Lyskari's Monday.com Tutorial: The Status Column
Ξ Introduction Ξ
Hello and welcome to my second Monday tutorial! Here I will cover Monday's Status Column. Originally I was going to create a single post for all columns, but it would be too long. Hope you enjoy! None of the suggestions here are an exhaustive list, Monday is literally built to test it's own bounds and capabilities, meaning there is a nearly endless list of possibilities. If you would like to read-up about columns on Monday, check out their article on Column Basics. Their Support Center can also be searched by individual column type. Onto the tutorial! These tutorials and posts are not sponsored. They also will not cover every single fact about columns, as doing so would be a herculean task. However, if there is an aspect you'd like me to cover, please ask!
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Ξ Status Column Overview Ξ
What is the Status column? Status columns are one of Monday's main powerhouses. Created initially to track the status of any item you need, it has become a powerful tool due to it's flexibility of use. Statuses are individually coloured labels, and can only used by selecting one status option per status column. You can edit the status names, and the associated colour for each individual status option.
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Ξ Tutorial: Setting Up A Status Ξ
Once you've added the column to your board, feel free to give it a name that will make sense to you. Β» Step One.
For this tutorial we'll create a status column called "Temperature".
Β» Step Two.
Pretend we've thought about the column and how we desire the information to show up. Imagine we've decided on:
Critical
High
Moderate
Low
And imagine we know that we'll forget which temperatures fall into which status, so we decide to add a description to our column that will explain which temperatures fall beneath which status. So let's change that.
Hover over the "Temperature" column, and select the (...) dots that show up on the right hand side. It will open up the column's menu. Then hover over Settings, and select Add description.
Write your description and save it.
Once done, a (i) should appear next to the column's name.
Click the (i) and the description will appear.
Β» Step Three.
Now, let's edit our labels since we've figured out what we want. There are a couple different ways to begin editing labels:
Open the column menu (...) -> Settings -> Customise Status
Click the blank status next to an item -> Click "Edit Labels"
Both are viable options, with #1 being important only if you wish to choose which colour signifies some form of completion as Monday plays a small animation for completed statuses. You can choose to ignore this, or if you wish to turn it off entirely, utilise option #1 and simply deselect any selected colours at the bottom of the Status Customisation area.
For the sake of this tutorial, though, I will utilise option #2. By doing so, I see this:
The screenshot did not capture it but each label on hover will create a drag/drop icon (for easy label reorganisation) to the left of the label, and a "x" (for label deletion) to the right of the label. And then you can see the paint can icon in the coloured squares, which is what you would click to change colours. Monday colours are preset currently but they do have a wide variety of options.
Once you have named your labels, reordered them, and selected their colours, be sure to hit Apply so the change sticks.
Β» Step Four.
From here, your status should be setup! So all you need to do is select the appropriate status for each item that the column is relevant for. This is done by selecting the empty status next the appropriate item and selecting the appropriate status label! After I add my statuses, my Monday board looks like this now:
CONGRATULATIONS! You've created your very first Status column!!
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Ξ Additional Information Ξ
In this section I will attempt to cover any additional information that may be good to know about Status columns. If there is an aspect that you need help with but don't see listed, please do not hesitate to reach out and send me an ask or leave a note!
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β Potential Use Cases (Just a friendly reminder that this is not an exhaustive list!)
Tracking Process Status Not Started, In Progress, Frozen/On Hold, Cancelled, Done, etc.
Tracking Departments Community, Marketing, HR, etc.
Mood, Energy, Focus Tracking Good, Bad, Meh, Excited, etc. 5 - Energised, 4, 3 - Moderate, 2, 1 - No Energy 5 - Focused, 4, 3 - Normal, 2, 1 - Not Focused
Item Type/Information Umbrella, Pens, Pencils, etc. Green, Red w/ White Dots, Royal Purple, etc.
Broad Categories House, Car, Health, Finances, Personal, etc.
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β Status Column Settings Breakdown
Each column comes with a collection of settings. Some share similar settings, while others have different settings, pending what column you're looking at. Since we're focused on the Status columns, then this will be focusing on the Status column settings! Note: I won't be going over settings that I've already mentioned above!
Restrict Column Edit This does what it says. You can restrict who can edit the column. This isn't important for personal boards, but this is useful when utilising Monday with multiple people.
Restrict Column View Similar to the above setting, this allows you to restrict who can view the column. This can be good for personal boards (where you share it with a spouse or helper) if there are certain columns you don't want anyone to see.
Hide Column Summary In the final screenshot you'll notice a collection of the different label colours at the bottom of the group. This is called the Column Summary. It consolidates all the answers provided in that column for that specific group, and you can see how the different groups are broken up by percentage and by fraction (for example: 1/3 / 33%) by hovering over the different blocks of colour. If you don't want the Column Summary, than this setting will be your friend!
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β Status Column Menu (...) Breakdown
This will exclude settings for obvious settings-are-literally-above-this reasons. π
Filter This is the long way around, but you can select filter and filter your entire board by a status column. And you can even save alternate table views that are already pre-filtered, but that's another show-- I mean, post!
Sort This sorts the Status columns on your board by ascension or descension, with the order being dependent on the order of your labels. Just be sure that if you like a specific sort, go back to the sort function and select "Save". (Or select the "Save" to the right of the sort arrows that will show up when you select this!)
Collapse Does what it says on the tin! It will collapse the column so it is no longer visible. And they are simple to uncollapse. You simply click the β that will show up on the collapsed column after you've collapsed it!
Duplicate This will duplicate the status column. This is a quick way to add more statuses to your board, I like to use this when I'm in flow and just want to quickly add more of the same column type. They do give you the option to "Duplicate" or "Duplicate Column & Values" in case you need to double up on a status due to there being potential for two different values that you wish to track separately. It's up to you and it depends on what works best for YOUR board and it's purpose!
Add Column To The Right Yeah they don't have an Add Column To The Left... but anyway! This is a quick way to add additional columns that aren't status columns (or are because you didn't wanna duplicate which is valid!). It can be any type of column that Monday supports.
Change Column Type This can update your Status column and turn it into a different type of column. As of this tutorial the options are: Text, Long Text, and Dropdown. However, Monday is always making improvements and additions.
Delete This deletes the column.
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β Other Things To Know
You can only select one status per column. If you would like the ability to select multiple, then you'll want the Dropdown column type.
Statuses are one of the most supported column types on Monday, so if you have access to automations, play around with them!
Status label names are also emoji friendly! (There's just something satisfying by selecting a "π Done" status!)
A board's search bar searches statuses as well!
Status columns can also be pinned columns! Pinned columns won't move when side-scrolling. Think of it like freezing cells in Excel or Google Sheets.
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Ξ In Conclusion Ξ
I hope this tutorial has helped you understand and feel confident in setting up and utilising Statuses. Though it has potential for complex workflows, it also works as a simple identifier, giving it a broad range of use cases.
Please feel free to ask me if you... β’ Have any questions relating to this tutorial, β’ Have any questions about Monday in general, or β’ Would like to see me cover a specific Monday topic!
And, finally, if you enjoyed this tutorial and would like me to continue making more, please consider liking this post and reblogging it so that I can get more eyes on it. π§‘
If you enjoyed this tutorial and wish to leave a tip, you can do so on my kofi which you can find here: Lyskari's Ko-Fi Whether you share, like, reblog, leave a tip, a mix of these, or all of them, thank you for your support! And please please let me know if you'd like me to cover other aspects of Monday, or if you'd like me to give my thoughts on other programs! And let me know if you liked this tutorial!
If you want to read my other Monday tutorials you can find them here: The Lyskari One Stop Shop Master Post under the "My Organisational Tutorials" heading.
