Actioning Trello notifications in a logical way
Asked by Mark C:

I run a team of 20 or so people using Trello. Each person has their own board. Every day I awake to lots of different notifications in Trello, many of which I need to action.

The issue I face is that when I scroll down the list of notifications and find one I need to leave a comment on, copy, move, or action in some way, clicking it takes me away from the notification list to the card in question - then when I return to the notifications list, I'm back at the start.

This means I need to scroll down the list to try and find where I was. Doing this with hundreds of notifications wastes a lot of time and energy...

My workaround is to hold 'Command' when clicking each notification (I'm using the Trello desktop app) - this opens another Trello board, which allows me to action the card, then close the orphan board, then return to the same place in the notifications list. I'm also able to move down the notifications list and create 'orphan boards' for several notifications, then action them all at the end.

Surely there's a better workflow than this? I know you can see notifications on the home screen, but this is just to reply to comments.

Ideally I'd click a notification, the card would open, but the notifications list would remain in place, in the same place. Please help!! This is driving me mad...


Answers:
author: Flavien
body: Hi [@Mark C](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/2794280). ?

I have hundreds of Trello notifications every day (and so does everyone in my company). Our workflow is to enable all email notifications, and manage the tasklist from Gmail (you can further transform it into Todoist tasks, or any other more appropriate task manager).

In that way, the only action you'll need to do from the Trello webpage is to Mark All as Read. ?

comments: author: Mark C
body: I turned email notifications for Trello off a long time ago as I get enough emails each day. This sounds like a workaround that involves too many clicks - you still have to open each notification from your email (whether tasklist or inbox), then bounce back and forth between that and Trello.

It just seems like a really glaring omission in the UX for an app that's otherwise so well thought out...


author: Mark C
body: also, forgive me if I'm wrong, but isn't it hard (impossible?) to tag people in email replies to the Trello email notifications? ie. if I want to reply to a comment in an email notification, I can't do it in an email reply since I can't tag the people involved...


author: Flavien
body: I see your point. ?

I'm guessing the notification panel was never really thought out to be a tasklist (though I'd be interested if you have an example of a product that does it in the way you describe).

I agree the Gmail workaround involves back-and-forths, and extra clicks. But I'm prepared to pay that price if it involves not missing out on important stuff, and keeping everything organised.

You are right, you can't autocomplete mentions from Gmail (though I suspect you can mention people with an @ if you spell their nickname completely). I generally just go through the email notifications, and either archive them, or open them in Trello. If you activate the auto-advance option + keyboard shortcuts, it's quite efficient.


author: Mark C
body: Please can you describe your 'auto-advance option + keyboard shortcuts' workflow? I'm not sure I understand the relevancy of the auto-advance feature.