What is your approach to removing unused things? ๐งน
Hey!ย
Alina from Product Team here. In one of our previous posts, we touched on your general optimization tips. Thank for sharing your routines! In this post, I wanted to zoom in and chat about your approaches for removing unused things, like a custom field, workflow, blueprint or any other configurationย ๐
- Once you have detected things that should no longer be used (like a custom field, workflow or a space), what is your process around deletion?ย
- In some instances in Wrike, you have both options of archiving and deleting. How do you decide what to delete and what to archive? For example, you can delete a space, but you can also archive it. You can delete an automation rule, but you can also switch it off.
- In your process, are all unused things (custom fields, workflows, spaces, dashboards etc) OK to be deleted?ย
- What is you process around dashboards, reports and other different views where the deleted configuration might've been used? Do you audit such places to understand the implications?
- What are the limitations today that you face with deletion and archival?ย
Curious to hear your thoughts!ย
Alina Kucherenko Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager En savoir plus sur les fonctionalitรฉs et les meilleures pratiques grace ร nos Webinaires online
Alina Kucherenko Wrike Team member En savoir plus sur les fonctionalitรฉs et les meilleures pratiques grace ร nos Webinaires online
Hi Alina Kucherenko,
I use different methods, depending on the object I need to remove.
For projects that have ended, they are all inserted in a dedicated space "Completed orders" and at the end of each year, inserted in a folder called 2023, 2024, 2025 which will then be archived with the archival tool.
For blueprints, which often have new versions/releases, I keep a _old folder inside the blueprints so that I can quickly recover them when needed, so I never delete.
For custom fields, I do it in double mode, before deleting I add to_delete_[customfieldname] as a prefix. I notify the team that the data will be deleted within 30 days and help them understand how/where to migrate the data. After 30 days I delete it (verifying that it is not used by forms, blueprints, or anything else).
Perhaps the biggest limitations currently are:
1- not knowing where a custom field is used (not only in tasks/projects) but also in dashboards, forms, automations.
2- Project archiving does not allow statistics in Wrike Analyze, so we are often forced to reactivate one or more archived projects to do statistics.
My team and I are currently in the process of a massive clean up of our Wrike account. This is due to new and exciting features of Wrike, our team becoming better users of Wrike, and our company as a whole beginning to use Wrike more across different departments. We want to make our Wrike account user friendly to everyone who uses it, as well as the most efficient tool we have for work/projects and collaboration.ย
With that, we have been deleting old workflows, custom fields and similar things that we now have created better/updated processes for. In the beginning, when we were still new to the tool, we did not have many controls over what others did in the space and so we have a lot of added fields/flows etc. that are duplicated multiple times and just not needed anymore. These things we have deleted entirely from our account.ย
Other things that are tied to projects that have been completed we have been archiving to save for later view incase we need to reference or use those processes again for future projects.ย
One limitation is with deletion of workflows or other things that need help from the Wrike team to get back, sometimes we make mistakes and something gets deleted that should not have been deleted. For instance a workflow that had a lot of automation attached to the different status' within that workflow. Waiting for a Wrike team member to reinstate that workflow really created a lot of manual work that the automation took care of. If there was an easier way to recover deleted things like this for admins that would help our team a lot!
We have an "Archive Space" so when our System Admins are doing clean-up, we move items to the Archive Space for about six months, just in case we need to bring something back, and then delete it.ย This includes any Tools, Custom Fields, Folders/Projects, etc.
Weโre currently using a manual process to manage unused items in our Wrike account. This includes tracking last-used request forms, custom fields, and their respective owners in an Excel table outside of Wrike. If an item hasnโt been used for over a year, I rename it with a โZโ at the beginning so it drops to the bottom of dropdowns and becomes less visible to users.
In addition to this, I actively use the Archive Space functionโespecially for client spaces. This typically aligns with our internal client offboarding timeline and ensures we maintain historical data while keeping our workspace clean and relevant.
Being able to archive other tools like custom fields, request forms, and reports (rather than delete them) would be a huge benefit. Deletion is not a best practice in our enterpriseโit's something I actively work to mitigate.
Another challenge is the lack of sorting or filtering options in the Recycle Bin. Thereโs currently no easy way to distinguish accidental deletes from intentional ones, which adds to the risk.
In short: weโre anti-delete, pro-archive, and always looking for ways to improve. Iโd love to hear how others are managing this, and Iโd welcome any suggestionsโor Wrike updatesโthat could make the process more efficient, especially for admins managing large accounts.