Track your action items from Granola notes by creating Asana tasks
Track your action items from Granola notes by creating Asana tasks
Zaps
Convert starred emails into organized Asana tasks
Convert starred emails into organized Asana tasks
Star any Gmail message to instantly create detailed Asana tasks with full context, attachments, and automatic Slack notifications—ensuring no important request gets overlooked.
Click and drag to move around the canvas and pinch to zoom.
Overview
Drowning in important emails that never become actionable tasks? You're not alone. Every day, crucial project updates, client requests, and meeting follow-ups pile up in your inbox, creating chaos between communication and task management.
The manual process of copying email details, creating tasks, and remembering context isn't just time-consuming—it's a recipe for missed deadlines and dropped balls. Important emails get buried, attachments disappear, and that "I'll handle this later" mentality leads to frustrated clients and overwhelmed teams.
This template transforms your email chaos into organized productivity. Simply star an email in Gmail, and watch as AI extracts actionable items, creates detailed Asana tasks with proper context, preserves attachments, and notifies your team via Slack. No more manual copying, no more lost context, no more forgotten follow-ups.
Why build a starred email to task automation?
- Save hours weekly by eliminating manual task creation from emails
- Never miss important requests with automatic conversion of starred messages into trackable tasks
- Maintain complete context with original email content, attachments, and direct links preserved in every task
You can easily customize this template by swapping Gmail for other email providers, connecting different project management tools instead of Asana, or adding approval steps for team-managed tasks.
What key features come with this template?
- Smart email filtering — Automatically processes only your starred Gmail messages while filtering out automated emails from noreply addresses, so only meaningful communications become tasks
- AI-powered task extraction — Uses GPT-4 to analyze email content and extract actionable items with proper task names, detailed descriptions, and smart due date suggestions
- Automated file attachment — Transfers any email attachments directly to the corresponding Asana task, maintaining file continuity and context
- Real-time Slack notifications — Sends direct messages with links to newly created tasks, keeping you and your team instantly informed
- Context preservation — Creates comprehensive tasks that include the original email body, sender information, and direct links back to the source message
How does this template work?
This ready-made template builds you a smooth email-to-task conversion system. Here's how it works:
- Star any important email in your Gmail inbox that requires follow-up action
- The automation immediately detects the starred message and begins processing
- Smart filtering excludes automated emails containing "noreply" in the sender address
- GPT-4 analyzes the email content to extract actionable tasks with concise names and detailed descriptions
- The system determines appropriate due dates from email content or defaults to 3 days from now
- A comprehensive Asana task gets created in your designated project with extracted information and original email context
- Any email attachments are automatically attached to the new Asana task
- You receive a Slack direct message with a link to the newly created task for immediate access
You'll find detailed setup instructions inside the template. Scroll down for a preview.
Who should use this automation?
- Project managers who need to convert client emails and stakeholder requests into trackable deliverables without losing important context or attachments
- Sales professionals who receive prospect inquiries and follow-up requests that need to become organized action items with proper due dates and team visibility
- Customer success managers who handle client communications that require systematic follow-up and task tracking so nothing falls through the cracks
- Executive assistants who manage multiple stakeholders' email requests and need to create organized tasks while maintaining complete context and file continuity
- Small business owners who wear multiple hats and need a reliable system to convert important emails into actionable tasks without manual data entry
Ready to transform your email chaos into organized productivity? Set up this automation today and start converting your most important emails into trackable tasks automatically.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use this with multiple email accounts?
You'd need to create separate automations for each email account, as each Zapier automation connects to one specific Gmail account. However, they can all feed into the same Asana project.
What if my company uses Microsoft Outlook instead of Gmail?
You can adapt this template to work with Outlook by swapping the Gmail trigger for an Outlook trigger. The rest of the workflow (AI extraction, Asana task creation, Slack notifications) remains the same.
Will this work if I star old emails from months ago?
Yes, it will process any email you star, regardless of when it was originally received. This makes it great for going through old emails and converting important ones to tasks retroactively.
How quickly does the automation run after I star an email?
Typically within 1-2 minutes. Zapier checks for new starred emails every few minutes on paid plans, or every 15 minutes on the free plan.
Will this work with Gmail labels or only starred emails?
This template is specifically designed for starred emails, but you can easily modify it to trigger on Gmail labels instead. You could set it up to activate when emails are labeled "Action Required" or "To-Do" rather than starred.
Does this require any coding or technical skills to set up?
No coding required at all. This is a no-code automation that you can set up in minutes using Zapier's visual interface. Simply connect your Gmail and Asana accounts, customize your preferences, and the workflow handles everything automatically.
Can I use a different task management tool instead of Asana?
Yes. This automation works with other task management tools in the same category. For example, if you don't use Asana, you can swap in tools like ClickUp, Todoist, or Trello instead. Zapier supports thousands of apps, making it easy to adapt the workflow to your existing stack.
Can I customize which emails get converted into tasks?
Absolutely. You can set up smart filters based on sender, subject line, labels, or specific keywords to ensure only relevant emails become tasks. The AI-powered extraction also lets you customize what information gets pulled from each email, like due dates, priority levels, or project assignments.
