Keeping your Wrike workspace tidy doesn’t have to feel like wrangling wild stallions or sorting through a bottomless junk drawer. If you’re a Wrike admin, you know the struggle — folders multiplying overnight, tasks piling up, and processes getting tangled. But what if staying organized could be simple, sustainable, and even a little satisfying?
Inspired by the best tips from our deminar, Governance Dos and Don’ts, this blog is packed with practical advice you can actually use. Whether you’re a seasoned admin or just starting, you’ll find easy habits to adopt and quick wins to steal.
Say goodbye to chaos and hello to a workspace that runs smoothly — without endless cleanup sessions. Ready to make these habits stick? Let’s dive in!
Turn these tips into your routine
We reviewed all the best practices shared by our Wrike Elite 100 customer, Chris Tinsley of SharkNinja, and Wrike’s Senior Product Manager Alina Kucherenko during their appearance at our deminar and created this handy list that you can copy, paste, adopt, and put to use ASAP.
Trust us, SharkNinja scaled operations, cut costs by 30%, and drove $750K in efficiency gains — you’ll want to hear what Chris has to say. Get your notepad ready.
1. Set up clear rules and roles for governance
Governance in Wrike means establishing clear guidelines for organizing workspaces, defining responsibilities, and outlining the processes to be followed. It’s about creating a structure that supports collaboration, accountability, and continuous improvement across your organization.
2. Map processes before building configurations
Before you start creating projects, spaces, or custom fields, take time to document your team’s processes. Understanding how work flows and where responsibilities lie ensures that your Wrike setup supports real needs, rather than becoming a patchwork of one-off solutions.
3. Reduce ‘clutter costs’
When custom fields, workflows, or permissions are created ad hoc without oversight, they quickly become redundant or obsolete. This clutter makes it harder to find information, slows down onboarding, and can lead to costly mistakes — especially as your team or organization grows.
4. Take time to design with scale in mind
Quick solutions to immediate problems — such as duplicating workflows or fields — may solve today’s issue, but they can create confusion and maintenance headaches down the line. Invest time upfront to build flexible, scalable configurations that can grow with your organization.
5. Avoid centralizing everything with admins
Not every configuration or workflow requires management by account admins. Assign ownership of spaces, projects, and certain settings to the teams who use them most. This reduces bottlenecks, empowers teams, and keeps your workspace agile.
6. Use the appropriate configuration
Not every process or field should be global. Use local configurations for team-specific needs, shared configurations for cross-team collaboration, and account-level settings for elements that truly affect the whole organization. This approach keeps your workspace streamlined and relevant.
7. Accept that silos can be beneficial sometimes
It’s natural for different teams to have their own ways of working. Rather than forcing everyone into a single structure from day one, allow teams to organize their work in ways that make sense for them. Over time, look for opportunities to standardize and consolidate where it adds value.
8. Regularly clean up unused or duplicate configurations
Set a schedule to review custom fields, workflows, and other settings. If something hasn’t been used in six months, consider archiving or deleting it. Regular housekeeping prevents clutter and keeps your workspace efficient and user-friendly.
9. Adopt the 80/20 rule for admin vs. team management
Aim for a model where 80% of workspace management — such as maintaining spaces or updating workflows — is handled by the teams themselves, while only 20% is managed centrally by account admins. This approach reduces bottlenecks and increases team ownership.
10. Establish a center of excellence for ongoing governance
Form a group of power users or champions who meet regularly to review governance practices, share feedback, and drive continuous improvement. This center of excellence helps keep your governance model aligned with evolving business needs.
11. Measure ROI by time saved and team sentiment
Don’t just focus on technical metrics. Track how governance improvements make life easier for your teams — how much faster can they find information, launch new projects, or create reports? Improved team morale and efficiency are key indicators of success.
12. Make governance a habit, not a one-off task
Governance isn’t a box to check once and forget. Build regular reviews, feedback loops, and process updates into your routine. Treat governance as an ongoing practice that evolves with your organization.
With these tips and tricks in your admin toolkit, you’ll be taming workspace clutter like a pro — and maybe even enjoying the ride!
Fresh Wrike features to help your work flow
Now you’ve got your list of dos and don’ts, here are some Wrike features that have been updated recently or are coming soon to help you boost adoption and reduce clutter at enterprise scale.
One key thing to remember here: AI is only as good as the data it works with. These features keep your data clean and structured, so when you use Wrike’s AI capabilities to surface risks, forecast timelines, or generate recommendations, you can actually trust the output.
Governance tools
Managing and reviewing configurations is now easier than ever. For example, you can enjoy improved visibility and control over your form, spaces, workflows, item types, and custom fields.
Workflow governance
- Required fields (New!): This feature sets mandatory data guardrails during status transitions. It stops users from moving tasks to the next stage unless specific fields are filled out, completely eliminating “dirty data” and ensuring 100% accurate reporting.
- Cascading fields (New!): Enter field data once at the project level, and it instantly syncs to existing subitems with one click and auto-fills new ones. It works natively with blueprints and request forms, meaning any project spun up from a template or intake form cascades data automatically from day one.
- Home dashboard and welcome items: First impressions matter. Instead of dropping new users into an overwhelming workspace, you can now set preconfigured “Home” dashboards and assign specific Welcome items right from the invitation dialogue. Whether you’re onboarding a single new hire or an entire user group, they will log in on day one with clear tasks ready to go.
Configuration governance
- Bird’s-eye view and usage tracking: Oversee all configurations — like custom fields — across your account in a single, unified table view. Admins can trace exactly how often a configuration was used, where it is being consumed, and who last edited it, completely removing the guesswork from account cleanup.
- Deactivation and optimization (New!): You no longer have to permanently delete old setups. You can now gently draft and archive unused forms, workflows, custom fields, and item types without losing any data. Wrike will also provide proactive optimization suggestions with one-click cleanup prompts for configurations that haven’t been used in over six months.
- Multispace reuse: This solves workspace clutter and ensures data consistency. Admins can reuse and share configurations across specific spaces without duplicating them or forcing them onto the global account level. Available for workflows, custom fields (new!), and custom item types (coming soon).
Eager to learn more and chat with Wrike admins and champions like you? Join the Wrike Admins and Champions Hub to share your experiences and stay updated with what’s new!
