Once your notes pile up the list alone stops being enough: which one is finished, which one is half done, which one is waiting? Status is there for exactly this. You mark a stage on each note, statuses show up as a coloured chip, so you can see where each one stands without opening it. You can pick one of the four ready statuses, add your own, and rename or recolour even the ready ones however you like. And all of it is open on the free plan. Let's go through it in six steps.
1
Give a note a status
Instead of opening a note and wondering "did I finish this?", you can set a status on it. Click the Status row just under the title and four options open up: To do for what you have not started, In progress for what you are working on, Done for what is finished, and On hold for what is stuck somewhere. These four come ready in every workspace, but none of them is fixed; you can rename In progress to "In design" if you want, and step 3 shows you how.
The moment you set a status the chip appears in two places at once: on the note's own row, and in the list that opens when you go to Notes from the left menu. The second one will serve you well, because all your notes sit there one under another, each with its status beside it. You see where each one stands without opening a single one. If you want to take a note out of the stages altogether, Clear removes the chip and nothing happens to the note itself.
One small detail: Notes has three views and this chip in the list only shows up in the List view. In the Grid view the status is not shown at all, and in the Board view the column a note sits in tells you its status instead of a chip.
Product launch
Status
In progress
Tags
Work
Linked event
Add
Status
To do
In progress
Done
On hold
Clear
Status nameNew status
Click the Status row and the four ready statuses open right underneath
2
Add your own statuses
If four statuses are not enough for you, type a new name into the box at the bottom of the same popover and click New status; you now have a new status. You do not have to pick a colour, one is assigned automatically. Just know this as you do it: the first ones you add repeat the colours of the ready four in order, so your new status can come out in the same grey as To do. If you want it to stand apart, you can easily change its colour in the edit mode we cover in step 3.
One more small thing: whichever note you were on when you added the status moves to that status at the same time. Add a status called "Awaiting approval" and the open note is now Awaiting approval, so you do not have to select it separately.
The statuses you add line up under the ready ones and can be removed with the × beside them. The ready four have no cross, because they cannot be deleted.
The cross appears only on a status you added, never on the ready four
3
Tune the ready statuses too
The pencil icon at the top right of the popover opens edit mode. Here you can rename every status in the list, the ready ones included: click the name, type, press Enter, simple as that.
The round colour box to its left opens the full colour picker: 12 ready colours, the ones you used recently, your favourites, and a box for your own colour code. If the status you added in step 2 clashes with a ready one, this is where you give it a new colour. The same picker turns up in plenty of places in the app; you will find the detail in the appearance settings article.
You can also change the order of the list by grabbing the dots on the left of a row and dragging. The order you set does not stay in this popover: By status in step 5 arranges your notes in that order, and the board columns in step 6 line up the same way.
These three have one thing in common: none of them is private to you, they are written for the whole workspace. Rename a status or change its colour and everyone in the same workspace sees the new version.
The pencil opens edit mode: rename, recolour, drag to reorder
4
Show only the notes in one status
As notes multiply the list grows and the one you want can get lost among the rest. The fix is simple: click Status in the bar at the top and pick a status. The list instantly shows only the notes in the status you chose.
All
To do
In progress
Done
On hold
NoteStatusSharingUpdated
🚀Product launchIn progressYesterday
💡Campaign planIn progress3 days ago
📊Quarterly reportIn progress1 week ago
Pick a status and the chip takes its name while the list shows only those notes
5
Sort by status
You do not have to pick a single status every time. If you want all your notes on screen but not in a jumble, choose By status from the sort options. Notes are grouped by status and they arrive in whatever order you put the statuses in back in step 3.
Notes with no status yet gather at the very end and show a short dash in the Status column. So a glance at the bottom of the list answers the question "which notes have I never touched".
NoteStatusSharingUpdated
📝Meeting notesTo do2 hours ago
🚀Product launchIn progressYesterday
✅Holiday planDone1 week ago
🎨Brand guideOn hold4 days ago
📚Reading list—2 weeks ago
The sort follows the order you set; notes without a status stay at the end
6
Change a status by dragging on the board
There are three icons at the top right of the note list: Grid, List and Board. If you would rather see the state of all your work at a glance than read your notes one by one, the board is exactly for that. Choose Board: every status becomes a column and your notes settle into those columns.
The leftmost column is No status; notes you have not given a status yet gather there, so the moment you open the board you also see what you left unmarked.
Here is the handiest part of the board: Grab a card and drop it in another column; the note moves to the new status right then, and without opening the note at all. The + Add note at the bottom of each column works the same way: a note you start there is created with that column's status already on it.
The columns use the order and the colours you set in step 3, so the board ends up arranged around your own workflow.
No status1
📚 Reading list
+ Add note
To do1
📝 Meeting notes
+ Add note
In progress2
🚀 Product launch
💡 Campaign plan
+ Add note
Done1
✅ Holiday plan
+ Add note
On hold1
🎨 Brand guide
+ Add note
While you drag, the column the card left is outlined in yellow
Frequently asked questions
Can I delete the four ready statuses?
You cannot delete them, but you can change them. To do, In progress, Done and On hold cannot be removed; in return you can rename and recolour all of them in edit mode and move them around the list. So if you want a status that reads "With the client" instead of "On hold", there is no need to delete anything, renaming is enough.
What happens to the notes if I delete a status I added?
Nothing happens to the notes. They all stay in the list, their content, tags and sub-pages untouched; you simply see a dash in the Status column from then on, so they look like notes without a status. You can give them a new status whenever you want.
Do these settings apply only to me?
No. The status list belongs to the whole workspace: when you add a status, rename it, change its colour or move it in the order, everyone in the same workspace sees it. A note's own status, on the other hand, belongs to that note and concerns only that note.
Do I need a paid plan?
No. Setting a status, creating your own, renaming the ready ones, changing their colours, sorting, the status filter and the Board view are all open on every plan, Free included.
What is the difference between a status and a tag?
A status tells you what stage a note is at, and a note carries only one of them. A tag tells you what it is about, and you can put several tags on one note. A note can be "In progress" and carry both the "Work" and "Launch" tags at the same time.
Why is sorting by status not alphabetical?
Because alphabetical order tells you nothing about a workflow. The sort follows the status list's own order: by default To do, In progress, Done, On hold. The good part is this: change the order in edit mode and the sort follows the new one, so the list always shows your own flow.