I’m using monday CRM and working from the “Emails & Activities” (Items & Activities) area. When I open an email and click Add activity → Task, the popup mainly shows a timeline (start/end time) and a text area with placeholders like {pulse.status} / {pulse.people}.
What I’m trying to achieve is a simple workflow:
Turn an email into a Task / follow-up
Assign an owner (People)
Set a due date (single date is fine)
Set status (To do / In progress / Done)
Priority
Questions:
Is there a native way to create/assign a task directly from an email inside Emails & Activities?
How do you configure the Task activity template so it has real fields (People/Status/Priority) instead of just placeholder text?
If Tasks must live on a separate Tasks/Activities board, what’s the best practice to link it back to the Contact/Deal/email?
Any screenshots/step-by-step guidance would be super helpful. Thanks!
Hello @Moran1
Totally get the use case. This trips up a lot of CRM users
Here’s the concise reality and best practice.
Native behavior
Add activity → Task in Emails & Activities creates a timeline activity only. It’s not a real board item, so you can’t assign People, Status, or Priority there.
Is there a native way to turn an email into a real task
No. Emails & Activities tasks are for logging, not task management.
Can the Task activity template be customized with real fields
No. Activity templates don’t support editable board columns. The placeholders just reference item data.
Best practice
Use a dedicated Tasks or Activities board.
Link it to Contacts or Deals using a Connect Boards column.
Create tasks via automations or a button so they stay connected to the email contex
Dr. Tanvi Sachar
Monday Certified Partner, Tuesday Wizard
I wouldn’t use the Emails & Activities section to manage tasks.
What I typically recommend for my clients is adding a few task-specific columns directly to the Contacts board (or whatever boards you need), such as Task Notes, Task Owner, and Task Due Date. Then use a Status column to trigger the automation.
Within each contact, create a “To Do” view and add an Information widget that only displays the fields needed to create a task. Also include a Connected Items widget to show all related To Dos.
When someone fills out the fields and updates the status to “To Do,” a new task will appear on the To Dos board within seconds.
On the To Dos board, set up automations to notify the assigned owner when a task is created and automatically move the status to “Past Due” if it is not marked complete by the due date.
A practical workaround many teams use is an app like Email to Task for monday.com. It lets you convert an email into a real item on a Tasks or Follow-ups board, where you can:
assign an owner
set a due date
choose status and priority
keep the email linked back to the original contact/deal for context
This keeps Emails & Activities focused on communication, while tasks live where monday works best - on boards with proper columns and automations.
If you want, there’s a 14-day trial, and you can also book a short demo to see how the flow works end-to-end with CRM boards.
