Add Tasks to Notion From Your iPhone Screen
If you're a Notion user with an iPhone, you know how powerful it can be for managing your work and life.
But opening the app, waiting for it to load, finding your tasks database, waiting again, adding a new page, waiting some more… “Whaaaat? What am I doing here? What was I supposed to add? “
By the time you get there, you've already forgotten the task, and you're frustrated by how long it all takes.
But what if you could add tasks to your Notion database even faster, right from your iPhone's home screen, without opening the app? Sounds too good to be true?
This guide will show you exactly how to set up a custom Apple Shortcut that connects directly to Notion's API, allowing you to capture tasks (or any content for that matter) in seconds, without ever opening the app on your phone. Whether you're on the go, between meetings, or just want a quicker way to brain-dump your to-dos or ideas, this setup will be so powerful that your friends will start asking you for productivity tips.
Enough introduction, we all want to save time here. If you want to save even more time by getting a ready-made setup instead of starting from scratch:
Otherwise, let's dive right in and set this up!
Here’s our desired result. Cool, right?
Below is an example of the Tasks database we used. You can download it at the end of this page. You can also use your own Tasks database (which likely has more properties built out). Just make sure to follow your own naming conventions in the JSON script we'll share with you.
Task Database Example
Task name | Due date | Progress |
|---|---|---|
January 29, 2026 | Not started | |
January 7, 2026 | In progress | |
January 2, 2026 | Done |
This shortcut lets you choose a task title and due date, but you can add more properties if needed. All new tasks default to a Not Started status.
Setup guide
Phase 1. API setup
- Go to https://www.notion.so/my-integrations and create a new integration.
- Give the integration an appropriate name, e.g. Apple Shortcuts.
- Select the workspace where your tasks database is located and set type to Internal.
- Create the integration by pressing Save and continue by pressing Configure integration settings.
- The rest of the options should be set like in the picture below.
- Note the Internal Integration Secret, that should look like this:
ntn_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. You have to keep the copy of it, because it will be used later. To copy it, click on Show and Copy.
Phase 2. Database Integration
- Navigate to the Notion page containing your database. Open any task page as a full page and find Tasks in your breadcrumbs. This is the source database you need to share with the integration. Click on it.
- Click the three dots in the upper-right corner and add the integration you created in Step1.
- To retrieve the database ID, open your Tasks source database again, click on the three dots to access page settings, and copy the page link.
The link should look like this
https://www.notion.so/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx?v=yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy. Thexxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxpart is the database ID (everything between “.so/” and before “?”).
That’s everything here. Now take your iPhone and let’s set up the shortcut.
Phase 3. Apple Shortcut Setup
- Open the Shortcuts app on your iPhone.
- Create a new shortcut by tapping the + button.
- Search Actions → Ask for Input.
- Rename your shortcut.
- Tap the icon to change it.
- Ask for Text with Task Name.
- Search Actions → Ask for Input.
- Ask for Date with Due Date.
- Search Actions → Format Date.
- Click on Ask for Input and click on Select Variable.
- Click on Ask for Input under your Format Date.
- Rename it to Due Date and close by presing X.
- Change the date format to ISO 8601.
- Search Action → Text.
- Paste this JSON.
- Paste your own, real database ID.
- Delete SELECT_YOUR_TASK_NAME_OUTPUT and click on Select Variable.
- Click on the first action’s output name.
- Delete SELECT_YOUR_DATE_OUTPUT and click on Select Variable.
- Select your Formatted Date output.
- Search Actions → Get Contents of URL.
- Paste https://api.notion.com/v1/pages.
- Set Method to Post and add a new Header.
- Add Key as Authorization and Text as Bearer and your integration token.
- Add new header and set Key to Content-Type and Text to application/json.
- Add new header and type in Notion-Version as Key and 2022-06-28 as Text.
- Change Request Body to File.
- Choose the Text Variable with your JSON content.
- Click on Done in the top right corner to save.
- Find empty space on your homescreen, tap and hold, click on Edit.
- Select Add Widget.
- Search for Shortcuts.
- Click on Add Widget.
- If your phone chose the wrong shortcut, tap and hold to Edit Widget settings.
- Select your “New Task” shortcut.
- Click on the homescreen shortcut.
- Allow the connection.
- Go back to your Shortcuts App and open your shortcut.
- Click on Start to test your automation by adding Task name and Due date.
- Check the output. If it looks similar to this, your page got created in Notion.
- Open your Tasks database in Notion to check if your test task exists there.
- If your output shows an error, you missed something and your setup requires debuging.
This simple setup only adds a task name and due date, but you can set any property’s value right from your home screen. You can even set yourself as the default task assignee, though all this requires additional setup. If you need to customize it further but don't know how, contact us for help!
Download the shortcut & database template
To duplicate, locate the two squares in the top right corner of the page that allow duplication and save it to your workspace. If you download this tasks database, you'll still need to create the integration token, add the integration to your database's connections, get the database ID and adjust the Shortcut.
If you use this ready-made shortcut, you'll still need to create the integration, get your task database's ID, and get your integration token. After downloading the shortcut, replace the following in the TEXT section:
- Property names: update them to match your database property names exactly
- Database ID: replace with your Task Database ID
Then, in the GET CONTENTS OF URL section, replace the Authorization value with "Bearer YOUR_SECRET_INTEGRATION_TOKEN".
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