7 Ways I’m Using Notion’s Grouping Feature

Notion just launched one of its most requested features:

Grouping.

And I couldn’t be more excited to share how I’m using it to organize my life and work better.

Here are my seven favorite “group by” use cases.

Notion’s Group By Feature: My Favorite Use Cases

• 1. Group Summaries by Rating
• 2. Group Summaries by Author
• 3. Group Summaries by Topic(s)
• 4. Group Next Actions by Week
• 5. Group Projects by Month
• 6. Group Someday/Maybe Items by Time Estimate
• 7. Group Tweet Ideas by Week

1. Group Book Summaries by Rating

You might know that I like to write book summaries for my favorite nonfiction books.

But what you might not know is that I also keep a Notion commonplace book. 

In it, I rate every book I read and review using a five-star rating. 

Before, I had to create multiple list views, one for each rating, which made a lot of unnecessary clutter. 

But, now, with Notion’s group by feature, I can view all ratings together in one centralized view.

2. Group Book Summaries by Author

Let’s say I want to review all the summaries I have for a particular author. 

Before, I had to open the author’s page to see their content, like this:

By grouping summaries by author, however, I can view all my summaries in one view, like this: 

3. Group Book Summaries by Topic(s)

For each book I read, I assign one or more topics. The problem is a book can cover many topics, again, adding to unnecessary clutter.  

I can’t have a saved view for each topic (I have hundreds), so, instead, I can group all summaries by topic. 

Here’s a preview of how it looks:

4. Group Next Actions by Week

In addition to keeping a Notion commonplace book, I’ve also implemented a GTD workflow in Notion.

Here’s where Notion’s group by feature comes in:

Say I want to see all my monthly tasks grouped by week. Before, that was impossible.

But, now, with Notion’s “group by” feature, I can view all my next actions, grouped by week and sorted by “due date.”

5. Group Projects by Month

I often wanted to see all my monthly projects in one centralized view, including those current and upcoming.

Before, I had to create multiple views. Now? I can group by month to see the entire quarter if I want.

6. Group Someday/Maybe Ideas by Time Estimate

Got a ton of items on your Someday/Maybe list?

I do, too. 

Here’s a trick to make reviewing them easier:

Add a property called “Time Estimate,” assign an estimate to each item and group by that property. 

You’ll now see all your one-hour items in one group.

7. Group Tweet Ideas by Week

So, I recently started writing threads on Twitter.

A thread, if you’re unfamiliar, is a series of connected tweets on a given topic.

This article, in fact, began as two threads on Notion. And because I had a lot to say, I decided to repurpose the two threads into the article you’re reading.

So, @NotionHQ just launched one of their most requested features:

Grouping.

Here’s how I’m using it for Sam’s Commonplace Book 🧵https://t.co/LaINK3Iy8w

— Sam Thomas Davies (@SamThomasDavies) October 19, 2021

Now, because I’m trying to write three threads a week, I need to plan to ensure that I hit my key result.

So, much like the above, I’m now grouping tweets by their due date to see what I’m publishing in the coming week and after.

Conclusion

So, there we have it: my seven favorite “group by” use cases. 

I’m sure I’ll discover more in the coming months, but until then, if you’re new to my website, check out how I’m using Notion’s backlinks feature.

Did I miss anything? Leave a comment below or write to me @SamThomasDavies on Twitter. 

I would love to hear from you.