What we build
Databases joined to each other so nothing is written twice. Views that answer a question instead of listing everything. Templates so the tenth start is set up like the first. And a way in for somebody who was not there when it was made. Everything below is a schema of how those four fit together, drawn in plain shapes.
Three shapes of job
They are listed in this order because they build on one another, but a job is not obliged to start at the beginning. Which of the three you need depends on where the work already is.
One person, working alone
Notes in one application, tasks in another, and the thing you wrote down last Tuesday nowhere either of them can find it.
Databases it needs
What gets built
Two to a dozen people who hand work to each other
Everybody knows what they are doing and nobody can see what anybody else is waiting on.
Databases it needs
What gets built
A team that keeps answering the same question
The answer exists. It is in somebody’s head, a message thread and a document nobody can find, and all three say something slightly different.
Databases it needs
What gets built
Part one
A database is a list that knows what its rows are made of. The work happens in the joins: a relation means a project can show its own tasks, and a task can say which project it belongs to, without either being typed twice.
| Database | One row is | Properties that carry the work |
|---|---|---|
| Inbox | Anything caught in a hurry, before anybody has decided what it is. |
|
| Projects | One piece of work with a beginning and an end. |
|
| Tasks | One thing somebody has to do next. |
|
| Clients | One organisation the owner of the workspace works for. |
|
| Meetings | One conversation and what was decided in it. |
|
| Notes | Anything written down that is not yet a task. |
|
| Handbook | How a thing gets done here, written once. |
|
| Join | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| Inbox Notes | What was caught in a hurry becomes a note, or a task, or nothing. |
| Projects Tasks | A project holds the tasks that move it on. |
| Projects Clients | A project belongs to one client account. |
| Meetings Projects | A meeting is filed against the project it was about. |
| Meetings Tasks | What was agreed leaves the meeting as tasks. |
| Notes Projects | A note keeps the project it came out of. |
| Handbook Tasks | A way of working is attached to the tasks that follow it. |
A count is not a target, and a workspace for one person needs fewer than the table above shows. The number that matters is how many databases a record has to be findable from, because that is what the relations are for and what takes the time to get right.
Part two
A view is a question asked of a database: what is mine, what is stuck, what falls in this week. The records underneath do not move, so nothing has to be kept in step by hand.
Grouped by project · 8 records
Harbour Lane rebrand
Tide & Timber packaging
Studio newsletter
Grouped by status · the same records
Not started
Proof the print file
Tide & Timber packaging
Draft the spring letter
Studio newsletter
In hand
First set of marks
Harbour Lane rebrand
Lay out the sleeve
Tide & Timber packaging
Waiting
Sign-off on the shortlist
Harbour Lane rebrand
Box dimensions from the maker
Tide & Timber packaging
Done
Write up the opening call
Harbour Lane rebrand
Collect the old logo files
Harbour Lane rebrand
Grouped by week · the same records
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Part three
A workspace falls over slowly: the structure is right on the day it is handed over and drifts a little every time somebody starts something in a hurry. A template is the cheapest defence against that there is. It arrives with the properties already set, the sections already there, and the linked views already pointed at the right thing.
One template comes with every package; a template for each routine start is part of the larger two. Which ones you need is worked out from the brief, because it depends entirely on what you begin often.
Arrives with
Opens with
Before you ask
Any Notion subscription your plan needs is bought by you, directly from Notion, and is not part of what Worknestle Limited charges for.
If what you have described fits inside a free plan, we will say so rather than letting you find out later. Where a paid plan is genuinely needed, the reason is named in the brief, against the feature it is needed for.