I use the GTD system. I use a “Today” tag as was previously recommended to show the tasks for each project that need to be completed today. Previously, I was able to sort my tasks by clicking on this “Today” tag and I could see these tasks. The tasks were still grouped by Project, which allowed me to see what I needed to do in each project. As of yesterday (Sept 5), when I filter tasks by my “Today” tag it just shows me one long list no longer grouped together by the project which does not allow me to focus on any project.
Am I missing something, or were changes made to Asana over the holiday weekend? Any help is greatly appreciated. I need to be able to group my top tasks by project. Thx!
Hi @Jimmy_Disney and @Kris_Jenson, sorry for the trouble. Unfortunately our team had to remove this feature from the tag view due to stability issues and low usage. “Tags” is a very old Asana feature, and we strongly recommend using custom fields instead, if you have a Premium or Business plan.
Also, if you do have a paid plan, you can run an advanced search query based on the tag and sort this by project. I hope this helps!
Hello Vanessa, thank you for your reply and for the alternatives you offered.
Tagging is a feature we have used from day one of joining Asana, approximately 7 years ago. It is inextricably woven into the way we view, manage, track, and archive all of our projects for all of our clients. I understand if technical considerations required you to make changes to the way they work, but we feel we were not given adequate notice to accommodate, leading to a bit of a scramble to keep up.
Using an advanced search query, I see that searching for a tag then sorting by project produces exactly the sort of screen we need. It looks nearly identical, only now there are several more steps to get to a view that used to be one click away. Is it possible to create a setting where clicking on a tag automatically produces the result of this advanced search?
We do use custom fields for several things, but to my knowledge, they are not clickable, and cannot be searched for. Is there a way to use custom fields to do the same things tags do?
Until/if Asana adds what you’re asking, note that after doing an advanced search once, and sorting, you can click the star icon in the search results header, name that search, and it will save it to your Starred section of your sidebar. You can then also send that URL (copy from browser address bar) to your colleagues and they can save to their sidebars for one-click access to these going forward.
And yes, custom fields can be searched; at the bottom of Advanced search dialog, choose Add filter > Add custom field, repeatedly if more than one. Use the setting “With any value” to be the most inclusive results.
@lpb Thank you Larry. It is a useful suggestion that someone else may benefit from but it’s not an option for us in regards to this question. We do save advanced searches for many things that we then share between us, but creating them for each of the things we use tags for (client, point of contact if there are multiple for a client, differentiating specific projects that a client needs done differently from others, English vs. non-English work, only assignable to specific specialists, etc.) would mean hundreds of saved searches.
(I’m writing this for others who may read this thread, rather than directly in reply to you, so that they can decide if a particular solution applies to them. Saved searches are a very useful feature.)
We will investigate custom fields in more depth and come back to the forums if we have any additional questions.
If anyone with the power to make this decision is reading this, please do not fully delete the Tag feature altogether, even if you alter its functionality. Please also do not make them unsearchable, as was done previously. We understand that we will need to make some operational changes going forward, but there were no more tags or if we could not search for them, it would cause immense problems for our records going back nearly a decade.
I certainly appreciate everything you wrote, @Kris_Jenson; thanks for doing that.
And sorry about this change, and it coming with no notice. Asana is releasing many improvements faster than ever, but it’s always unfortunate when anything like this occurs.
I’m looking at using Advanced Search to do what we used to be able to do before, but when we sort by Project, the tasks within don’t order in the way we need them to. We used to be able to manually reorder when required, but now we cannot.
They don’t seem to come in with the same order as they are within the project, so I’m not sure HOW they’re being ordered in these search results. We don’t have a working solution for this issue yet.
This change has also broken my workflow. I use Tags heavily, and removing the ability to sort Tasks within a Tag is very frustrating.
Not only are tasks no longer sorted by Project, but you can no longer sort Tasks by Name or Due Date or Assignee.
I understand the advanced search workaround. And, as others have commented, that provides the same results but with significantly more steps. (Search… advanced search… incomplete tasks… plus sign… tags… has tag… enter tag).
Are there plans to add this sorting feature back, or is it gone for good?
While I appreciate the workaround offered - the search results are very imperfect (mine included a bunch of other tags for no obvious reason).
Tags were a big part of our workflow as well and it’s pretty disappointing that we have to now find ways to reorganize our entire workflow because of this change.
@lpb & @Vanessa_N, thank you for responding and providing the workaround via Advanced Search.
First, I used different project management apps/software before landing with Asana. I have been more than pleased with its efficiency (and this forum) when needed to find answers.
I am only replying in case the replies influence future decisions. Like others in this thread, I use tags extensively in my workflow. I am a PhD student, own a real estate development company, and recommend Asana to all people I work with because I can then easily share projects etc… The tags feature allows me to customize tasks in ways that were previously quickly retrievable, and easy for me to apply to any setting. The custom fields do not work well for my situation.
What I used to do with one click, now requires multiple clicks. (Or a saved Advanced Search.) I do not pretend to know IT. Is it possible for Asana to restore the feaure that allows the user to simply click on a tag rather than having to do a search for it?
I place another vote for keeping tags! They are essential for my workflow.
Hi everyone, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts, and I’m really sorry to hear that this change has had a negative impact in your workflow. To be completely honest, there’s no short term plan to bring this functionality back, but you can rest assured that I’ve passed your feedback along to our team. Also, I’ll move this thread into our Product Feedback section so everyone can add their vote.
I’d like to add in my support for tags. Asana has tried to remove them completely before with no notice (before backtracking), and this is tantamount to that. This doesn’t QUITE ruin tags completely, but it comes VERY close.
Custom fields are great, but we’ve been using tags for years and years and have hundreds if not thousands implemented. Asana’s unwillingness to support them completely destabilizes our workflow and is so frustrating. It’s extremely disappointing.
I understand the reasons, but am wondering if we can add an option to customize the view in Tags like we can in other areas like our My Tasks. Then everyone that has been affected (like my company), can continue to use as we have for many years. We too use for our clients to saving a search would create a long list and it seems that searching for customized fields is extra steps.