The main superpower of Notion is its databases. They come with different possible views, and the calendar is perhaps one of the most useful ones. Whether you want to keep track of your personal tasks and events or use it for content planning or to keep track of your team's meetings, it's an awesome visual way to see a lot of information at a glance.

Today, I'll show you how to set up your calendar, how to play with reminders and Slack notifications, and last but not least, add recurring events.

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How to use Notion calendar

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To add a calendar in Notion, type /calendar and select "Calendar view." This will create a new database with a calendar view. Two properties are automatically added: Date, which is necessary for a calendar to work, and Tags, a multi-select property that you can delete if you don't need it.

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Open page in side peek

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By default, the calendar view opens pages in center peek. However, you can change it to side peek, which I personally find more convenient.

1. Go to the database settings (click the three dots at the left of the blue New button)
2. Click Layout
3. Select "Open pages in" → "Side peek"

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Show multiple date properties

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It is currently impossible to make a single calendar view display items from multiple date properties. If you have a calendar that has a date property (called "Date") for the day of the event, you can add a formula (called "Reminder") that acts as a reminder 7 days prior the event (reminder formula: dateSubtract(prop("Date"), 7, "days") )

But you will need to decide which one of these two dates should be taken into account by the calendar.

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However, there is a workaround. You can create two different views: the first one displaying the dates from the "Date" property and the other one displaying the dates from the "Reminder" property.

1. Duplicate your original view (the one using the "Date" property)
2. Go to the settings of the duplicated view
3. Select Layout
4. Change "Show calendar by" from "Date" to "Reminder"
5. Name both views accordingly

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Notion weekly calendar view

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You can now display your Notion calendar from a monthly view to a weekly view, which is super helpful to see what's on your plate for any given week. To get a weekly view, follow these steps:

1. Go to your database settings
2. Click on Layout
3. Select "Week" under "Show calendar as"

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How to add time in Notion calendar

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By default, when you create an event in your Notion calendar, it will only display the date, without the time. However, you can add the time yourself by following these steps:

1. Click on your event.
2. Click on the date.
3. Select "Include time".
4. Input the desired time.

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The time will then appear at the top right of your event in the calendar view.

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Notion calendar color

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This is not a Notion feature per se, but there's a hack to color your Notion calendar. Here's what you need to do:

1. Add a callout block.
2. Change the callout color to the desired one (the color, not the background color).
3. Drag your calendar inside the callout.

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Tada! You now have a colored Notion calendar. The color will affect your event's title and properties, but also the name of the month or week, and the calendar days.

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Notion reminder (+ notifications)

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You can add reminders to any of your database items that have a date. It's super easy to set up:

1. Click on your database item
2. Click on the date
3. Click "Remind" and select when the reminder should happen

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You can choose between five reminder options:

• None
• On the day of the event (9:00 AM)
• 1 day before (9:00 AM)
• 2 days before (9:00 AM)
• 1 week before (9:00 AM)

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Notion will send you a notification depending on your selected reminder option.

Adding a reminder also changes the color of the date:

• Default black: no reminder
• Blue: reminder is in the future
• Red: reminder is today or in the past

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Notion Slack notifications

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Thanks to Slack's integration with Notion, you can receive Slack notifications when changes are made to your Notion calendar. This native automation is awesome, especially if you work with a team.

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To set it up, follow these steps:

1. Go to your database settings
2. Click on "Slack notifications"
3. Select your trigger: either a new database entry or an existing property that is modified
4. Connect to your Slack and set up the notification

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Pretty awesome, right?

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Because this is quite a recent feature (as of November 2023), it’s currently not possible to trigger the automation when the date is “today” or ‘this week”. But I hope we’ll soon have more granularity in our triggers.

More information on database automations here.

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Notion calendar recurring events

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Using the recurring templates database feature, you can set up recurring events in your Notion calendar.

1. Create a new template (click the down arrow next to the blue "New" button → "New template")
2. Name it, give it an icon, and fill out its properties (if needed)
3. Go back to your list of templates (down arrow next to the blue "New" button)
4. Click the three dots at the right of your newly created template
5. Select "Repeat," then choose your frequency
6. Fill out all the fields (days it repeats, start date, time, and timezone)

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And that's it!

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Conclusion

And there you have it – everything you need to know to make the most of Notion's calendar feature! With these tips and tricks, you'll be able to stay on top of your schedule and get things done more efficiently than ever before. Whether you're a solo entrepreneur or part of a large team, Notion's calendar has the flexibility and customization options to meet your needs. So start exploring today and see just how much more productive you can be!

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