How can I change the default value for the 'assigned to' field in tasks?

Question

People need to create tasks for other people in all kinds of spaces in the organisation. Often they click through the task creation activity on their related object they want to add a task to without noticing that they are assigning the task to themselves, as your own user is the default value in that field.

In the object settings for Tasks i can't set a default value. I would like to have the field blank so everybody creating a task will have to stop and think for a minute who to assign it to as it would still be required but empty by default.

Is there any solution to this?

Answer 1

Currently its not possible to set default value to blank for AssignedTo field. Please vote below idea https://success.salesforce.com/ideaView?id=08730000000aBPxAAM

Work arounds

• Build Custom Visualforce Page to override New Task Button OR
• Validation rule for users (profiles/roles) who creates tasks for other people.

Example:

AND(
    NOT(ISBLANK(OwnerId)),
    OR(
       $UserRole.Id = 'IdOfSupportRole',
       $User.ProfileId = 'IdOfSupportProfile'
    )
)