Tasks and dependencies

Sub-items allow you to break tasks into smaller, distinct pieces of work, so that they can be easily scoped out, assigned, and tracked. They are visible in the Table view of a database.

1. Navigate to the ••• menu at the top right-hand corner of a Notion database in Table view. Click on Sub-items → Turn on sub-items.

2. Click the grey toggle that now appears on hover next to table items. Click + New sub-item to add a sub-item.

3. You can also drag existing items to nest them under others!

• When you move an item with sub-items, sub-items will be turned on for the target database if they aren’t already.

  • If you don’t have permission to turn on sub-items on the target database, sub-items will be turned into parent items once they’re moved.

  • If you don’t have edit access for a particular sub-item, it won’t be moved.

• When you duplicate an item with sub-items, the item and all its sub-items will be duplicated into new pages.

• When you delete an item with sub-items, all of the sub-items will be deleted as well. Make sure to move your sub-items out of the parent item if you want to keep them.

You can change how sub-items and parent items are nested:

1. Navigate to the ••• menu at the top right-hand corner of a Notion database in Table view. Click on Sub-items.

2. Click Advanced settings → Property and select which item type — Sub-item or Parent item — you want nested in your table.

3. Click Set as default to apply this setting across all views in your database, or Set on this view only to apply it to only your current view.

4. You can also turn on Show nesting toggle on title.

1. Navigate to the ••• menu at the top right-hand corner of a Notion database in Table view.

2. Click on Sub-items and click Turn off sub-items.

Adding a dependency lets you connect tasks to each other in a linear way. Use a dependency when you want to communicate related tasks to your team.

• In a database’s Timeline view, hover over any database task, you'll see a gray circle appear on the right side. Click or drag on that arrow to connect it to another task.

  • Alternatively, you can go to the ••• in the right-hand corner of the database and click on Dependencies.

• You’ll be prompted to select an existing relation or Create new relation.

• With a new relation, rename the Blocking and Blocked by properties.

Some things don't go quite as planned. You can automatically change the dates on dependencies when there is conflict or changes.

• Click on ••• in the right-hand corner of the database and click on Dependencies.

• Select one of these options:

  • Shift & maintain time between tasks: If task A is blocking task B and the due date of task A is shifted forward one week, the due date of B will also shift forward one week.

  • Shift only when dates overlap: Tasks will only be shifted when their dates start to overlap. The distance between tasks may still be decreased.

  • Do not automatically shift: Due dates are never automatically shifted.