Custom connection between Notion and Toggl

In this blog post, I elaborate on automating my project management via a custom connection between Notion and Toggl. I also talk about how I use Notion and Toggl on a daily basis and why I want these tools to be able to communicate with each other.

The problem

Due to using different platforms to manage my projects and tasks, I have to define clients and projects multiple times. In Notion, I manage my clients, projects and tasks. In Toggl, I record the time I work on tasks. The problem is that I have to transfer clients, projects and major tasks manually from Notion to Toggl. This is because there is no link between these 2 tools. Besides being error-prone, this takes a lot of time.

Notion

In my Notion, there are several tables that support me in managing my projects. This allows me to track the status of projects and plan my days. This creates a lot of overview in the progress of my projects. In my system, in addition to regular tasks, I also use Major tasks. These are tasks that are larger and therefore more difficult to plan. I then divide these into regular tasks that I can complete more easily.

Toggl

I use the time tracking app Toggl Track to measure my time. I use this to bill my time and to have insight into how I spend my week. Toggl has several options of managing projects. Although the goal is to track time, Toggl also includes the ability to add tasks to projects. Booking time on these tasks gives you insight into where you are spending your time.

The solution: A custom connection

I noticed that I had to create each client and project in both Notion and Toggl to keep track of my time. Since this was already duplicate work, I didn’t bother to take over my major tasks as tasks in Notion as well. As a result, it was more difficult for me to track what I was spending my time on.

Through the API of Notion and Toggl, it is possible to automatically transfer data from one platform into the other using a custom connection. Now I only need to create my clients and projects in Notion, they are then automatically transferred to Toggl through the link I developed. I chose not to take over all tasks but only the major tasks. I can then use the regular tasks as a description of Toggl’s time entry. Although this still takes some cutting and pasting, most of it is automatically transferred.

Difference between before implementation and after implementation of linkage.

In the old situation, I had to create and modify each customer and and project both in Notion and in Toggl. In addition to giving a name to a project, I also determine the hourly wages that are taken to Toggl.

The major tasks from Notion also include the number of hours I can work on this task, while the hours worked on the tasks were in Toggl. Now both the tasks and the scheduled hours are automatically carried over into Toggl. By keeping track of time on the tasks, I can more easily find out how good my hours estimate was.

Read more about the tools I use here.