I’d like to propose an option, that Asana could allow the project owner, to be able to completely turn off Asana notification for everyone, who gets involved in a project.
Here’s my scenario to show why it’s important
I duplicated one working project to test some ideas. I was the only member of the duplicated project.
I created a dozen new tasks and assigned someone to those tasks.
That someone was then overwhelmed with hundreds of emails.
Nobody wants their email to be flushed by Asana without a solution. It’s a pure disaster user experience.
From what I’ve learned after some searching, as a project owner, you can turn off notifications for project members only, not task assignees. Therefore, I’d like to propose, that Asana could at least add an option, for the project owner to be able to shut the Asana notification down completely, for anyone, via any channel.
And of course, I’ve got to mention it so that it’s clear for the product team, that the project owner can also turn that notification back on, at any time he or she sees fit (My experience in how Asana plays with the community is, sadly but truthfully, not quite pleasing).
Hi Bastien,
Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately this is not applicable for my case.
Asana inbox thing requires additional action for the someone to operate, which is not part of their responsibility.
However, making sure that Asana send out just one notification only after the project page is up and running, is my responsibility.
I believe that this would be a general scenario where a project owner would hope to build the project in Asana, “quietly”. And notify everyone only once, after the project page is done.
Asana seems to have got the point by offering the option to turn off notifications for the project members. However, the notification to the assignee of a task still gets fired out, which, is out of control.
That’s why I’d propose to add another option, to turn off notification for everyone, be it project member, task assignee, etc.
And to turn it back on later, when a notification does need to be sent out.
This helps whoever working on building up the Asana page more in control of what he’s been doing.
To be honest that seems like really complex/hard to understand for a regular user, and would not count on Asana ever doing such a thing. But your post is in Product Feedback, that’s the right category.
A workaround for me now is not to use the “Assignee” at all.
I’d send a separate email to give the team a go, after I’ve finished building and testing the Asana project page.
This is actually more practical as some of the team members have filters in their mailbox to auto-archive all Asana emails, making them sometimes miss the system-generated notification.
I agree with Enzo that a way to assign a task without automatically sending an email is needed. I’m just testing out this program and am now accidentally sending emails to people when I insert the emails of real people! Also, I can see me wanting to try out different people to do different things before I settle on the final scope of the project. If Asana is going to send an email to people every time I try a new plan, that’s going to be real confusing and is going to prevent me from adopting Asana.
Exactly the point. Asana should have such an option!
Imagine that you’re building an asana page, start by listing down the tasks and put your teammates’ names in the “Assignee” field.
Then, you move on with other settings, adding more columns, etc.
At this point, for every single action you make on this Asana page, there will be an email, sent automatically by the Asana system, to each and every assignee.
Yet according to your point, there’s “no tool that allows you to disable notifications “while playing around”…”
I hope you get the frustration caused by such a process.
Not every action notifies everyone. Adding a column doesn’t for example.
We always advise to set up a project and then invite everyone. The same way, you only assign a task to someone once it’s ready.
Sir,
With all due respect, we cannot imagine what exists only in the perfect world to be the real thing in our life.
How many times does one have to update the tasks, after one thought to him or herself that the task page is done?
There will always be feedback, last-minute notice, and urgent cases. We’d hope Asana would be there to help us deal with these kinds of things, instead of pouring hundreds of emails indicating every single change into the team’s email box…
Yet as the admin of Asana, I can’t control it. I feel nothing but frustration.
Although, this wouldn’t matter anymore. We decided to use other tools instead of Asana just last week.
We will have to agree to disagree. First, a change has to be notified to the person then, especially if that person was already assigned on the task. Second, it does not notify every change to the team, only to the collaborators on tasks. Finally, if we are talking hundreds of emails, maybe you did not setup Asana correctly
Good luck with your other tool, wish you the best!
I would also like to be able to assign a task as I enter it into Asana without the assignee being notified. Due to the nature of our projects, I often need to have a conversation prior to others being able to understand the task. A reminder may be appropriate after the due date.
I simply added a temporary assignment column and set it to text entry. I moved it next to the owner column. Made my plan, got feedback and then added the names/email in the owner column from the temp assignment column when I was ready. No email notifications until things were ready. It carries through sub tasks as well. Seriously though, Asana should add a button for project owners that says development or withhold emails.
Ok, if it isn’t applicable to you, or you do not think it is needed, doesn’t mean it is not needed by others. A way to disable auto notification to assigned users is absolutely needed. How to implement this, is Asana’s problem to solve.
By the way, I am trying Asana out, and if there is no good solution, then i will try other products or even implement mine. Asana is not doing rocket science here, it is a simple feature.
Nothing is simple, and I disagree here: what you are asking is hard in terms of UX, potentially confusing, and will definitely complicate the tool.
100%. I am just sharing my experience, working with 400+ clients deploying Asana, only a few asked about this and I don’t know any tool with this feature. It gives me a good indication that it probably isn’t very high in the roadmap.
As admin, you should be able to toggle on/off whether every team member on a project gets notified of a new task. It actually gives you that option when you add a person to a project, but it does not allow you to change it. Use case example: I added a task for an upcoming meeting, I get emails from 15 people asking me what it is? Very inefficient. If I want people to be notified of a task, I add them as the assignee or I can use the @ sign. But with a 50 person team, not everyone needs to see every task I create. This should be HIGH on the roadmap to fix in my opinion.
All users should disabled new tasks added notification in their profile settings and then decide on a per project basis whether or not they want to be notified.
Not true, if you go back to “Manage notifications” in the project you can edit the full grid of notifications.
