If you're talking about the MDList specifically, custom follow categories are coming in a future update. You'll be able to choose which categories are visible there.
Currently, there's no way to do this, even for your own personal sake.
@Bronnergus
It already does this. You need to either:
A) Follow it under the "Reading" category before reading any chapters
B) Manually update yourself before continuing to read
It only automatically updates if you read the "next" chapter (chapter 1 if it's set to 0, chapter 33 if it's set to...
@UntappedChaos
Manga in your "dropped" category do not keep track of what you've read, because you're specifically telling the site you're not reading it
This seems like a somewhat useful feature. Though, would such a feature have issues with titles that have mixed volume/chapter formats (i.e. due to full volume raws being used at the start then switching to magazine raws)?
If you like otome game series with crafty go-getter villainesses, there's:
https://mangadex.org/title/35064/i-m-a-villainous-daughter-so-i-m-going-to-keep-the-last-boss
https://mangadex.org/title/17720/koushaku-reijou-no-tashinami...
@Bronnergus
The reading progress box does update automatically under some circumstances. If the requirements have been met for this, it would be doing what you want.
Perhaps the loosening of those requirements is in order.