Last email date property

Having a property in your Notion database storing the last email date in a thread is useful for several reasons:

• to followup after a set number of days
• to automatically close a conversation that didn’t get any answer
• to automatically re-open a closed conversation when a new email is received
• etc.

This can easily be achieved by using the Last email date property.

How to set it up

To get started with the Last email date property, follow these steps:

1. Create a Date property in your Notion database, e.g. “Last Email Date”.

2. Go to your Slap syncs list and click on Edit.

3. In the Last email date property field, select the Notion property you created in step 1.

4. Save your sync.

   

How it works

The last email date property updates automatically anytime a new email is exchanged in the email thread, so:

• When you send a new email in the thread (from Notion or from Gmail).
• When you receive a new email in thread.

Automation examples

Here are some examples of how you can use this property to create automations in Notion.

Example 1: Re-opening a closed page when a new reply arrives

This automation will change the status of a page from “Closed” to “Waiting” when a new email arrives.

1. Start from your Notion database and create a new automation.
2. Make sure to only apply it to the right pages (see part underlined in red). For example, create a view of your database filtered on the Closed conversations and apply the automation on this view only.
3. Set the trigger to when the Last email date property is edited.
4. Set the action to change the status (to “Waiting” for example).

Example 2: Changing a page’s status if an email goes unanswered

This automation will change the status of a page if an email has gone unanswered for a week.

1. Start from your Notion database and create a new automation.
2. Set the trigger to “every day”.
3. Set the action to Edit pages from your database.
4. Inside the action, configure two filters (second screenshot):
   • Status is not Closed.
   • (AND)
   • Last Email Date is before one week from now.
5. The property to edit is the status, e.g. to change it to “ready to contact”. Alternatively, you could also tag the conversation as “to followup” or set a next step date.