Notion is truly the one tool to rule them all. Project management, habit tracking, note-taking — is there anything this app can’t do?
The unfortunate answer is yes, Notion does have one significant limitation: time tracking. Notion’s databases don’t currently include a Time property (although you can add start and end times to the Date property).
But just because Notion doesn’t offer a native time property doesn’t mean you can’t track time in Notion at all. Keen to learn how to set up a Notion time tracker or timesheet? We’ve got you covered with pasteable formulas and simple instructions!
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How to Track Time in Notion
Currently, Notion does not offer a native time tracking solution. Which means you’ll need to get creative with tracking your time. Here are our top 4 favorite methods for time tracking in Notion, listed in order from easy to advanced.
Method #1: Track time in another app, then export to CSV and upload to Notion.
Currently, this is one of the easiest ways to track time in Notion. It’s not an ideal solution for those looking for time-tracking in real time, but it’s a good workaround for anyone who’s happy to retroactively see how they spent their time in a day or week.
Pro tip: Before importing a CSV to Notion, ensure the header rows of your CSV file match the property names exactly. This will prevent issues and delays during import. For example, if your Date property in your Notion database is titled “Time block”, the corresponding column name in your CSV file should also be titled “Time block”.
Method #2: Make a new Timeline view of an existing database
Notion’s Timeline view is perhaps the most visually intuitive way to track time in Notion. Simply create a new Timeline view, or add a Timeline view to an existing database. Choose which Date property you’d like to show on your timeline, then start adding pages.
Pro tip: Whenever you create a new page in Timeline view, the Date property you’ve chosen will automatically include Start and End dates and times. In other types of database views, you’ll need to set these up manually.
Method #3: Add Date and Formula properties to an existing database
You can use Formulas and Date properties to automatically calculate how many hours you’ve tracked on pages in an existing database. Here’s how to set it up.
1. Create a new “Date” property. Ensure that “End date” and “Include time” are toggled on for each entry.
2. Set up your first Formula property to show the total number of minutes you spent on a task. We recommend naming this property something like “Minutes spent”. Use the “dateBetween” function, or copy and paste this formula into your database:
dateBetween(end(prop("Date property")), start(prop("Date property")), "minutes")
3. Set up your second Formula property to convert the total number of minutes into hours and minutes. To do this, you’ll need to divide the same formula above by 60 minutes, then multiply by 100 and round up to remove the decimal point. We recommend naming this property something like “Total time”.
round(dateBetween(end(prop("Date property")), start(prop("Date property")), "minutes") / 60 * 100) / 100
4. At the bottom of your Notion database, click “Calculate” beneath the “Total time” formula property you just set up, then click “Sum”. This should now show you the total number of hours worked or spent across all your tasks.
Formula Source: Ben Smith
Method #4: Create a dedicated time tracking database
This method is slightly more advanced and best for people who track time across multiple projects or databases in Notion.
Ultimately, you can choose how to set up your time tracking database. You can keep it simple with some basic Date and Number properties. Or, go granular and add formulas and progress bars to calculate your totals and visualize your progress.
Need some inspo? Here’s an example time tracking database to guide you:
How to Create a Notion Timesheet
Using Notion to track time for your employees or teammates? Create a Notion timesheet template for easy tracking. Here’s a step-by-step walkthrough for creating your own. (Or, if you’d rather use a plug-and-play template, hop down to the next section to see our favorites!)
Step 1: Create a new database.
We recommend adding these basic properties:
- Duration (Date property) — This is the start and end dates and times of each timesheet entry. Ensure “End date” and “Include time” are toggled on. Alternatively, you can set up 2 separate Date properties for start and end times.
- Minutes spent (Formula property) — In the previous section, we showed you how to set this up. Go here to view the formula.
- Total time spent (Formula property) — In the previous section, we showed you how to set this up. Go here to view the formula.
- Employee (Person property) — This will let you assign an employee or teammate to each entry.
Step 2: Add other properties as needed.
Now that you’ve got your basic properties added to your Notion timesheet template, it’s time to start customizing it to suit your needs. Depending on how your team works, here are some properties you might like to add.
Hourly Rate (Number property)
If your teammates or employees are charging hourly, create a field where they can input their hourly rate. Pro tip: You can create database templates for each employee that will automatically add their hourly rate to each new entry — but we’ll cover that in the next step.
Total Pay (Formula property)
If you’re using your Notion timesheet template to track your team’s pay, set up a Formula property in your timesheet database.
Assuming you’ve set up your “Hours” formula correctly from Method #3, the Total Pay formula just involves some basic math — multiply your “Hours” formula property by the “Hourly rate” number property:
prop("Hours") * prop("Hourly rate")
Then, at the bottom of your database, click “Calculate”, then “Sum” to see the total pay for all team members!
Tags (Multi-select property)
If you’re not tracking tasks in a separate database, you may want to add a simple Tags property so you can easily see which category each timesheet entry falls into. For example, if you’re a content marketer, your tags might include:
- Writing
- Strategy
- Outreach
Relations to other databases (Relation properties)
If you have separate Notion databases for managing your projects, tasks, or client portals, you can connect them to your timesheet using Relation properties.
This will let you see which timesheet entries are connected to which projects, tasks, clients, and other information.
Step 3: Create your database templates.
Manually updating each property in every timesheet will get cumbersome fast. Luckily, you can automate this process with database templates. Here’s how to set them up.
- Click the drop-down arrow next to the “New” button in the right-hand corner of your timesheet database.
- Select “New template”
- Give your template a title. For example, if you’re setting up a template for a specific employee, you might want to name it “New entry for [employee name]”
- Start updating properties. Going back to our previous example, you might like to add the hourly rate for this specific employee and tag them in the Person property.
- Add page content, an icon, and a page cover if you like.
- To create a new timesheet entry from your new template, click the drop-down arrow next to the “New” button in the top right-hand corner, then click the name of the template.
Voila! Now you’ve automated your timesheet creation process.
Step 4: Set up filters, groups, and database views.
One of the great things about Notion is that it lets you see all your data in context. Let’s say you want separate views showing timesheets for each employee. Or maybe you want to group timesheets together by tags.
Those are just a few ways you can customize your Notion timesheet database to suit your needs. Experiment with the different types of views and database features until you find a flow that works for you.
Not sure how filters, groups, or database views work? Check out our guide to Notion for beginners for a quick rundown!
Notion Time Tracking & Timesheet Templates
Don’t have enough time or expertise to set up your own time tracker in Notion? No worries! These Notion power users have got you covered with amazing time tracking templates that are ready to use right out of the box.
Quicklog Time Tracking Template
This is, without a doubt, one of the best time tracking Notion templates. Complete with an iOS shortcut that lets you start timing without even opening Notion, the Quicklog system is likely as close as we’ll get to a native Notion time tracker for awhile!
Simple Notion Timesheet Table
Prefer to keep things simple? Ben Smith’s easy-to-use Notion timesheet template has got you covered. Simply update the “Time Spent” property and watch the formulas update automatically to show your totals!
Simple Timesheet Template
This Notion time tracking template combines project management, a productivity rating system, and time tracking — all in one powerful place.
Notion Time Tracking Integrations & Widgets
Feeling a little frustrated by Notion’s lack of native time tracking capabilities? Don’t fret! You’ll find a handful of nifty time trackers that integrate with Notion — perfect for anyone who’d prefer a simpler, more automated approach to tracking time.
Clockify
One of the hottest time tracking apps on the market, Clockify integrates with Notion so you can track time right from your workspace. Thanks to advanced features like project tracking, calendar views, and detailed reports, Clockify is a great time tracker for anyone who uses Notion for work.
TrackingTime
One of our personal favorites, TrackingTime is a hidden gem that integrates with Notion via a browser extension. The free plan will cover basic time tracking needs, while the premium version offers extras like invoices, work schedules, project reporting, and more.
Time Doctor
A great option for employers and teams, Time Doctor comes complete with bells and whistles like employee monitoring, advanced time use analysis tools, and so much more. Download the Time Doctor extension for Chrome to track time from Notion — simply install and click “Start timer” from Notion whenever you want to run the tracker.
TMetric
Another useful time tracking app for teams and businesses, TMetric offers all the features you’d expect from the best time trackers, like project and team management, out-of-office schedules, and web activity monitoring. When you track time from Notion, the corresponding TMetric time entry includes the link to your Notion page — neat!
That’s a wrap on our guide to tracking time in Notion! Whether you’re reviewing how you spent your week, tracking hours spent on different projects, or managing timesheets for a team, Notion is a great way to visualize and measure your productivity. What are you waiting for? Time to get tracking!
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