Add to a Notion Database without opening the app

I’ve been in therapy for two years and one of the consent items my therapist asks of me is to track things that bring me joy so that when I am having a bad moment or an anxious time I can look at this list.

An issue I always came to was when I would open my phone to add something to Notion I would get distracted by notifications or messages or even another database in Notion. *waves at adhd*

I’ve been using Apple Shortcuts for as many things as possible to remove the need for me to unlock my phone or use a notebook because I’m going to get distracted trying to find a pen.

My first idea was to use Apple Shortcuts to open the Notion app to a specific database for me.

Creating an Open App Shortcut

1. After you create a new shortcut, select Add Action.
2. Search Open app and select the option under Scripting
3. Tap on App and search for the app to open

But while looking around in the app, I noticed that you can create a shortcut to add a record to a database without even opening the app, and you can take it one step further and not even unlock your phone.

Creating a database page shortcut