[Weekly Conversations] Let's Talk About Inbox Messages! 📩
Hello folks! 👋
In our Community, we’re often focused on the big picture. We love to share best practices, discuss new features, and help each other to make Wrike work for us. There are of course also “smaller” topics that we, Wrike users, come across from time to time that are interesting to discuss and share advice on. These are often simple questions like “Where does this new project belong?”, “What would be the best status for this handover task?”, or “Which widgets do I really need when setting up a personal dashboard?”
I know there are many more day-to-day topics like these to discuss, and that’s what I’m suggesting we do today 🙂
A question has been playing on my mind about Inbox messages, or more precisely, how many notifications are OK, and how many is too many?
It’s often good practice to set aside a block of time daily for going through our messages, but some of them may be so important that they need to be checked more regularly.
It would be great to hear what you think and how you deal with your Inbox notifications. How many do you usually get in a day? Do you check them immediately or do you have a dedicated time for reviewing them? Please share below 👇
Lisa Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover
Lisa Wrike Team member Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover
For us the rule is clear:
in the Wrike inbox I want to see all @-mentions and if a new task is assigned to me.
Everything else we are making via dashboards. So an @-mention really means that it needs my attention.
How often: two times per day. Wrike is no fast communication tool (only talking in real life or via phone is fast). It is comparable to mail. So if I want to be effective it shall not interrupt my work, it is only a helping tool.
I use both my email and my Wrike inbox as to-do lists by archiving and filing them as actions have been completed. I check both email and Wrike, first thing in the morning and complete anything that is a quick turn, then move to those that will take more time. Throughout the day, I have many interruptions and meetings so I am unable to set aside specific time but I check throughout the day.
On average, I receive about 20 Wrike notifications and 60 emails per day. I have turned off the majority of the Wrike email notifications because I create most tasks. Those that do come through to email get deleted almost immediately. For others on our team who have not adapted Wrike as heavily, the email notifications are necessary however in my role, I find them to be redundant.
I have turned off most notifications as I'm only responsible for one other regarding projects and I create all the projects in Wrike for my area. We do have the automation bots setup for past dues and received those in email as well as in Teams messaging. I'm sure our other IT areas may use it differently.
For me, Wrike inbox notifications are checked throughout the day. Once I don't have need to keep that project or task in my inbox anymore, then I archive it. Mentions are used only when we need someone else's help on a project. I tend to look at emails throughout the day when I am not in meetings.
As a Wrike admin, I admittedly don't get that many Wrike notifications per day (maybe only 4-5) - emails sometimes upwards of 50+ - and if we counted teams messages... well. YIKES. Most people connect with me via Teams, as they are looking for support or help with something urgent in Wrike, which inevitably leads to a permalink so that I can assist.
I would say my average users are receiving a TON more notifications from Wrike - and depending on their email preferences, many choose to see everything in Outlook as well. We use @mentions as a requirement in Wrike - with the shift of connecting teams to using the task to collaborate on task-related communications, we are shifting folks away from heavy reliance on emails. So teams are constantly talking back and forth with @mentions, providing updates, posting files, starting reviews, etc. They they use a standard shared dashboards, and their to do list - to prioritize their assignments, or monitor their projects.
For me - my first priority each day, if no urgent Teams Messages, is to check my Wrike inbox - as I know often times, this is people requesting access/new accounts, or automatic Wrike Bot notifications of work that I've set to remind me - I always want to make sure people have access to our account and are set up with the training they need. My next daily check is my email for anything urgent there. After that, and all firedrills are addressed - I check my dashboard and to dos to follow up with other assignments that I'm working on!
Wrike inbox for me is mainly used for access requests. I too create a majority of our tasks/projects, so I have turned off most email notifications except for Mentions.
We are working on automation Bots for notifications for over due.
Most of my interaction and work is via MS Teams or eamil.
We use wrike throuout the whole company for nearly all tasks, so every employee has to use it daily. We've recomended to turn all email notification off to avoid redundancy, but it happens quite often that users forget to @mention assignee or followers if the made important changes, e.g. changing a due date. I really long for the possibility to opt in inbox notifications for such changes, as it is possible with the email settings. For now I use the Activity page of the mobile app to check what I might have missed.
Maybe it could be helpful so set priorities to inbox notifications to be able to filter important stuff, and to set up a special ringtone on the smartphone for those.
That's very interesting, thank you for sharing, everyone 🤗
I personally get between 5 and 20 inbox messages on a daily basis, so I also check them throughout the day but try to follow a cadence of checking them in the morning and then in the evening (although it's not always possible 😅)
What I'm very proud of is that I rarely use email for work, it's really mostly Wrike.
Lisa Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover
Lisa Wrike Team member Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover
I receive about 15-20 messages per day, depending on the open tasks at the time. I have the Wrike application open at all times and check notifications as they pop up. One thing I would like to point out that is quite frustrating about the Wrike inbox is that if you have a task open in a tab on your Wrike application, and someone @ mentions you from that task, that @ mention will not appear as unread in your inbox. It will show as read, even if you did not see it because you have multiple tabs open and are in another tab, it will show as read, so it may be missed. Would love to see this fixed!
Wrike Inbox messages - depends if we are in a purchase heavy stage of work - normally 4-5, during peak times up to 20
My Outlook inbox - upwards of 40-50 per day
I mange both inboxes the same way - the message stays in my inbox until it has been completed - then it is archived. That way only tasks that have some "to-do" associated with them are left to be worked on.
Thank you for this feedback Nicole DiTrani 🙌
Debbie Brownlie I really like this approach and I think it can be a best practice for many cases: message unread > task updated/completed > message archived. Thank you for sharing!
Lisa Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover
Lisa Wrike Team member Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover
I now receive between 10-20 outlook messages / day. It used to be much higher, I did recently unsubscribed from a lot of unwanted emails coming with my previous position, and continue to so to remove the most noise.
I updated my wrike alerts to only get them in my inbox, and only selected where I'm @mention or newly assigned - I manage the rest with dashboard. I probably get 5 or so a day, but it varies. Also trying to archive, when topic has been addressed, and unfollow tasks that I know need to be directly involved in.
From my outlook/teams, I redirect users to a wrike form, when it exists. if it doesn't, I create a task from their message with the Wrike add-on to redirect the conversation in wrike.
Thanks a lot for sharing Roxane Carrier 🤗
Lisa Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover
Lisa Wrike Team member Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover
We are using @ mentions to update a project or request information about the particular project and CC others that should be aware.
Since I have Teams integrated, I don't get email notifications. I do have that if I haven't looked at something, I'll receive an email.
Once it is addressed, I archive the message.
Wrike notifications are very customizable, and each person is able to pick how much they want to be "pinged". My inbox makes sense for what I want to see. I also really like the snooze function.
I also agree with the message unread > task updated/completed > message archived methodology. I agree with Abigail Saunders that the snooze function is amazing.
One tip I have for everyone in Outlook/Office 365: I needed to separate real work email from the many Wrike notifications that I receive on a daily basis. To do this I set up a Wrike Notifications folder in my Outlook 365 and created a rule to move those wrike notifications to that folder and also mark them as read. This way, the only action items I have to look at are in Wrike Inbox. Cheers!
Hi Ron Licata,
so why don't you switch off these disgusting email notifications of wrike, instead of banning them to a folder where you don't look at it?
Florian
Great use cases I love how although the functionality is pretty straightforward, everyone can find their own approach 🙂
Lisa Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover
Lisa Wrike Team member Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover
Florian Kislich Well I wouldn't call the notifications disgusting! 😄 I use that Wrike Notifications folder as sort of a temporary repository/backup system. For me it is easier to search that email folder for a keyword rather than sort through the archives in my Wrike Inbox (when it is busy there can be a very large number of notifications!).