Notion has just released an absolutely game-changing feature – in fact, without any hyperbole, it is THE feature I have been asking them to add for the longest amount of time.
This feature is called “Group By”, and with it, you can now visually separate rows in your database views.
Grouping currently works in the following database views:
- Table
- Board (where it is especially powerful)
- Timeline
- List
- Gallery
Board view gets some especially powerful updates here with the addition of Sub-Groups, which turn your boards into useful grids. For example, here’s a task board grouped by Status and sub-grouped by Assignee:
This concept is also known as swimlanes in project management circles, and it’s a hugely useful addition to Notion.
The final major update is also the most interesting: You can now group database rows using nearly any property type. Here’s a full list of supported properties:
| Property | Notes |
|---|---|
| Text | Options: Exact Name Match or First Letter (Alphabetical) |
| Number | Allows you to set Group Ranges, i.e. “0-100, 101-200” |
| Select | |
| Multi-Select | Rows will show up multiple times if they have multiple tags |
| Status | Option to “Status by” Options of Groups (To Do, In Progess, Completed) |
| Person | Rows will show up multiple times if they multiple People |
| Date | Options include Relative, Day, Week, Month, Year |
| Checkbox | |
| URL | Functions just like Text |
| Functions just like Text | |
| Phone | Functions just like Text |
| Formula | Choose from Exact Match or Alphabetical (like Text). Dragging rows won’t work with this Grouping. |
| Relation | |
| Created By/Time | Time allows for same choices as Date |
| Edited By/Time | Time allows for same choices as Date |
Want the see all of these new grouping features in action? Here’s a public template version of the Simple Tasks page I use as an example in the video above.
Feel free to duplicate it into your own workspace and poke around!