Your Team Is Not Using ClickUp. Here Is How to Fix It.
- Branden Bell
- Aug 6
- 5 min read
Your team is not using ClickUp because the workspace asks for more than it gives back.
That is a configuration problem, not a discipline problem. Which is good news, because configuration is something you can change this week.
I am a PMP and a ClickUp Verified Consultant. I rebuild workspaces for travel advisors, agencies, and service businesses, and almost every rebuild starts with the same sentence from the owner: my team will not use it. Then I open the workspace and find a wall of required fields, a views bar nobody agreed on, and notification settings untouched since signup.
People do not walk away from software that makes their day shorter. They walk away from software that makes it longer.
Why teams quietly stop using ClickUp
Because the correct path is not the easiest path. When logging work in ClickUp costs more effort than sending a Slack message, the Slack message wins every time.
In practice it comes down to three things:
Too much to fill in. Every extra required field is a reason to create the task somewhere else, or not at all.
No obvious place to land. If opening a Space shows a different screen to every person, nobody builds a habit.
Too much noise. A notification stream full of things you cannot act on trains people to ignore all of it.
The thing I remove most often on a rebuild is not a feature. It is a required step nobody in the room can explain the reason for.
Fix 1. Give everyone one screen to land on
Set a default view so every person opens the same screen. When you make a view the default, it is the first view you see when you visit that location.
Two things worth knowing. Only one default view per Space can be set, and setting a default view also makes that view required, which means it cannot be deleted from the Views Bar.
Overview is the default view for all Spaces, Folders and Subfolders. On the Business Plan and above you can select a new one.
To set a default view for everyone, owners and admins right-click the view in the Views Bar and toggle Set as default view on. That is the whole change, and it removes a decision from every person’s morning.
Fix 2. Turn off what that Space does not use
ClickApps activate per Space, so a Space should only show the features that team actually uses. Your delivery Space does not need Sprint Points. Your internal ops Space does not need client billing fields.
These can be switched on or off for a single Space:
Task detail. Custom Fields, Priority, Tags, Multiple Assignees, Time Estimates, Time Tracking.
Agile. Sprints, Sprint Points, Work in Progress Limits.
Guardrails. Dependency Warning, Incomplete Warning.
Scheduling. Remap Subtask Due Dates, Reschedule Dependencies.
Everything else. Email, Show status progress.
Only Workspace owners and admins can activate or deactivate ClickApps. Members can see them but cannot change them, and guests cannot see them at all.
The path: from the Spaces Sidebar, right-click the Space or click the ellipsis beside it, select ClickApps, toggle what you need, click Show more for the rest, then Done and Save changes.
Fix 3. Require two fields, not twelve
Required Custom Fields have to be filled out when a task is created in any location where the field is used. That is exactly why you use them sparingly.
They are available on the Business Plan and above, and only owners and admins can set them. The Free Forever Plan caps you at 60 Custom Field uses, and paid plans are unlimited.
One limitation matters more than people expect. Required Custom Fields apply at task creation. They do not natively block someone from changing a task status later, so if you need a field filled before work moves stages, that is an Automation, not a required field.
On the trip workspaces I build for travel advisors, the required set is almost always two fields. Client and stage. Everything else is optional and gets filled in because the view makes it obvious, not because ClickUp refused to save the task.
The path: open the Custom Field Manager, click the field, More settings and permissions, enable Required in tasks, then Save. There is a separate toggle if you want it required on subtasks too.
Fix 4. Deal with the noise before you blame the team
Notification settings are specific to each user and each Workspace. Nobody can change them for the whole team in one click, which is exactly why they stay broken for years.
If the app cries wolf all day, ignoring it is the rational response.
ClickUp ships presets for this. Inbox offers Default, Focused, and Custom. Email, browser and desktop, and mobile add Mentions only and a full disable option. Focused exists for this problem specifically: it keeps people tracking work with fewer notifications.
Two settings almost everyone misses:
Smart Notifications. Stops mobile notifications reaching you while you are already active in ClickUp on a browser or the desktop app.
Auto follow tasks I am involved in. Sitting quietly at the bottom of the notification page, this adds you as a follower on tasks you create, edit, or comment on. It is why your inbox fills with work that is not yours.
The path: click your avatar in the upper right, then Notifications. It cannot be done from the mobile app, so this is a laptop job. Run it as a working session with the team rather than sending everyone a link.
Fix 5. Give the change one owner and one date
Adoption changes fail when they arrive as a suggestion. Pick one person who owns the workspace, announce one date when the old way stops, and name one place people go with questions.
That is it. No change management framework required.
What to do this week
Set the default view for every Space your team works in.
Turn off the ClickApps that Space does not use.
Cut required fields down to the two that drive a real decision.
Switch to the Focused preset together, then review auto follow.
Name the owner and the date.
If work still lands outside ClickUp after all that, the problem is the process, not the tool. That is a different conversation, and usually a more valuable one.
When it is worth bringing someone in
If the structure itself is wrong, settings will not save it. A workspace built around a process your team does not actually run is a rebuild, not a tune up.
That is the work I do. ClickUp Build in a Day is a single day rebuild: a tailored hierarchy and one delivery Space, up to five custom fields, up to three automations, a CEO dashboard, an AI Super Agent, and a screen recorded walkthrough. It runs on three virtual meetings that each take about an hour of your day, so it is a real commitment while it is happening.
When the whole client delivery needs rebuilding and the team needs training on it, that is the ClickUp Client Delivery OS: a 30 day engagement, up to 80 hours of expert build time, SOPs, hands on training, and support through all 30 days.
Two things worth reading before you hire anyone. I wrote a guide on how to hire a ClickUp expert with the questions to ask and the red flags to walk away from. And if onboarding is where your process breaks first, here is how I build a client onboarding workflow in ClickUp.
Still deciding whether ClickUp is the right tool at all? I compared ClickUp and monday.com for service businesses on the numbers you actually buy.
Sources
Adoption is not a personality trait on your team. It is a setup. If you want yours fixed properly, book a free call and we will look at it together.
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