Better inbox views - project chunking & sorting

English Forum Product Feedback
1

The cost of context switching is real - https://www.petrikainulainen.net/software-development/processes/the-cost-of-context-switching/

As is the solution, chunking - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TamKCFejrPk&t=42s
(there are better links/explanations but these will do)

If you are a serious Asana user or spend most of your day in it you will spend a lot of time in the inbox.
The inbox is simply sorted by most recent. That’s it. No other sorting options.
This creates lots and lots of unnecessary context switching.

The ability to process the inbox in relevant groups would help users move through it faster and with less cognitive overload.

Ideas for changes

  • Project inboxes - every project should have a filtered version of the normal inbox.
    Show normal inbox and if task in [current project] then show inbox notification else filter out
    • In the Left Hand Side menu all project links could have an envelope icon that allows the user to get to an ‘inbox’
    • In the top section of each project alongside conversations, etc. have ‘project inbox’ which would show the view for that project
  • In the normal inbox allow the user to view the inbox in different ways
    • “priority project view” - group all inbox notifications by project. Prioritise the projects by showing favourited projects first (in the order user sorts them on the left hand side menu)
      group by ‘project’ order by favourited descending
    • other inbox sorting options - Smart sorting (Asana AI sorting based on lots of intelligent analysis), project sorting/chunked sorting (as above), oldest sorting (when you want to clear out the oldest without having to scroll to the bottom), filter: assigned to me, filter: @mentioned me, sort by “priority” (most collaborators/I’m @mentioned/task assigned to me/lots of comments/task assigned to me/“urgent”/etc. keywords) - basically “smart sorting” but easier to get started on :man_shrugging:

Additional benefits…

  • I’m in a project doing something (my mind is in that context already), before/after I finish what I’m doing, I dip into the inbox and process the inbox notifications for that project.
2

Agreed, every view benefits from the ability to filter (on a multi-factor basis) and sort (on a multi-level basis) and the Inbox is a prime example.

A common Inbox filter & sort would be:

  • Things that are due to start, or overdue, or lack a due date, and [have no comments (as that is the only way to see whether they’re being worked on)] and/or [are not assigned] and/or [are assigned but have not been moved from assignee’s New Tasks to Today or Upcoming], sorted by project or assignee or both, either with project as 1st level sort, assignee 2nd level [for a project meeting] or assignee 1st, project 2nd [for a roving program manager to make the rounds of the cubicles for 1:1s].

etc. ad infinitum

3

A sufficient solution would be a simple and optional compact view of the inbox. It should display/summarize only the real new input items and should work without any context and history items related to.
A kind of list view with the input items (for longer comments only short teaser) + project, date and sender whould be perfect. Then it could show up to maybe 10-20 new items within one sreen view (without srolling).

Hope it comes, otherwise I currently really oversee and miss some input along all the oversized context chain of the inbox.