How to add a countdown widget to a Notion page

How it works

Notion can show an image from a link instead of an uploaded file. A DynaMail countdown is exactly that: a link that returns a picture of the time left, drawn when the image is requested. Point a Notion image block at it and the page shows your timer, with nothing to install and no Notion integration to approve.

Add the timer, step by step

1. 1

   Build the timer and copy its Notion link

   Set the end date, timezone and style in the free countdown generator and generate it. Under Where are you pasting it?, choose Notion and copy the image link. Your widget id replaces YOUR-WIDGET-ID:

   Countdown image link for Notion

   Copy

   https://img.dynamail.io/widgets/YOUR-WIDGET-ID/render.gif

2. 2

   Add an image block

   On a new line in your Notion page, type /image and press Enter, or click the + in the left margin and choose Image.

3. 3

   Embed it by link

   Notion’s image block can upload a file, embed an image from elsewhere using its URL, or add a stock photo. Choose Embed link, paste the timer link, and confirm. Do not download the image and upload it: an uploaded file is a copy, and it would never change.

4. 4

   Size it

   Hover over the image and drag the guides on its left and right edges to resize it. A caption under the timer (“Until launch”) tells readers what it counts down to.

5. 5

   Check it later

   Come back to the page after a while and reload it. The time left should have gone down. If it has not, Notion is still showing a copy it fetched earlier; see the note below.

It keeps ticking

The Notion link is the same animated timer used in email: Notion plays GIFs in image blocks, so readers watch the seconds count down. Each fetch draws about a minute of countdown that then repeats, so until Notion fetches the image again the seconds loop and the time can run behind. Read it for days and hours.

What readers will see

• The days, hours, minutes and seconds left, counting down from when the image was fetched.
• Once the image is fetched after the deadline, the timer at zero, or the message you chose in the generator.
• In a page shared to the web, the same image: anyone who can see the page sees the timer.

Other widgets in Notion

The same steps work for every free generator: a progress bar, a stat counter or a fundraising thermometer. Each has a Notion tab with its image link. If the image block does not take a link in your workspace, Notion’s embeds article (opens in a new tab) describes the /embed block as another way in.