To add collaborators, or not to add collaborators. That is the question! 🎭

English Forum Tips and Tricks
1

:thinking: What is a collaborator in @Asana ?

I get this question all the time, even from users who have been using the platform for months!

Many people get over zealous and want to make everyone a collaborator on every task - ok maybe not every task, but way too many tasks!
This will ultimately create notification overload :exploding_head: and in the end, cause people not to even see the task notifications because they can’t clear through the noise and find the important updates.

:heart: So, the short and sweet of it is - you add collaborators when you want them to get notifications in their Asana inbox about THAT specific task! Not the project, but the task.

:mega: Another important clarifier that might help: This has little to do with access to the task. Anyone who has access to the PROJECT can see the task and therefore catch up about what has been going on (or find the task via the search bar), you don’t need to make them a collaborator for that.
(I will caveat to comment that you CAN add a collaborator in order to give them access… but that’s not the primary purpose and is worth a different discussion)

So you add a collaborator when you want a specific person from your team to get a one of the following notifications: if you comment on the task, if you add an attachment, or if you mark it complete. (also if you like the task :+1:)

Just think about your Asana inbox - are you finding yourself getting more notifications than you really want? Are you getting updates on tasks that aren’t relevant to what you’re working on anymore or you just simply don’t need updates on? Then remove yourself from the task, and let that guide you in making the decision about which collaborators you add to your tasks!

I hope this helped :grin:
—
asana collaborators #AsanaTips #AsanaCollaborators

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2

People have to let go of the old “email chain where everybody is notified” and instead accept to only be notified about what’s important. That’s hard!

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3

Nice summary, @Kelsea_Lopez!

Larry

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Rookie question: When removing a collaborator after comments made in task, does the removed collaborator’s notification disappear? For example, I make a comment on a task. Moments later, I realize one collaborator does not need notifications any longer. I remove them from that task. When they open their Inbox, does that final notification appear? Or is Asana notifications rules being refreshed in real time?

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@Louise_Duffy, I believe there’s a delay of a few seconds before the notification is created, perhaps up to around a minute or so, though it might depend on the type of activity that generates the notification. So often you can catch it if you’re quick, but probably not something to rely upon.

But once the notification is generated (after that short grace period), removing them as collaborators won’t remove the previously-generated notification from that person’s Asana Inbox.

Thanks,

Larry

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Thanks!!

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