. Especially on this subject bc it's something I sorely, sorely needed. Thank you.
It would be criminal if Notion has not already contacted you in order to license your trainings. They are that good and far, far surpass anything I have seen from the company to date.

[YelenaSharonina]

The only channel where I turned on notifications. August, thank you for sharing your knowledge, experience and way of thinking, this is incredibly useful content unlike a lot of noise out there!

[MicheleGill]

I'm all caught up--have watched every video. Worth every second of time I spent watching and implementing your system. I've used your guidance to create some unique databases for my needs as a university professor, including:

--Program Routines, for an academic program I coordinate. This is linked to my tasks database and contains things I need to do each particular semester. I can check these routines, add tasks, and keep on top of program admissions, recruiting etc.
--A public page for my students containing books, resources, apps, etc. that can help them in the program
--A database for my students' progress on theses and dissertations so I can track which chapter they are working on and what stage it is in
-A record of the classes I teach and what updates I want to make to each class, linked to my Projects database (for major revisions) and Tasks database
--A record of academic publications, blog posts, etc. with their URLs

I've also integrated my faith journey into this, so it's really a life system--my work, family, faith, and creative tasks, projects, goals, and values are all integrated together. I can't overstate how much better I feel having such a clear, fluid, visually attractive and organized system to scaffold me. It has truly become my "second brain, " way beyond Evernote (which I still use, but it's more like an overstuffed, loosely organized note repository).

A fun tidbit: Because I prefer more organic metaphors to the machine ones you use, I have labeled pillars as "tree trunks, " pipelines as"branches, " and vaults as "roots."

This system has GREATLY increased my ease with work and reduced my sense of overwhelm for all the various hats I wear.

[jtipale]

Eagerly (more like desperately) waiting for your videos covering vaults. Keep these going!

[HomesickMac]

Besides sharing the knowledge you're also so considerate that you describe in advance what and how is going to be laid out in the video. Fantastic run through the rolups, will look deeper into it.

[juanitacarrington]

August - I love your high-value content, pure gold every single time. I look forward to your videos each week!

[stephentassell]

I learnt so much from this video, and I greatly appreciate you for taking time out to produce it. One thing that may be worth sharing with your viewers is how easy it is to mould and adapt Notion. Some people may be intimidated by the feeling that they have to get it right first time, yet Notion is so forgiving. My first Notion system was based around the PARA methodology, and then you came along and I took an instant like to your approach. I was surprised at how quickly I could change my implementation to become your methodology. Having learned the hard way, my only other advice is to set up Templates early, and before entering masses of data. Templates enforce standardisation across the Table and really streamline data entry!

[Murphich]

August, I can't thank you enough for this video series, you have honestly helped me so much more than how I just use Notion. This series is nothing short of phenomenal and I am grateful to you for all of this. Your philosophy is the driving force of this system design and I'm loving learning from it and you.
One thing to note, toward the end of this video I noticed you rolling up the "Project Remaining" and need to bring in a manual checkbox for Done. Rather than retire the "Complete" status, you could create the formula `prop("Status") == "Complete" == true` to automatically generate the checkbox when you set the status to complete and then do the rollup from that. I personally use the OR operator for tasks I either complete or wont do to check it as done for anyone that does it that way
`prop("Status") == "Complete " or prop("Status") == "Wont Do " == true`
Again, thanks for your series, it is amazing 🙌🏽

[sadito_]

The ratio of content quality to number of subsribers to this channel is a human rights violation.


In my humble opinion.

Violated are the ones who by some kind of evil trickery are kept from discovering.

In my humble opinion.


Thank you so much for all the hard work and dedication!
All hail to the king of Notion Mastery!

[TacoMental]

You have a very passionate viewership whom are learning and growing by utilizing what you're teaching here. You can tell that by the comment section. Small community enrichment idea for you. (I work in marketing and also did twitch game streaming for a year or so back in the day ): Each content creator has viewers and fans. Viewers are more casual and they watch you from time to time. Subscribers are sometimes in the middle of viewer and fan. Those who regularly comment and engage are fans and community members. Psychologically they are more invested and benefit hugely from engagement. If you're a student of gary vanyerchuck, which you should be...that guy really gets it even tho some people are rubbed the wrong way by him, you'll know he is a hyper fan engager and its paid off. He has built entire shows like ask gary v etc where he is essentially giving free advice i.e. engagement to an individual at a higher level than a comment, which isn't really free as he is being paid back with low cost high value content.

On to how this relates to you and the channel :p. You're very good at replying and engaging in the comments and on twitter. That being said fans love to be put on the jumbo tron ( sports reference). You can do this by highlighting a particularly useful, interesting or inspiring comment each week at the end of your video. Probably placed just before you spiel into the outro. This quick call out and answer would be a very small investment and allow you to add a mini surprise and delight campaign for 1 lucky viewer each week. Then more people will comment and interact, you get more comments to highlight and the cycle continues.

Either way great work with what you're doing here. You're implementing the content marketing methodology quite well, i'm sure on purpose ;p, and as a marketer seeing it done correctly is a joy. In my mind there is a right way to and a wrong way to do good marketing and the right way is much harder but much more effective. The wrong way is quick, cheap, dirty and annoying. Best of luck!

[ABB-]

this is a total game-changer. I've been looking for a way to organize my life and trying to create systems myself but my old systems were just too slow for all the things going on in my life. But your way, your Life OS, is just revolutionary way living your life. Amazing! More power to you!!

Also, I've subscribed to your newsletter, it's really good.

[clarissadesimoni]

Hi August, if you’re still interested in seeing the pillars in your Action Items database, you can do it with the rollups. You just have to create a formula property in the Projects database that has the same value as the rollup of the pillars, then do a rollup of that formula in the Action Items database

[TacoMental]

Great video. My takeaway here was a big one. As this is my first time building a system I would get frustrated early on when you had changes and updates and new ways of doing things. But i had the realization while watching this that there is flexibility and growth as my system evolves and I learn. With that being said fantastic video and please keep showcasing these updates. I find immense value as it shows me how you're capitalizing on insights and inspires me to adjust and grow and mold my system to my needs. Kudos!

[charlesbryan]

August, another fantastic video in an excellent series! I'm sure you have considered this, but when you trade a relation for a rollup, time is saved but you lose that constant reminder of why you're doring that task. I often find manual inputting the data reinforces the subconscious mind on why you're doing something and may trigger the guiding principles subconsciously. Again, I am for saving time and I would like your perspective on this.

[andres-quezada]

i just saw all your videos and i think that my task organization changed A LOT. thank you <3

[jack.k]

Cant wait to see growth section video. Mindset and Mind expantion are most important for me and I can not wait to see video about it.

[bradford.champlin]

I ended up tweeting you, but was wondering what you're doing with your Routines database. It seems like it's not used much in any instance of roll ups or relations. Super helpful video, thanks. Love the updates, definitely streamlines the setup.

[dagionline]

Another very helpful video - thanks so much for all your hard work, August! I‘m already so exited about the vaults videos. Keep them coming please, but don‘t forget to step away from it all once in a while.

[marysata]

Helpful hearing how checking items would be helpful compared to creating selections for roll-ups. 😌 More insights to look forward to. ✨

[marcschinkel]

**Video Summary**

0:00 Intro

This video covers an intro to some of the basic functionality of relations and rollups before moving into some system updates related to those.
The beginning is for people who are not familiar with relations and rollups (rollups being dependent on relations).
Generally considered an advanced feature but it's not that complicated.
After this video, which is the second of two system updates we will move into the vaults section.


1:54 Database Relations

Create a new page
Create a table view (database)
Create a relation field (by default new fields are text fields)
We want to connect entries in this database with specific entries in another
Entries/records are the horizontal lines in the table view of a database, or any entry when opened
Record is the traditional term used when people talk about databases.
Fields/properties are the columns across the top
You define a property as the relation property
You then select a database to relate to
You will then have the option to link any entry from this database to any entry in the other database.
This is very straightforward and easily understood.


5:49 Database Rollups

Rollups are the logical extension to take relations even further
Once you have the relation connection setup you can make it so that any data in any of the fields of the connected database can be brought into this database.
Click in any cell under the rollup property you create, and select the relevant relation (you might have more than one.) Then you select which other property from that database you want to bring into this one.
In the last video, we saw how to connect the content items moving through the content pipeline to action items, there was a rollup attached that we can use as an exemplar.
Several content items are connected as a relation to this one task 8:25
Each of these is a separate piece of content in the content pipeline that is being worked on in this one sitting of content creation on the present days task list
The next action dates and statuses for each are automatically visible here
The same thing is visible from the other end 9:25
The do date of the action item is set up as a rollup from this view.
This allows you to make sure that the next action item for the content in this database is the same as the do-date of the task in the action items database.


10:24 System Updates: New Rollups Implemented

Moving back into the Action Zone we can see that the goal outcomes have now been made into rollups in this database.
This is done by creating a project relation, so each action item that is part of a project will have the project listed here.
Previously the Goal outcome was a relation, making a direct connection between the action items database to the goal outcomes database.
Since we are already connecting the action items with projects, and the projects are already linked to the goal outcomes database, we can just make a rollup to eliminate a step.
The pillars relation has been removed from the action items database
They are still important and every action item is in service of a pillar, but this is simply too far removed to make it useful, and adding a pillar to so many action items is very cumbersome.
In the goal outcomes database, the pillars connection is now a rollup and unfortunately, you cannot make a rollup of a rollup.


Moving into the alignment zone 13:20
Value goals are now a rollup into projects
(DB) symbolizes a direct relation to a database (Rollup) signifies a rollup, meaning it comes through another direct relation (DB)
In the projects database, the connection to goal outcomes is a relation, and the connection to value goals is a rollup property that comes through the goal outcome relation.
Similarly, there is a rollup for pillars in the goal outcomes database.
Every value goal has a pillar assigned, set up as a (DR)
When connecting the goal outcomes to the value goals the pillars will automatically come with it as a property through the pillar (Rollup)
This not only saves an entry step but also ensures that everything is correct and consistent.


These exemplify one of the powerful features of rollups, but there are 2 more.
One is to have many relational links and bring in many items rolled up with it
In this instance when the item you are bringing in is a number you can apply mathematical formulas to it.
Looking at the cycle reviews we can see an example of this 16:10
Looking at the monthly review for the month of April there are a lot of database fields that are completely filled out.
Because of rollups and relations at the end of the month, 90% of this is already filled in.
As each weekly review is completed it is attached to the month that it happens in.
Accomplishments and disappointments are also attached to a month
Because the weeks are populated all the rollups associated with the weeks are completely filled out as well.
Weekly effectiveness
Weekly focus priority
Weekly Gratefulness
Improvements


The learnings from each month then roll up to a year, rollups of a rollup cannot be done in notion so the weekly improvements cannot be rolled up into a year.


All of this is rolling up automatically because there is one relational link to the week
19:45 Example of how math can be applied to the rollups
Looking at a weekly review
There is a relational link to the daily tracking database
Every day some data will be entered for that day, weight tracking, sleep, health, and fitness, etc.
Eg workout percentage calculation 20:40
Eg average sleep time 21:40
More calculation options as these are numbers rather than checkboxes
All of this information is brought in automatically as each day is linked to the week through a relation and then the relevant rollups can be brought into the week.


In the projects database, there is now an actions remaining column 24:50
This column will measure for each project how many actions are queued up to execute that project.
This is set up as a rollup where the action items is the relational link to the task database.
For each action item, it will look at the checkbox property
Calculation will be performed by the number of unchecked checkboxes
If you open up the project's entry you will still see all the tasks as covered in the video on projects 26:00
In the table view, this is really clean and simple


In the goal outcomes database, there is a project count 27:00
Measuring the number of projects that need to be completed for each goal outcome
Some of the goal outcomes are advanced by habits and routines so they won't have project counts. In your monthly reviews, you check goal outcomes to ensure that they either have projects or habits and routines linked to them to advance them forward.
Rollups make things easier and faster and eliminates redundancy keeping things accurate.
Next videos will explore the vaults
Media Vault
Book Vault
Knowledge lab (ties several vaults together)