What about not marking Tasks as Done, but marking them as “failed” or “aborted” or “declined”?
Something like Hiting the “Complete”-Checkmark with “Alt”-Key.
Sometimes I decide not to do a planed task. I don’t want to mark it as done.
Would be great to do this without adding a task for it.
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Yes! 
My coworker and I would also love a way to note that a task was intentionally not completed. We may not want to permanently delete the task for a number of reasons (for example, it’s a recurring task that we skipped this time but intend to complete the next time it recurs, or we want to be able to duplicate the project with that task included for future use). Currently the choices are to check a task as completed that wasn’t actually done (making us liars!), delete the task (as if it never existed!), or leave it on our task list (not just cluttering it up but also a useless reminder of our past failures!).
“Failed” or “declined” tasks would disappear from our current task list but be preserved with an option to view (see screenshot – In the view settings there is currently Incomplete, Complete, and All Tasks; there could also be the “Declined” category or however it’s identified.)
Thanks!
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Yes! I’m trying to find a system that fits my planning needs, and this is the main area that Asana falls short. It is important to keep track of failures, especially if you’re trying to build good habits. Or if you want the full picture of what’s going on.
Is there no alternative method? Or do I just have to keep looking for something else?
Hey there, just dropping a reply here and say that our organization also need this feature (to decline a task and to keep track of rejections)
If you’re on a paid plan and thus have access to custom fields, I would use a custom field for this. You can make a drop-down field, let’s call it Task Status, with values like Declined, Skipped, etc.
This won’t alter the task’s visibility, so you’d still need to mark it Complete if you want to hide it from your normal task list. But at least you’d have the annotation to let you know it wasn’t really completed. And you could use Advanced Search to find all Skipped or Declined tasks.
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any updates or still the same with custom fields?
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I think the custom field solution is not really a solution, it’s a dirty (!) workaround. First of all: not all are on paid plans. Then it adds extra, unnecessary burden. As soon as I reject something, it should be invisible (unless I have a separate column for rejected tasks).
Thus I consider the feature request to still be valid.
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Hi. Are we still waiting for ASANA to fix this? I like Phil Seeman’s workaround but agree ASANA should just make it easy for us to note what tasks aren’t completed for good reasons as outlined in this topic. I just looked through their field list trying to find exactly this kind of field description but couldn’t see one.
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We would really like that feature here too…
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Really would love a good solution for this as a way to keep track of daily habits I fail at, the workaround suggested isn’t ideal.
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Really would need this feature. There are tasks that are eventually decided not to complete, but still need to be kept around for reference.
Currently the only two options: Mark the task as completed, or delete the task entirely.
The world isn’t as black-and-white as one’d think. There are at least 50 shades of grey. ~Anonymous
Until/if Asana adds this functionality, here are my suggestions for what you can do currently using Asana, depending on which plan you’re on:
Hope that helps,
Larry
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Going to add my voice here as well. It looks like this has been on the request list for awhile and it is a big clutter maker in my Incomplete tasks list.
I use a templated task with sub and sub-sub tasks for daily floor walks. Not all tasks are completed because of one reason or another and I would like to be able to have the person flag them with notes and then remove them from the Incomplete tasks list.
Marking as Completed when the task was not completed would result in corrupted metrics and confusion. We can use Tags as recommended but adds another layer of complexity.
I would love to see a system managed method to mark “completed” but have multiple types of completion: Completed, Incomplete, Rejected, Deferred, Ongoing, Canceled, ect
The default action is Competed/Incomplete but have a drop down with alternate status codes.
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Here for the same. Wish I could mark a task as Not Applicable or Aborted… something along those lines. I invision a red circle with a white X in it instead of the green circle with the check mark.
Same here. It’s a basic functionality for the project management software. Asana, please consider this