Notion at Work: Calculate and Visualize Progress

Progress tracking in Notion can be automated by combining three core building blocks: a centralized database structure, rollups that compute percentages from related items, and formula-based visuals that turn those percentages into at-a-glance progress bars.

For project management, the workflow starts with a master Projects database and a separate master Tasks database. Each task is linked to exactly one project using a relation property. That setup enables contextual task views—opening a project page can automatically show only the tasks tied to that project. The real payoff comes from a rollup property on the project that calculates overall completion. By rolling up the “complete” checkbox from all related tasks and choosing the rollup option to display the percent checked, each project ends up with a single progress percentage (the example given shows 55.6% completion). The key idea is that once tasks use checkboxes, Notion can aggregate them into a meaningful project-level metric without manual counting.

The same pattern scales to OKRs (Objectives and Key Results), but the progress math changes. An objective is treated as a parent of multiple key results via relations. Unlike tasks, key results track measurable progress using a formula based on a Target value and a Current value. Progress for each key result is calculated as Current ÷ Target, producing a percentage (for example, enrolling 82 students toward a target of 100 yields 82%). Then a rollup on the objective pulls in the progress percentages from all related key results and averages them to produce one overall objective progress figure.

Once progress percentages exist, visualization becomes straightforward. A formula property can convert the numeric percentage into a row of filled and empty characters—using a “slice” approach that references the progress value. The example uses circles to represent filled versus empty states, with a total of 10 circles. With 55.6% progress, the display rounds up to six filled circles and four empty ones. This turns database cards—especially gallery views—into quick visual dashboards. Beyond aesthetics, those progress values also support sorting and filtering, letting projects or objectives with the highest completion rise to the top.

In the Q&A, the discussion clarifies how OKR Target values are chosen: they’re defined by the key result itself because key results are measurable. If a key result is “enrolling 100 students,” the target is 100; if it’s “obtaining 20 favorable online reviews,” the target is 20; and if it’s “discussing the course on three different podcasts,” the target is 3. Current values update as progress is made, and the formula continuously recalculates the percentage. Another question asks about weighting key results differently based on effort; the response notes that the equal-weight approach can be modified by adding a weight property and incorporating it into the progress formula (e.g., multiplying or repeating weighted contributions) so some key results count more than others.