Is it possible to set the value of a global variable equal to the value from a custom property?

I have a configurable part with 150+ configurations. Using the global variables in the design table is extremely slow when opening the design table for modification. It takes about 20 minutes to open the table (i have drop down menus disabled). By the time the file opens, I forget what I had to change. The other columns are pretty fast (properties and states). I thought if I could specify the custom property and then link the global variable to the custom property it would help this situation.