Quick Add — Create Notion Task via Keyboard Shortcut (No App needed)

The result: Type keyboard shortcut, open prompt, add to notion database

I love keeping all my data in one place, but accessing notion instantly from anywhere is not possible. To have my daily reminders and to-do’s in Notion as well, I wrote a little script that lets you add a simple task via a keyboard shortcut.

There are a couple of apps out there that already do this, but I wanted to find a solution that doesn’t need an additional app. It’s macOS only though.

It just takes a couple of minutes to set it up, but you won’t need to wait till the notion app is open and ready anymore.

1. Setup Notion Database

The notion database where we collect our tasks

Duplicate the simple to-do list database from my workspace. This should work as a good base, but feel free to adapt it to your needs.

2. Create an Integration

Screenshot from the notion integration page

• Go to https://www.notion.so/my-integrations/ and create a new integration.
• Keep the settings as they are, in case you have multiple workspaces, make sure the correct one is selected. What’s important here is the Internal Integration Token.
• Go back to your Notion page, hit ..., then Add connections and select your freshly created integration.

3. Setup Apple Shortcut

The highlighted fields need to be adapted

Add the Shortcut template to your Shortcuts app and fill out your database ID, the Integration Key & the Notion-Version

Database ID

• Share your database and copy the link
• The Database ID is the part between the / and the ? of your URL. See the example below:

Notion-Version

Can be found via developers.notion.com/reference/versioning

4. Add Keyboard Shortcut

• Open your Mac Shortcut and click the Shortcut details icon (top right)
• Select Use as Quick Actionand a Shortcut you want to run it with. I chose ⌥ + ⌘ + Space

Screenshot from the settings in the Shortcuts app

5. Add-On

Add it to your iOS or iPadOS Home Screen

• Open the shortcuts app on your iPhone or iPad
• Tap … on the shortcut
• Tap theShare Icon
• Tap Add to Home Screen

Example of a very minimalistic home screen

To make it even nicer, add your App Icon to it and also add the notion widget to your home screen to get quicker access. You can download the one from the example above via this link.

Add the App to your Dock or your Menu bar

You can also pin the Shortcut as an app to your Dock. Check the Finder box in the shortcut settings, find the app in the finder, and drag it into your Dock. To change the app icon, follow this tutorial.

6. Advanced Shortcuts Example

If you got interested in connecting Notion to apple Shortcuts, find a tutorial with the example of a muscle tracker here.

If anything is unclear or doesn’t work, please leave me a comment and I’ll adapt the tutorial.

Edit: Updated the way how to connect the integration to your notion page.