Work Notification Management: Inbox Zero in Chronicle
Without work notification management, email alerts and chat pings pile up until employees miss manager requests and lose focus. Chronicle in Planfix tackles this notification overload with a unified inbox for work notifications: one smart event feed that can replace standard email alerts and work chats. This short video shows how to process that feed and set it up for your team.
What you’ll learn: stop notification overload with Chronicle
- How the smart event feed works and how it helps employees stay focused.
- Working with events (0:24): read, postpone or respond right away.
- Setting up Chronicle (1:47): a Planfix planner with Chronicle lists for specific business processes or departments.
- Main principle (2:17), the last chapter of the video.
- The Inbox Zero method applied to project management.
How to manage work notifications in Planfix, step by step
Step 1. Read or reply to each event
Chronicle gathers events from all the projects and tasks you are linked to. New to Chronicle? See how Chronicle works in the Help Center. To reply, click the event: the task card opens on the right, where you can add a comment, attach a file or create a subtask. Then hover over the event and click Read to remove it from the feed. Other quick actions for each Chronicle event include Timeframe, which changes the task date without opening the card, and Complete, which closes a task that is done or no longer relevant. To avoid marking events as read by accident, turn on Additional confirmation of reading events in the Chronicle in the Settings tab of your user profile.
Step 2. Postpone an event with a reminder
If a request can’t be handled now, hover over the task and select Remind. Pick a preset such as In an hour, Tomorrow or In a week, or click Select date, time, and recipients. The notification is removed from Chronicle, and the reminder fires in the task at the set time.
Step 3. Create a planner with Chronicle lists
Chronicle is also a list type in the planner. Chronicle lists in the planner work like the full Chronicle, each with its own event filter, for example, one project or one assignee’s tasks. In Planner, click the Add icon at the bottom of the planners panel, select Planner, name it and add lists with the Chronicle view. Choose Tasks + Contacts to see task and contact events together.
Step 4. Filter each list for a process or department
In the list’s Selection parameters, add numbered conditions and combine them in the Filter logic block with AND, OR and parentheses. A list can use a single condition, such as Assignee = [Engineers], as in the Help Center example. Under Chronicle view, choose what each event shows, including Comment author, Comment text and Project. When a list shows part of the comment, short comments can be marked as read without opening the task card.
Inbox Zero for work notifications: keep Chronicle empty
The video applies the Inbox Zero method to project management, and the Help Center puts it in one line: a good Chronicle is an empty Chronicle. Every event is read, postponed or answered. The unread counter shows how far you are from zero.
For a team lead, the same rule is how to stay on top of requests without micromanagement. Create one Chronicle list per assignee and process each list to zero every day: you follow the events on each person’s tasks that reach your Chronicle. The video presents this as control without unnecessary micromanagement, so that new and unaccepted tasks get noticed and no client or manager request is missed.
Who Chronicle lists help: practical use cases
- Team leads: a list per assignee to follow each person’s tasks; the number of unread events shows how much is still waiting for you.
- Department heads: one list per department, so the team’s requests you are subscribed to land in one place.
- Project managers: a Chronicle for a specific project in their planner.
- Sales and account managers: a Tasks + Contacts list that combines task and contact events.
FAQ
Can I turn off email notifications and use only Chronicle?
Yes. Email notifications are on by default on paid accounts (they aren’t available on free ones), but you can disable them and still see all Planfix messages in Chronicle. Switch channels in the Subscriptions and notifications section of your employee card and choose which notifications reach you and when.
Can each department have its own notification feed?
Yes, within the events you already receive. Add Chronicle lists to a planner and filter each one by assignee or project: a list filters what reaches your Chronicle and doesn’t create new notifications. To get more events, subscribe to a project in its project card or enable notifications about all new actions in a task’s Notifications panel.
How do I reduce notification overload at work?
Subscribe only to notifications that need your response. Use Do not disturb to stop notifications to external channels, for example, after hours, while events keep arriving in Chronicle. Then process one Chronicle list to zero every day.
Start with one Chronicle list
Pick the requests that matter most to your team, give them one Chronicle list and clear it daily. If your internal communication tools are still messengers, see how to move work discussions from chats into tasks. New to Planfix? Sign up to try it.
This video was featured in What’s New in Planfix: June 2026.
