All 10 Notion Automations for System Design (Complete Guide) — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00With so many various types of notion automations  released over the past year, it can be confusing
2. 0:05what to apply to your systems? This is the  most comprehensive one stop, single YouTube
3. 0:11video covering all ten forms of notion internal  no code automations. Beyond identifying the range
4. 0:18of automation options, this video dives into use  cases and ideas for applying them in notion life
5. 0:24management systems such as pillars, pipelines  and vaults. The demos here will be in PPV,
6. 0:30but applicable to any personal system. These are  the internal no code automations, so no external
7. 0:38apps such as Zapier or Make or the API, and no  formulas or coding language necessary for any of
8. 0:45these. Each of the ten types of automations has  a chapter marker, so you can jump to those of
9. 0:51most interesting or revisit them. Here is the list  of the ten automations that we'll cover. First
10. 0:57notions classic automations. We'll cover these  quickly, they've been around for a long time,
11. 1:02but since we want to have a comprehensive list,  we'll start with these and we'll include them.
12. 1:05Number one is add an entry from a filtered view  to automatically apply properties. Number two is
13. 1:12using due dates or do dates for automatically  rolling into filtered views. This is the most
14. 1:18PPV specific automation that we've leveraged since  day one. Number three is database templates. Then
15. 1:25we'll get into the newer template automations.  Those are number one default templates
16. 1:30and number two recurring templates. Then  we dive deeper into button triggers which
17. 1:35include number one page button blocks, and number  two database buttons. Next we explore database
18. 1:42property triggers, often incorrectly called notion  automations. But as we see here, they are just one
19. 1:48of many types of notion automations.   Then we finally get to AI automations,
20. 1:53both number one database AI properties and number  two AI page blocks. Before we dive in, I want to
21. 2:00pause for a moment of context and honesty. You  don't hear this much in YouTube videos or blogs,
22. 2:06but I'm going to be blunt and very honest here.  I do this channel first and foremost to help you
23. 2:12improve your life, not to master notion. None of  the notion automations here are game changing.
24. 2:19None of them all have minimal benefits, though  some are oddly emotionally satisfying and add some
25. 2:25momentary joy and a sense of reward to progress  on your actions. None of the automations currently
26. 2:32available will have a meaningful impact on the  quality of your life or on the ability of your
27. 2:37system to guide you to a better life. Notion  systems can guide you to a better life if designed
28. 2:43well, but notion automations will not make a  real difference in that, at least at this stage
29. 2:48of their implementation. Same goes for notion  formulas they will not make a meaningful impact or
30. 2:55advancement in your life. But unlike the formula  rabbit hole and unlike external API automations
31. 3:03which all involve long complex learning curves,  the internal no code notion automations in this
32. 3:10video are all quick and easy to apply with very  little time and effort spent for the streamlining
33. 3:16they enable and for the emotional gratification  they can provide. Formulas, on the other hand
34. 3:22have a big cost, investment in time and constant  tweaking. API automations have a big cost in setup
35. 3:30and managing their ongoing breaking. The API  is often changing and breaking the zaps and
36. 3:35other external automations. These external or  coding automations also have very little return
37. 3:42on actual life enhancement, though they can be  more valuable for team system management where
38. 3:47they can shine more. We'll discuss formulas more  in the future, but not in this video. This video
39. 3:53is about no code automations whenever possible,  I advocate no code approaches with notion.
40. 4:00I minimize complex formula use in the systems that  I teach and the templates I share. Since they do
41. 4:06not get you closer to your life goals, they just  require building time and ongoing maintenance and
42. 4:11tinkering with no gain toward your value goals  and life aspirations complex formulas are not a
43. 4:19benefit in notion templates or in notion systems.  They are a weakness. This channel is about
44. 4:26applying notion to actually improve your life,  to make progress toward your life aspirations,
45. 4:32to design and build the life you want.   Its about achieving top priorities in life.
46. 4:39Notion is a support tool, its secondary and in  service of the life aspirations that you design.
47. 4:46Lets not overly tinker in notion, lets use it as  a tool, keeping the clear focus on applying it
48. 4:53toward making our lives better, defining our life  aspirations and moving consistently toward them.
49. 5:00So let's dive into the ten internal no code  automations that can streamline your system
50. 5:06with very little upfront time and effort. It's  the ease of implementing them that makes them
51. 5:11worthwhile. I'm talking about for personal life  systems here, for business teams, it's a different
52. 5:17conversation since there you typically have  someone else building and maintaining them and
53. 5:21you're trying to keep a lot of different people  at different usage levels using the system in a
54. 5:26consistent way. So there's a stronger case in that  scenario. We'll discuss that in future videos.
55. 5:32So here we go. In previous PPV life design videos  on this channel we've already had automations in
56. 5:39the system. We leverage them pretty extensively  even though there were very few, and it was hard
57. 5:44to sort of squeeze automations out of them.  But we did that, and I think we did that to
58. 5:49an unparalleled degree back in the day when there  were only a few options. Let's cover those quickly
59. 5:55to be thorough before moving on to the newer  automation features. So these are the classics,
60. 6:00the ones we've had for a while, but since we want  to be comprehensive, let's include them here up
61. 6:04front. But we'll go through these quickly to get  onto the newer ones and spend more time going
62. 6:09more in depth on the newer ones. So the first  one will be, if you're a long time notion user,
63. 6:15this will be something you've known for a long  time. But again, to be thorough, when we add a
64. 6:19new entry to a database, we can automatically  apply database properties by applying them in
65. 6:25a database view that has filters already applied.  And whatever the database is filtered for, those
66. 6:30database properties will be applied automatically.  So here we're in the action zone in PPV (Pillars,
67. 6:36Pipelines & Vaults). But again, this works in  any database, anywhere in any system. So we have
68. 6:43a database here that's filtered to see only the  items for today, this is our focused view of the
69. 6:48things we're doing today. So this database is  pre filtered to. Have a few rules here. So one
70. 6:54is that the due date, the do date, the date which  we plan and schedule to do the activity is on or
71. 7:01before today for the most part, on today. But it  on or before will catch anything that we forgot
72. 7:07to move forward today, and anything that's not  checked, done, or perhaps better, anything that
73. 7:15is. Unchecked and anything that is status set to  active. So because the database is filtered for
74. 7:25these, when we add a new entry, it's automatically  going to apply these. Let's say we also wanted to
75. 7:31have any new entry be of a certain priority.  So let's add another rule here. So priority
76. 7:39is quick. Perhaps most of the ones we add are  quick. If it's something more than a quick one,
77. 7:43we'll then change it when we add it. So by default  it'll be the quick priority setting. So those are
78. 7:48our rules here, those are our formulas all  set here. And whatever the formulas are,
79. 7:53then we save this for everyone, hide that. And by  changing that we now only see the quick one that's
80. 8:00here. But that's okay. The purpose of this is to  demonstrate the automation of applying properties
81. 8:05when creating a new database entry. So now when  we create a new. Database entry, we hit new,
82. 8:10and by. Default it will have all of the  properties that we're filtering for. The status
83. 8:15will be set to active, not any other due date will  be. Set today, priority will be set to quick.
84. 8:21And of course done is unchecked. So whatever  the filters are, when we. Apply a new database
85. 8:26in that filtered view, we will get all of those  properties applied that will only apply to that
86. 8:32specific filtered view. And this is the new one  we added. In any other filtered view, when you hit
87. 8:40the new button and add a new one, it's only going  to apply filters that other view is filtered for,
88. 8:47so you can create custom filtered views for  the purpose of adding a certain combination
89. 8:54of database properties. And that's what we've done  here in the action zone. This is the today view,
90. 8:58the things we're doing today. So if we want to  quickly add something to do today, we do it here.
91. 9:03And of course, we would typically not. Filter  for that property of priority. And now whenever
92. 9:10we add a new one, it's going to be added for.   What we filtered for, which is our today focus
93. 9:17across all databases. That's one way to apply a  preset combination of properties automatically.
94. 9:24So the second classic automation that we've been  doing for a long time, but this one is actually
95. 9:29not as common because other systems don't use this  rigorous application of the dodate, the due date
96. 9:36method we use. A few other systems have copied  our "Do Date" titling, but they didn't apply the
97. 9:43process. And the process is where all the power  is. So the distinction is not just that we call
98. 9:49it "Do Date" DO Date, although that's helpful. It  reframes it, and we can also have a due date if
99. 9:55we want to. But more often than not, the due date  is the more valuable one. And in fact, you need a
100. 10:00Do Date in order to ever meet your Due date. And  in most cases, you don't need a DU date at all,
101. 10:06you just need the date you're going to do it. So  what we have here, if we open our calendar view,
102. 10:12one of the things that really deviated from GTD  and a lot of pre existing systems, and again,
103. 10:18one that keeps PPV very unique in the life system  design space, even within notion, is that we
104. 10:24have this do date. And the protocol that wasn't  copied even when the name was copied, is that we
105. 10:31rigorously apply this to any and all active action  items or any and all active tasks. We never apply
106. 10:39an active task that does not have a due date, a  do date. Now we could have projects that have one
107. 10:45or two active tasks and then others queued up,  but we're going to get to those as we manage the
108. 10:50project. So every active project will have an  active task, one or more, so that it's queued up
109. 10:56to make progress. And if it's an active project,  it. Must have at least one, if not more active
110. 11:02tasks. This is one of the core principles of PPV  that make it distinctive. So every project will
111. 11:08have at least one active task, and therefore that  active task must have a designated due date. Also,
112. 11:15any individual solo tasks or action items that are  not part of a project must have a Do Date. And the
113. 11:22result of this is we don't have a monstrous,  single overwhelming, debilitating to do list,
114. 11:30which is the way virtually every other system  works, including GTD. You have this monsters list
115. 11:34that is just always building anxiety and always  on your shoulders. We have a lot of short little
116. 11:39ones, as you see here. Every day we have a little  manageable one. If a day gets out of control,
117. 11:46you just start reassigning and moving things  around so that each day is manageable. But
118. 11:51if you can't find a date that has room for you  to assign a new task with a specific Do Date,
119. 11:58a date you intend to do it, then you don't have  room in your calendar for it. You either have
120. 12:02to delete something else or this one won't make  the cut. So we're rigorous about ensuring that
121. 12:08everything we add to our active tasks has a  specific due date. Therefore, we don't have a
122. 12:13monstrous list. We have a lot of short, manageable  ones, day by day and the evening before,
123. 12:18we review and make final decisions on whether  to keep the list as is or modify it for the next
124. 12:24day. So there's an ongoing refinement, but when  you're adding a task, you must give it a due date,
125. 12:29unless it's queued up for later in a project  and the project has other active due date
126. 12:34assigned tasks. So this enabled us to have an  automation from the start that very few systems
127. 12:40had in notion, which is because every action item,  every task we've assigned, that's an active task,
128. 12:46it's not a do later as a part of a larger project  will automatically roll into our window for today.
129. 12:53This is our focused window for the day. All we  see is what we need to get done today prioritized.
130. 13:00Day by day, our queued up due date mini action  lists will just roll forward automatically.
131. 13:07So that is an automation because we are tying  it to the date. And the date is an inherent
132. 13:12automation in the notion calendar, as it is with  every calendar. So from day one notion had this
133. 13:17automation, most people didn't think of it as an  automation because most people didn't have a Do
134. 13:22Date assigned to every single active task. They  just had this giant list. And every day they'd
135. 13:27pick a few and choose and move around here and  just try and manage this monstrous list. We had a
136. 13:33lot of individual, manageable short lists because  every single task has a do date, which gives us
137. 13:39clarity on what we have room for and what we don't  when we have to make tough decisions. So by doing
138. 13:46this tomorrow we get some of these done. All the  next ones will roll in automatically the next day.
139. 13:52They all roll in automatically into our action  item list for the day. Our focus dashboard.
140. 13:59Okay, moving on to automation number three. And  this is the third and last of our classics. This
141. 14:04is the templates. We've had templates for a long  time, but they are a big automation within notion.
142. 14:09So we can apply these all over the place. Any  database where we're applying new entries,
143. 14:14we can have a pre built template. So let's go to  our knowledge vault to look at an example of how
144. 14:20we apply these templates. The knowledge vault is  where we build our understanding, our insights,
145. 14:26our wisdom, our knowledge, and all of our  reference tools and ideas and information for any
146. 14:32topic, in fact, every topic that we're interested  in. So we come to our knowledge vault and here we
147. 14:39have our knowledge vault template. Let's go into  the edit here. But of course, once you have a
148. 14:45template, every new entry into the knowledge  vault will have that template applied. So the
149. 14:49knowledge vault is every topic we have an interest  in, professionally and personally. So examples of
150. 14:55course would be business, admin, clubs, content  creation, marketing, any hobbies, cycling,
151. 15:04sports and fitness. So if we go into the template,  we have a pre built layout. Now, first of all,
152. 15:14we'll have pre established properties. Now,  this particular one doesn't have any properties,
153. 15:18but any property we assign in the template will be  applied to every entry. That's less relevant here,
154. 15:24but that's another way to add properties. With  a new creation, with a new database entry,
155. 15:29it's the other way as opposed to adding it through  a filtered view, as we saw in automation number
156. 15:35one. Here we are in automation number three.   And in addition to adding properties that are pre
157. 15:40populated in the template, you can add the title,  you can add the icon on top and any top level
158. 15:45graphics, and then even perhaps more powerful,  you can have the full page built out down here.
159. 15:52Now these toggles here all open to see pre built  views of other databases in our system. So in our
160. 16:01knowledge vault, as we open these, let's go into  a specific entry. So we'll go into our systems
161. 16:08thinking entry. Open that up. And this has  the icon, anything we have assigned up there,
162. 16:15it has a pre built table of contents here.  So we can have a quick link to any aspect
163. 16:19of this large comprehensive aggregation of  knowledge, ideas and resources on this topic,
164. 16:26which is systems thinking. You can see it's long  and it's organized and it's sectioned and it's
165. 16:32highlighted. So that makes it very useful to come  in at any later point and just pick up where we
166. 16:38left off. One of the things in the template was  the table of contents, which is automatically
167. 16:43applied. We have the body down here. And then  perhaps most importantly for this template is
168. 16:47we have all these self referencing filters to  other databases that are linked to this topic in
169. 16:54the knowledge base. So the knowledge base serves  as a master tag database where we identify all the
170. 17:00different topics that are related to all of our  clients, all of our projects, all of our habits,
171. 17:06all of the other parts of our system. And this  becomes a one place to look at everything across
172. 17:12our entire system that's tied to this particular  topic. And by having this template automatically
173. 17:17apply these self referencing filters, we see all  the notes and ideas that are tied to this topic
174. 17:23of systems thinking. We have all the goods and  services that we've researched that are tied to
175. 17:28this. They all resurface right here in context.  We have all the courses and training that we've
176. 17:34done or plan to do or considering doing all here  reference to this topic. So we see all of those by
177. 17:41looking in this one view of that topic. Across  our whole system we have our media vault items,
178. 17:47articles and YouTube videos and whatever that  we've captured related to this topic and any
179. 17:52documents we've saved and captured related. We  have everything related to this topic and it's
180. 17:57automatically compiled without us having to do  any work by applying the template and having the
181. 18:02template set up to sort and filter everything else  across the system that is referring to this topic.
182. 18:09That's the power of the knowledge vault. We have a  whole video on knowledge vaults if you want to get
183. 18:12into that. But the template lets us automatically  apply this and then within it. When we have self
184. 18:18referencing filters and table of contents and  things like that, it automatically applies
185. 18:22that functionality to every new entry in this  database. So similarly, if we jump into projects,
186. 18:31we have a projects template. So when we hit  a new here, when we apply the template there,
187. 18:38we. Will automatically have any icons or  graphics. At the top, any properties that we've
188. 18:44designed for that template. In this case, we could  have different types of projects and each project
189. 18:49could have its own custom template. And therefore  by applying this we will automate the creation of
190. 18:56each new project and a consistent layout and a  lot of functionality. So similarly we'll have
191. 19:02self referencing filter to what outcome goals this  project is attached to. Any thoughts, reminders?
192. 19:08It prompts us on how to organize and build out  the project and then we get into action items.
193. 19:15So these are the action items attached to the  project, automatically built out, automatically
194. 19:19filtered for this new project because we. Are  filtering based on rules that apply. It to that
195. 19:26particular template, which then applies it to each  additional project. So this is automation. This
196. 19:32is automation at its finest, and we've had this  for a long time. Similarly, down here we have all
197. 19:36these databases that are self referencing to the  project and therefore compiling everything across
198. 19:43our entire workspace, across our entire PPV system  to this project will resurface when we look at
199. 19:50the single dashboard for this project. And as we  look at any other project, we'll have everything
200. 19:55assembled in one place for that project. And when  we create a new project we apply the template and
201. 20:00that is the automation of rebuilding this  instantly from scratch with no additional
202. 20:05work. In addition to projects, we can do this in  our daily routines and tracking. We can do this
203. 20:09with our client database. We can do this with  our content database, any database. We have a pre
204. 20:14built template that applies the most functional,  practical, useful view into that database,
205. 20:21or even multiple different types of entries into  that database. So that is the third of the three
206. 20:26classic automations that we've had all along, but  they continue to serve us very well, so I wanted
207. 20:30to include them in this comprehensive view. Now  let's move on to some of the newer automations
208. 20:35that we've been getting over the past year or so,  and since the pillars, pipelines and vaults that
209. 20:40have appeared over the past year, and perhaps most  importantly since the last of the PPV videos that
210. 20:46I did a while ago. So we'll be updating how PPV  can take advantage of these newer automations.
211. 20:52So moving into some of the newer automations, we  have default templates, which is building on the
212. 20:57automations of templates with automations for  templates. So let's just go back into projects.
213. 21:03This is a simple one, we can show this quickly,  but it adds a new level of automation to what I
214. 21:08just showed with the capabilities of templates  themselves. So by default there's no default
215. 21:13template or the empty page is the default.  You can make it so that whenever you hit the
216. 21:18new button you don't have to click the down arrow  and select a template, just the new button itself
217. 21:23will apply the default template and you simply  set the default template by clicking the three
218. 21:26dots here and set as template. You can make it  for all views. Of the project's database or only
219. 21:32for particular views of the database. We'll set  it for all. So now when we click the down arrow
220. 21:37we'll see that is the default. And anytime we hit  new here or new down here, it will automatically
221. 21:43apply that template. Nothing groundbreaking, but  it's an automation on top of the automation that
222. 21:48templates already are. So anywhere in the system,  let's say across PPV, there's so many places for
223. 21:54this, let's say in our action zone, we would  want to apply this to our daily tracking.
224. 21:58We can make this our daily tracking template the  default. Now whenever we apply a new template in
225. 22:06daily tracking we will apply the primary default  template for that. Similarly, in our cycle reviews
226. 22:15we go to our daily monthly weekly cycle reviews  and we can apply that's the same one we just saw,
227. 22:23but we can apply Arcero for our weekly reviews.   We can apply our default weekly review template as
228. 22:31the template going forward. So it's that simple,  but a nice enhancement so you're not constantly
229. 22:39having to apply templates, it just automatically  applied with whatever you want. Different views
230. 22:43can have different default settings so that  different views have different preferences and
231. 22:48functionality optimized for that view. Similarly,  our next relatively new automation in notion is
232. 22:55recurring templates. Now this takes things a  little bit further, a little bit more interesting.
233. 23:00So let's say back in review cycles here we're  going to be doing a weekly review every week.
234. 23:06So what we might want to do is set this to repeat  here. We can choose the cadence. Since this is our
235. 23:12weekly review, we'll set it for weekly. You can  choose what day it pops up on, or even multiple
236. 23:17days to repeat on a weekly basis. But let's say  it comes up every Sunday. So that's when we do
237. 23:23our weekly review. You can set the date it starts,  you can set the time it pops up, maybe have it pop
238. 23:27up early in the morning. So it's there waiting for  you when you get to it on Sunday. And you can have
239. 23:32whatever cadence you want. You can have it come in  multiple days a week, every week, and this sets a
240. 23:36rhythm. And then as they're waiting for you, it  might be set as a reminder. So if you set one of
241. 23:43the properties with you as the owner, it'll notify  you that you have a notification in the upper left
242. 23:50corner in your inbox. That's one way to know. Or  you can just know that every Sunday there's going
243. 23:54to be a new entry here with the template already  applied, waiting for you, ready to go. So that's
244. 24:00another automation on top of the automations  that templates are similarly back. On our
245. 24:08action zone. You could do a similar thing with  daily tracking. So every day you could have a new
246. 24:13one applied. So here we do daily and maybe.   It'S every day, every two days, whatever you have
247. 24:21control over it, every three. Days, whatever  you set, the time it. Starts. You can pick any
248. 24:29start date. You want and it will automatically  apply. Now, perhaps the most powerful use case
249. 24:36of this is for tasks and action items. So first  of all, you can use it for recurring tasks. If
250. 24:42every Monday or every Monday and Thursday you  want to do a certain recurring task, you would
251. 24:46just set that here, you would create a template  for. That task and then you would set that,
252. 24:58and then you would set the. Cadence for that  recurring task. Repeat weekly, monthly, whatever,
253. 25:07set your cadence. In a tier every month starting  on this date. Boom, you could have every month,
254. 25:14every. Other month, every third month, similarly  with. All the other cadences. Weekly is nice
255. 25:21because you can set specific dates. It's not just  alternating every fixed number of days, so you get
256. 25:27a little more precision with the weekly one. Now  the downside here, there's one thing that really
257. 25:34I wish we could do is this is going to apply it  when that day comes. So on the day the task is.
258. 25:41Set to be done, or on the. Day the weekly review  is to be done, on the month that whatever you are
259. 25:48doing monthly is set to be done, it will appear  and pop up. Unfortunately, at this point, we
260. 25:53cannot set a fixed number of days ahead of time.  So it's not going to inform us on our schedule.
261. 25:59As we look at planning in our action zone where  we can see what's coming up. It's not going to
262. 26:08tell us what's coming up because it's not going  to automatically add them ahead of time. I really
263. 26:14wish it could do that. I have spoken with notion  about it and have communicated how important it
264. 26:19is that we have due dates ahead of time. It's not  something available at this point. They are aware
265. 26:25that many of us want that, so hopefully that'll  be added. I think it's inevitable that will be
266. 26:29added. Notions relatively new with automations,  they're rolling them out, they're improving them.
267. 26:34I'm pretty confident that's going to happen, but  it's not here yet. And that's a bit frustrating
268. 26:38because I really want to see it days ahead of  time, weeks ahead of time, what's coming up.
269. 26:42But at this point we can have. It pop up on the  day and it'll be there visibly, automatically.
270. 26:49So that's the automation there. You can apply this  in so many different ways, but some of the classic
271. 26:53ones in pillars, pipelines and vaults would be  cycle reviews on the weekly, monthly, annual,
272. 26:58quarterly reviews, and for the daily tracking and  morning routine, midday processing and end of day
273. 27:03wind down. And then most importantly perhaps  is in the tasks have things pop up on a regular
274. 27:10basis. I will say in many cases I still prefer the  manual process of say this is a recurring task,
275. 27:17I put. An icon on the top, say I use the recycle  icon and then I. Know that's a recurring task.
276. 27:25And when I complete that, instead of checking it  off, I just change the date to a future date of
277. 27:31my choosing or of whatever cadence I want.   And then it's rescheduled further. It takes
278. 27:36no additional time to change the date rather  than check it. Done. It works brilliantly. This
279. 27:42is what we've done from day one on PPV. A lot of  people found this unsatisfying because it wasn't
280. 27:48automated by the software, but honestly it is just  as effective in many ways. More effective because
281. 27:53now we can see it's coming up and we can pick any  day in the future. So we have some flexibility of
282. 27:58judgment. And it takes no additional time. So  what are you really getting from an automation if
283. 28:04it doesn't actually save you any time? This I use  for any of my more important things that I want
284. 28:11to see ahead of time. So that manual one is still  available for you. But now we have some automation
285. 28:15if you so choose. And in addition you could also  add tasks using this recurring system to check in.
286. 28:23Say you want to make sure you check in on how  your particular project is progressing or how
287. 28:28a particular client is doing in their progression,  or perhaps in your people database. You want touch
288. 28:36base with somebody on a certain cadence. You can  set this kind of recurring template for those
289. 28:41check ins. Of course you can always do an alert.  You can go into any page, either in the page or
290. 28:46in any date property. You can set a reminder in  a way that's another type of automation that can
291. 28:51also notify you to take action on something  that's already in your database. Okay,
292. 28:56moving on to another type of automation that's  been expanded is buttons. So first we're going to
293. 29:02talk about page button blocks. Now, we've had page  buttons for a long time, but not too long ago, in
294. 29:08the past year or so, they have been dramatically  expanded. So let's look at what we can do with
295. 29:13the current high powered page button blocks. Let's  look at some use cases where they'd be valuable in
296. 29:19PPV. So let's say we go into our people database.  This is one of the expansions we've done in PPV
297. 29:26since the original YouTube series. It's quite  an elaborate version of a. People database,
298. 29:32a personal and business CRM combined. We're not  going to get into all that now. Let's just create
299. 29:38a new one that's blank. We've got a number of  templates. Of course, what I'm about to show you
300. 29:43could be applied to any template, but let's just  say you wanted to keep it simple or you wanted to
301. 29:48build this into a template. We can now create a  button, and. This button has a lot of powers far
302. 29:56beyond what they used to have originally and a lot  of creative approaches. So one thing to do, say in
303. 30:01a people database, let's say this is for.   I mean we could create this as. A template,
304. 30:07but let's say this is for a particular person  and we're going to create this new button. So
305. 30:13updates. So every time we talk to Jim or anyone  we apply this template to, we'd like to have this
306. 30:20preset prompt instead of entries prepared for us  and ready for us to apply it. So when the button
307. 30:27is clicked, we're going to insert an action and  look at all the possibilities we have. Now we
308. 30:30can insert blocks, which we always could, but we  can do even more in the blocks now. We can add
309. 30:34a page to any other database. So we can pick any  database. You click this, it can add a task in the
310. 30:40task database. It can add knowledge or insights or  new entries into the knowledge vault. It can add
311. 30:46projects. It can create anything from the click of  a button by entering a new entry into the database
312. 30:52and thereby applying any template we choose and  any properties we choose. So we can also edit
313. 30:58pages in another database so we can modify  properties in another database. We can show
314. 31:04confirmation. It'll be a pop up. Are you sure  you want to do this? That's particularly useful
315. 31:08on teams where you want to urge caution. Or you  can open a page, you click this, it opens perhaps
316. 31:13instructions for team members or guidance or a  reference that you might want to refer to when
317. 31:20you're doing whatever entry is in the blocks  or the pages you're creating with the button,
318. 31:25then you have all these controls of how to modify  properties in the same database we're currently
319. 31:29in. So we can change any of these properties  just by clicking the button. But what I find
320. 31:34is really useful on a practical level. A lot of  these are nice to know. You could do all that,
321. 31:39but what are we actually going to use it for?  Here's something I use this for all the time.
322. 31:43When a button is clicked, we insert blocks. And  first of all we can title this up here. We'll call
323. 31:48this update. So now we see the button name.   Is update and now we click here. Review notes
324. 31:59from previous discussion this is a particularly  valuable one for a client. For example,
325. 32:06we'll make this a toggle. So we have a  block here, we have all the functionality
326. 32:09of a block. We have a toggle here. We'll  give it a couple lines agenda to discuss
327. 32:28final notes after call. We. Can set a little  bullet point for each of these because prompts
328. 32:39us to do them in bullet points. We'll close  these and now we have this. So we had done.
329. 32:45Now when we hit update, it's going to give us the  three things to do throughout the call. So first,
330. 32:51before the call we'll review our notes from the  previous discussion, then set an agenda. And then
331. 32:57after the call we'll review. This here, click  this button here and. We can modify things.
332. 33:05So that's a particular block. You could have  each of these in. A separate block and then we
333. 33:10can. Put a divider under it, keep it nice and  organized. And then it would also be useful.
334. 33:17To have a title on it. So we can put at today  update so it'll be labeled and defined properly.
335. 33:36Give it a header of h two.