Wouldn’t you like to save some clicks in Notion and improve data quality at the same time? With the new Status property you can — automatically!
Notion completed a silent roll-out of this new feature at the end of June 2022: the automatic status property.
For a Notion nerd like me, this is a big step to provide a pre-enter functionality. With this “small” improvement we see a premiere how the tools combines flexibility and the possibility to set data entry defaults.
By setting default values your data quality will increase, you eliminate data cleaning activities and reduce user insecurity. The default shows what the ideal behavior is.
Make your ideal behavior the default.
With this, Notion is moving ever closer to project management functions and is probably trying to steal users from its competitors. Respectively, to keep their twenty million users happy and convince others who were on the fence.
If you were using status for your projects and tasks already, switching to the new status property couldn’t be easier — it’s a matter of a few seconds per property.
What can the new property do?
Note: Notion calls fields properties. In Spreadsheets, they are called columns. We use the words fields and properties interchangeably below.
The new status field automatically assigns status values such as To-do, In Progress and Complete.
German-speaking users and those spoiled by Notion’s flexibility are about to groan … but don’t worry, you can assign your own custom values within the three categories. When I tested the function in my role as Notion Ambassador and Certified Notion Consultant, the ability to create values in other languages was part of my feedback.
Capturing custom values also allows for the creation of additional process steps. For example, a task may be completed by one person but might require checking by another. Technically, the task isn’t completed, but is moving forward.
By grouping individual process values under three categories it becomes transparent if a task is really completed or is progressing through different stages to completion.
The three categories are To-Do, in Progress and Complete and you’re free to create as many subcategories within the three as required. Think of the three like this:
To-Do = Inactive & Unprocessed
There are different reasons why a task may not have been started, is waiting, is blocked, et cetera.
Examples:
- a task hasn’t started and needs doing — the default value when creating a new record in the task database
- you have started with a task, but you are blocked now because an important information or decision is pending. Use blocked when the task is still your responsibility to execute on.
In Progress = Active & Processed
There are different stages that a task moves through until its completion.
Examples:
- a task for a client is completed client-facing, but still needs to be invoiced
- you write a blog post and it needs to be proofread afterwards, once done it needs to be approved by you, then needs to be published, then promoted and finally the tasks ends with status completed.
- extend the above example to your reading material, by capturing content you want to consume, have it set automatically to needs reading and have a filtered database view that shows you only these. Past are the days where interesting articles would fall between the cracks because they wouldn’t surface due to an empty reading status field.
Complete = Inactive & Processed
We love to set our tasks to completed and then move on to the ones that aren’t. But what about those tasks that arise from death?
Examples:
- You once fell in love with a totally brilliant project (or your boss) and created several tasks. A few weeks or months in you can’t make sense of it anymore.In sobering moments like this it wouldn’t make sense to leave this project and its task with status To-Do nor is Complete.
Maybe you’re still a bit attached to it and can’t bring your heart to delete these records. There’s rescue for nostalgic feelings like this (and a great way to archive): create a Discarded value and place it under Complete. - You’ve created a blog post master piece, published it and promoted — everyone knows about it. But time wasn’t so generous with the piece and you came to realize it’s outdated. For situations like these, create a Needs Updating value and place it under Complete. It’ll be clear that it’s not a totally fresh piece of content that needs to go through the entire process again.
How we manage our lead magenets and products at Asynch.Works.
By creating custom statuses that reflect your workflows and using the defaults, the new Status property will increase your data quality and smoothen your workflows even further.
This feature is very useful if you use automation to automatically create data records in Notion (new appointments, tasks, incoming leads, and more). In particular, it is terrific if you want to trigger automations.
With the introduction of these three parent categories for status, Notion created the baseline for automated triggers and Notion then becomes the place to fire actions off.
Get the template
Project Management System
Start with a basic project management system, incl. the new status property, and customize it to your needs.
New field type: Notion Status property
If you create a new property (field) in Notion, you will find a new field type “Status”, which can be recognised by the radiant icon and is listed right after the multi-select property on the property type list.
As soon as this field type has been selected, values are automatically assigned to the property. Adjust the default value and add your own status (steps follow below).
Choose different display formats
Another advantage of the new Status property is that you are not limited by how it looks like you know it from select and multiselect properties. You can choose between a select or checkbox look.
You can also switch back and forth between the two display formats without losing its content! Do note that, when switching from multi-select to checkbox display, all statuses that are in progress do get a vertical line within the checkbox.
I have not yet found out whether it is possible to set the status of a checkbox to “Edit” with a mouse click. I have already asked Notion about this.
Understanding the difference between old and new
If you already used status properties (single or multi-select) the visual distinction may not be immediately obvious to the new status property.
Notice how the new Status property values have more rounded corners and a circle icon in front of each value.
Select and Status properties work differently
With select properties, users are used to being able to quickly add, change or delete values. This is not possible with the new status field.
Adjustments can only be made via the three-point menu or Edit property option in the dropdown menu. This has the advantage that not every user can change the values at the drop of a hat. If mutation rights are limited to purely content-related changes, this leads to more data stability.
Advantages & reasons for a change
- You want to standardize status values
- You no longer want to decide between select fields and checkboxes
- You’ve burned your fingers and want to limit access to who can change the wording of your database statuses
- You use third party applications, e.g. Save to Notion, Tally Forms, to create data sets in Notion and want to have consistent data quality (and exclude manual post-processing)
- Want to have clear triggers to fire an automation from Notion
- Reduce manual labor: you won’t have empty status properties anymore!
How to switch: transfer of existing values
Assuming you already have a project management system with task and project database and both have status fields, how do you transfer the values to the new field function?
You simply change the field type of the existing status field (Select or Multi-Select) to the field type Status. The field values are transferred automatically. You may have to sort the values into the three categories once.
New sorting of the Status field
In contrast to the select property, the Status field can now also be sorted alphabetically. In the case of select properties, you have to determine the order yourself and then Notion sorts up or down.
Closing words
The new Status property standardizes one aspect of project management. It eliminates empty properties and merges preferences between select and checkbox properties.
Don’t have the new Status property yet in Notion? Just restart your Notion or reset the app (menu: Notion/Reset App & Clear Local Data). If it still isn’t there, wait a day or two and have a cup of tea, since Notion rolls out new features in a cascaded fashion.