The Automated Task Assignment Feature
Google Docs is deeply integrated with Google Workspace, blurring the lines between a word processor and a project management tool. One of these integrations is the automatic suggestion of “Action Items.” By default, if Google’s natural language processing detects a phrase in your text that sounds like a task being assigned to someone (for example, typing “John needs to finish the quarterly report by Friday” or “Follow up with Sarah”), Docs will often highlight the text and pop up a smart suggestion box, asking if you want to formally assign this as an Action Item to that person’s Google account.
While this is an incredible feature for corporate meeting minutes and collaborative agendas, it is highly distracting for almost any other type of writing. If you are drafting a fictional story, writing a performance review, or simply taking personal notes that happen to include people’s names and tasks, the constant appearance of assignment popups breaks your concentration. To prevent Google Docs from trying to turn your paragraphs into a to-do list, you must disable this AI-driven suggestion.
How to Stop Action Item Popups
You can turn off these automated task suggestions via the Preferences menu.
- Open a document in Google Docs.
- Look at the top toolbar and click on Tools.
- Select Preferences from the dropdown menu.
- In the Preferences window, make sure you are on the General tab.
- Look through the list of checkboxes for the option labelled Automatically suggest action items (or sometimes grouped under “Show Smart Chips”).
- Click the checkbox to remove the checkmark.
- Click the blue OK button to save your changes.
From now on, you can write sentences involving names, deadlines, and tasks, and Google Docs will simply treat them as plain text without interrupting you to create formal Workspace assignments.