How to build your own Notion time tracker in under 5 minutes

You don’t need a complex system to start tracking your time in Notion.

With one simple database and a handful of properties, you can track tasks, log start and end times, and calculate durations automatically.

Below is a clean, beginner-friendly setup you can build in just a few minutes.

Follow the guide!

You’re going to create a database where each entry represents a task you want to track.

With it, you will be able to:

✅ Start tracking with one click

✅ Stop tracking with one click

✅ Automatically calculate the duration

✅ See progress at a glance with a status

Create a new database called Time tracker and add the following properties:

1️⃣ Name

Property type: title.

2️⃣ Date

Property type: date.

Displays when the task happened.

3️⃣ Status

Property type: status.

Leave the default options: not started, in progress, done.

4️⃣ Start

Property type: button.

Starts tracking session and stores your start timestamp.

5️⃣ End

Property type: button.

Stops tracking session and stores your end timestamp.

6️⃣ Duration

Property type: formula.

Calculates the total time tracked (in minutes).

Edit the start button so that when you click it, it:

👉 Starts the tracking,

👉 Updates the task status to “in progress”

👉 And saves the start time.

Edit the stop button so that when you click it, it:

👉 Stops the tracking,

👉 Updates the task status to “done”

👉 And saves the end time.

Copy paste this formula into your Duration property:

At this point, you have a functional Notion time tracker. It is quick to set up and easy to maintain.

Now you can adjust your database views to create a layout that works for you.

Here is the truth: you do not need to build a time tracker from scratch.

There are hundreds of free (and paid) time tracker templates on the Notion Marketplace.

If you want a ready-to-use version, that is often the fastest option.

Here's mine (free):