💡 Create teams just to use assign task duplicates

[Bastien_Siebman]

Do you know the « Assign duplicate tasks » feature in Asana? It is actually available in the task pane (not in quick add mode) when clicking on the assignee button. It allows you to assign duplicates (duh) to different people.

What you probably don’t know is that you can type a Team name in that field and that will assign duplicates to each team members.

So here’s today’s trick: create Asana Teams matching « real » teams at the company, so that you can assign duplicates by typing « Floor 2 », « London office » or « Marketing » even though there is no need for such a team in Asana.

PS: that will clutter Asana though, so maybe this is a bad advice? hmmm not sure, I’ll think about it

Version française

[Phil_Seeman]

Ahh, like an email distribution list! Interesting. I think the idea has its uses; although as you say, it can potentially lead to a clutter of team lists in the left-hand nav panel.

[Bastien_Siebman]

@Phil_Seeman

like an email distribution list

Exactly.

@Phil_Seeman

clutter of team lists in the left-hand nav panel

I never use the side nav anymore and only use the search so I am fine

[lpb]

I agree, @Bastien_Siebman, but in some moderation to avoid too many Teams.

But if you need it for assign duplicates, perhaps the Team Conversations feature is of some value too in some cases.

I also like the use of Subtasks for the assign duplicates, with single-sourcing of the main task as the parent, so if details change, there’s only one place to change it.

I’ve written more about all this earlier here:

Assigning identical tasks to everyone in the organization

@Natalia_Veinott, See my post here, and the Guide article and another post of mine found within: What you’d need to do is one-time-only create a Team (named, say, “All”) and make everyone in the organization a Team Member. (That’s a nice practice; you can use Team Conversations there instead of emailing the entire company.) With that in place, you can use Assign Duplicates to specify the All team and get duplicate tasks created one per Team Member. I’d recommend following the directions in t…

Assign multiple assignees on one task

@Mathieu_Urstein , In case it might help until a better solution is implemented for “All of them need to have this into their calendar and the task should display easily the fact that those team members should attend the meeting” were you aware of: . . . and scroll down to Assign duplicate tasks. This works for subtasks too, as you requested (the example shows tasks), so if you make a meeting subtask as you described in your last post and you give that a recurring due date to reflect the me…

Assign Basics Training to Everyone

Welcome, @Megan_VanWaus1, There are many ways to do this. Here’s one: Create a Training team with the 27 people as team members. Make a single task like “Asana Basics Training Tracker” assigned to yourself. In the Description, describe the exact steps for each person to follow to create their own new project (private or public, as you wish; so others can see their progress or not) from the Asana Basics Training template (or your own custom template) in the Training team. Then use the follow…

Larry

[Emily_Roman]

Great tip, @Bastien_Siebman! This option is very useful when you need each team member to take an action, for example, complete a mandatory certification/course. If you need to make an announcement, I’d recommend sending a Message to the team as @lpb mentioned!

[Melissa_Jerome]

Hi everyone! I am having trouble finding this feature. I see “duplicate task” but I don’t see the option to type in team names. Can you provide directions on how to utilize this feature? Thanks!

[Phil_Seeman]

@Melissa_Jerome

Can you provide directions on how to utilize this feature?

In a task’s detail pane, click in the Assignee field, then in the resulting dialog, click “Assign duplicate tasks”:

Then when you start typing, Asana will let you select either a user name or a team; for example:

[Melissa_Jerome]

Thank you! Is it a premium feature? I have the business plan, so I’m wondering if maybe I don’t have that functionality. I appreciate your response and the instructions!

[Phil_Seeman]

Hi @Melissa_Jerome,

Well, first off, Business is above Premium in subscription levels, so you have everything that Premium has and then some.

Second, no, this feature isn’t limited to only certain subscription levels; AFAIK there’s no reason you shouldn’t have it.

If you can post a screenshot of where your UI differs from what I described and showed above, we can probably figure out what’s up.

[Melissa_Jerome]

See attached.

[Phil_Seeman]

Hi @Melissa_Jerome,

You’re barking up the wrong tree, so to speak.

You don’t want that menu. Instead, click where it says “Andre Gamboa” and you should see what’s illustrated in my first screenshot above.

[Melissa_Jerome]

Thank you!!!

[Matt_Dickinson]

Love this trick @Bastien_Siebman and the detailed explanation on the assign duplicates feature @Phil_Seeman! I dont find myself using the assign duplicates feature all the often but when I do it is a MAJOR time saver.