✅ The checkbox that hurts the world productivity

Overall, I am an Asana fanboy. But I disagree with some of the decisions. This is the story of the checkbox that hurts world productivity!

When you invite a new member on a project, at the bottom of the invite dialog, there is a small checkbox that says « Notify them when new tasks are added to this project ». This checkbox is in fact the same one you find in the project notifications settings (next to status updates and new messages).

The issue here is the fact that the checkbox is checked by default. Most Asana users don’t realize the impact. Keeping that box checked usually means that the member will be bombarded by notifications during the project creation phase, and will continue to be during the lifetime of the project.

By experience, it does not make sense to notify everyone of new tasks in a project. Either you notify the project owner or have some rules to automatically assign the tasks.

Be aware of that box, and teach your team to disable that notification for themselves if it makes sense.

:fr: Version française

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I agree with this default to be a bad idea for productivity. I always recommend clients to uncheck this box (if they remember).

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I agree. I would prefer this to default to being unchecked.

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Thank you @Bastien_Siebman !
I also think, the default should be, not to notify about added tasks.
Have you thought about writing this in #productfeedback? - for which I found this description .

Agree!

In my xp, the communication matrix is a key success factor for any project and we must understand how Asana help us to implement it correctly to have efficients communication channels. :trophy:

This matrix must include the who, when, how and what the project responsible will inform to the team project, and Asana allow us to implement this matrix very easy with tools like this checkbox in the invitation screen, the Manage Notifications panel, users privileges and tasks followers, but all of this tools should be used carefully to be aligned with the communication strategy of the project! :nerd_face:

@Emily_Roman @Rebecca_McGrath any idea if we have an existing thread on the topic?

Wow, I totally agree with you. Everytime I invite workmates to a project, I uncheck the box and let them know.

Thanks for sharing and letting us know we are not alone! :slight_smile:

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At least we can now tell everyone to disable the “tasks added notifications” for the future in their individual notifications settings. :slight_smile:

Those inviting them to projects are now alerted, how many of their invitees have refused task added notifications to be set by others and took it in their own hands, which projects should send those.

However the default should still be changed to unchecked.

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I’m not able to uncheck the box, which is checked by default. It is greyed out. Any solutions?

Can you share a screenshot?

This nearly derailed my entire efforts to onboard Asana users. And for sure severely hindered key stakeholders from diving into full adoption.

I find notifications to be one of the key factors to adoption. If a user signs up for a new tool and immediately gets notified by the apps + their email inbox gets bombarded with non-discernible notifications, it sends an immediate signal to the new user to ignore.

And there you go. You now have your project team members starting from “ignore” and trying to build sensitivity back up.

But the damage is already done…

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