Force Filtering

Force Filtering is a little trick in Notion to quickly add metadata to your table entries. It's really not complicated but it may seem so at first for those unfamiliar with Linked Databases. And for that, I would recommend reading up on it first here

The idea is simple. When you create a Linked Database, usually it is within the focused context of a dashboard. You might have a Focus Board (Dashboard) for that new fiction novel you're writing. Inside that board, you'll have a linked database to your Master Tasks Database. You don't want to see anything unrelated to the novel and so that linked database is filtered. The easiest way is to filter by the tasks relation to the Focus Board itself (which lives in its own database). So now, your Novel Focus Board has a linked database of tasks only related to the Focus Board itself.

Now, if you're working in your Focus Board (which is usually the case) and you need to add a task, you add it to your linked database that is already filtered. As soon as you do that, it automatically populates the task with the relation to the Focus Board. Boom. You've force filtered a a task. You don't have to manually attach the relation, it's already done. Because Notion knows your particular Linked Database should only show those tasks filtered a certain way, when you add a new one inside it, it assumes you want the same filter applied for it to show the task in that view.

The previous example was simple and only contained one filter but the possibilities are endless. Want to have a quick way to create a new note related to your School Focus Board, Class, Week, with a high priority and assigned to your lab partner? Easy. Create a Linked Database with all of those filters applied and now when you create a new task, all of those filters will be applied.

Pro Tip: Create a Quick Entry Box. Use a Linked Database in your Focus Boards and include a "Created Time" Property. Then filter the Linked Database to only include entries added today. Now you'll only see entries added today, thus the "Quick Entry" doesn't get cluttered with previous entries. Pro-Pro-Tip: Use the gallery view of your linked database to create a nice "+New" button.