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Is your team constantly pinging you for updates, flooding your notifications with vague status changes, or unsure what task to focus on next? You’re not alone.
And if it feels like you’re drowning in chaos, micromanagement, and inefficiencies, there’s a good chance your ClickUp setup is the problem. But probably not in the way you think.
The real issue? Confusing status vs stages inside ClickUp, which creates miscommunication, confusion, and constant interruptions.
A lot of business owners use these two features interchangeably inside ClickUp without realizing the damage it causes.
Tasks get lost, updates feel meaningless, and team members start relying on you for every next move.
It’s not just frustrating—it’s unsustainable.
In her latest YouTube video, Yvonne Heimann breaks down exactly how to separate status and stages inside ClickUp, how to use each one the right way, and how to build automations that let your team run without constant oversight.
Let’s get into it.
Status vs Stages in ClickUp
ClickUp gives you a ton of flexibility, which sounds great—until it becomes overwhelming. Yvonne Heimann puts it simply: “ClickUp allows us, because it’s so versatile, to make our statuses whatever we want.” But that’s where the mess starts.
Most teams try to use statuses to describe everything from project phases to content types. The result? A cluttered workspace where nobody really knows what’s happening or where things stand.
When you mix up status vs stages, you get unclear updates, extra work, and a system that breaks under pressure.
What a Status Should Actually Do
For nearly every business, statuses should be action-based. That means they tell you if someone is actively doing something with a task.
Here’s what that might look like:
To Do
In Progress
Waiting (Internal or External)
Proof
Complete
That’s it. Clean and simple.
Statuses answer the question: Is someone working on this right now? They’re not meant to describe the kind of work, the department, or the phase of a project. Just who’s doing what, and whether anything needs attention.
Yvonne notes that the only real exception might be something like a CRM, where you need more granular tracking. But for the other 99 percent of workflows, less is more.
Keeping a clear status vs stages structure makes it easier to streamline your ClickUp views and reduce unnecessary friction.
So What Are Stages?
Stages show where a task sits in your actual process, and they’re different for each type of project or team.
For example, if you’re creating a YouTube video, the stages might be:
Ideation
Preparation
Scriptwriting
Recording
Editing
SEO Optimization
Ready to Publish
Your design team or content writers would have totally different stages. That’s why stages should live outside the status field. In ClickUp, you can set them up as custom fields, dropdowns, or tags. This gives your team a clear view of progress without overloading the status column.
When you structure status vs stages the right way, you can immediately see who’s responsible and where each task is in the pipeline—all at a glance.
What Happens When You Mix Status Vs Stages
Here’s where things fall apart when you don’t separate status vs stages:
You double your workload trying to update both every time something changes
Managers feel the need to check in constantly because they can’t trust what they’re seeing
Your team gets buried in notifications that don’t help them take action
The whole business struggles to scale because your systems can’t keep up
Yvonne says it best:
“If you just use statuses a million ways in ClickUp, you can’t scale ClickUp. We’ve seen it. It is not possible.”
Automate the Link Between Status and Stage
The easiest and most powerful solution is to automate the connection between your statuses and stages.
For example:
If a task moves to the “Published” stage, set the status to “Complete”
When you send something to a client for review, update the status to “Waiting External”
By linking these together, you only need to update one field—and ClickUp handles the rest.
Setting up automation between status vs stages is the bridge that brings simplicity and scale together.
No more duplicate updates. No more confusion. Just a smooth, hands-off workflow.
Why It Matters: A ClickUp System That Actually Scales
Once you structure statuses and stages the right way and connect them with automation:
Your team knows what to focus on without having to ask
Managers can stop hovering and finally trust the system
You create a business that’s ready to grow without growing pains
Yvonne Heimann puts it like this:
“You always know exactly where tasks stand, you give your team direction without micromanaging, and you also get to finally build a system in ClickUp that can actually scale.”
Are You Using Status vs Stages the Right Way?
Take a good look at your current ClickUp setup.
Are you using statuses to describe workflow stages or task types? Are your team members unclear on what’s happening? Are you still the bottleneck for every update?
If so, now’s the perfect time to rebuild your system.
Here’s your action plan:
Step one: Separate your statuses and stages
Step two: Set up automation between them
Step three: Give your team the clarity and confidence to move forward on their own
You’ll be amazed at how much smoother everything runs when you stop mixing the two.
Ready to Get the Most Out of ClickUp?
When you truly understand the difference between status vs stages, you unlock better communication, stronger systems, and more freedom in your business.
Because the goal isn’t just to work harder. It’s to build smarter.
If you want to join Yvonne’s next FREE ClickUp Masterclass, sign up HERE
ready to take action and stop trying to figure it all out on your own?
You don’t have to do it all – or all by yourself.
I have helped many Digital Entrepreneurs scale their operations, teams, and offers!
Let’s get you to that next level.
Video Transcription:
Yvonne Heimann [00:00:00]:
If your team is constantly asking you what to work on, where in the process one of the tasks is, or bombs you with status updates all day, your notifications going crazy, you are not just wasting time, you are burning out your team, you are killing momentum and you are building a business that cannot scale. And I bet it’s because you are mixing up statuses and stages right in ClickUp. You’re new here and you don’t know me yet. Hi, I’m Yvonne Heimann from AskYvi.com I’m a business efficiency consultant and leadership coach that specialized herself in ClickUp. Yes I’ve been doing ClickUp and burning it down and breaking it and implementing it and consulting on it and teaching it and training it and building it since 2018. And let me tell you this, one single mix up comes up nearly every single time when I see a messy workspace. But once you fix it, your team becomes faster, more clear and way more independent. Now let me show you exactly what I mean and break down once and for all the status versus Stages problem.
Yvonne Heimann [00:01:13]:
If you’ve been around, you might have heard me because it’s one big red button for me. Talk about status versus Stages. What that is is ClickUp allows us because it’s so versatile to make our statuses whatever we want it to do. The problem with that is that statuses in ClickUp if not set up right will not allow you to scale your business. Your your team is going to be confused. You are not getting the information you need about your tasks. Your ClickUp statuses should only tell you is somebody working on it or not. Meaning your statuses are action based.
Yvonne Heimann [00:01:55]:
If you are running a client database or a CRM that is the 1% of times where that can be different any other time. 99.9% of the time your status should be to do in progress, waiting internally, waiting externally proof or complete. And by the way, this is a clip from a recent ClickUp masterclass where I broke down the five ClickUp automations every business owner needs and if you join one of my webinars live you can actually get all of your questions answered live and also catch a couple of bonuses. So make sure you click the link below and join one of my upcoming webinars. Now the secondary to that is stages. Stages is the process. Your work, your deliverable, your object is going through whatever you are creating. The status is action based.
Yvonne Heimann [00:02:50]:
I know if Luby is working on something, if I’m working on something, we have the assignee in there, we have the status and then we have stages for example, with video, it’s in an. It’s in the ideation, it’s needing to be prepared, it’s getting script recorded, edited, SEO optimized. What does that video go through in that production phase? That’s a stage. And as you can see, graphics has a stage. Our YouTube videos has a stage. There is stages for different projects and deliverables happening at the same time. That gives you all of the information and overview that you need to be efficient and productive. The problem that can cause is if I am recording my video and I’m marking it recording done.
Yvonne Heimann [00:03:36]:
What status is it in? If we have a video in prep and we are ready to record and I click the record button, it’s still in to do so. With that we have a really simple secondary automation. For example, right here in the example of our podcast production, when Luby has everything done and everything is scheduled and all the assets are built and everything cool, awesome. It goes into the last stage of this podcast is all done and email the guest which then changes the status to complete. This is how you can connect your stages to your statuses without having to constantly update both. For example, these can be used in a way where if you are in a process where you are building deliverables for your client and the dropdown field is sent proof to client, that sent proof to client now triggers a status update that says waiting external because the waiting external status tells us this process is on hold right now because we are waiting externally in this case have for the client to come back to us to give us whatever we ask them to do to give us the feedback to move forward. And with this, you and your team don’t have to double click. You and your team don’t have to do the double work.
Yvonne Heimann [00:05:10]:
And if your process is laid out clear, you know exactly how the status and the stages work with each other. And you still can use them separately too. And there you have it. Once this is set up, you’ll stop wasting time updating both manually. You always know exactly where a task stands, you give your team direction without micromanaging them. And you also get to finally build a system in ClickUp that can actually scale with you. Because if you just use statuses in ClickUp, you can’t scale ClickUp. We’ve seen it.
Yvonne Heimann [00:05:47]:
It is not possible. Let me know in the comments. Have you been using status versus stages the right way or was this your wake up call of okay, we we need to change something because we do want to scale ClickUp? And if this status versus stages shift hit home. Go watch this video right here where I show you a simple setup that makes ClickUp show you exactly what you need. And that’s where you can really personalize your ClickUp workspace. And that’s where the real magic happens. I’ll see you in the next video.
