Hi all,
Asana isn’t perfect or at least isn’t perfect for everyone. Like any software, there are open feature requests and some of them are hosting really heated debates! I believe the workarounds available are not always easy to extract from the conversations and figured I would list them together here!
PS: I numbered the features and workarounds to allow for easy discussion in the comments. This thread is not meant to host discussions about the feature requests themselves! Please use the appropriate threads instead.
- W1.1: create a guest to represent a “group of people” and assign tasks to that guest. Use rules to move those tasks to a specific project and/or use a report to see them together.
- W1.2: assign copies of a task, using the existing “Assign copies” feature
- W1.3: assign subtasks
- W1.4: multi-homing a task into a team “bucket/inbox”
F2. Subtasks should count in Workload
- W2.1: promote subtasks into tasks
- W2.2: multi-home subtasks into the same project
- W2.3: multi-home subtasks into a “repository” project and add that project into the same Portfolio
F3. Subtasks should show up in Calendar and Timeline
- W3.1: promote subtasks into tasks
- W3.2: multi-home subtasks into the same project
F4. Template tasks should not show up in My Tasks
- W4.1: complete tasks in the template, and when creating a project based on the template, incomplete tasks in the project
- W4.2: create a “Future Assignee” column and assign users after creating the project based on the template
- W4.3: train people to spot and ignore those tasks (and push them to Later)
- W4.4: use the “Assign To” feature of Flowsana’s Dynamic Duration workflows - a dependent task is not assigned until its predecessor task is completed
W4.5: store templates as CSV file and import them (from @LEGGO)
F5. Add a description on a section
- W5.1: add a task at the top of the section to hold a description
- W5.2: use a task with a special name (e.g. “----Section1----”) to act as a visual section
F6. Trace custom fields update
- W6.1: use my tool Custom Field Explorer to export values on a regular basis
F7. Apply template changes to its projects
- W7.1: break long templates into stage-focused templates
- W7.2: use template factories to generate part of the project
- Bundles are a definitive solution
F8. Apply template on an existing project
- W8.1: use template factories to generate missing parts of the project
- W8.2: Use Flowsana’s “Add subtasks from a template” or “Add tasks from a template” rule action
F9. User-friendly task address
- W9.1: use an URL shortener like bit.ly
- W9.2: use this open-source piece of code
- W9.3: use the CSV importer to create your project, and pre-assign unique names in Excel with formulas
- W9.4: use zap created by @Phil_Seeman
- W9.5 Use Flowsana’s ability to add unique short IDs and/or short task links
F10. Multi-select for custom fields
- W10.1: create main combinations as extra-options in the custom field
- W10.2: create several custom fields with the same values
- W10.3: add the option “Multiple” as the last option of the field, and add a text field to the project to let type all the values
- W10.4: use tags instead of custom field
W10.5: use multi-homing (add to project) to add multiple values to a task
F11. Print timelines
- W11.1: use Instagantt
- W11.2: zoom out and screenshot the page
F12. Guests should not see custom fields from projects they don’t have access to
- W12.1: make the custom field local (not in library)
- W12.2: obfuscate values of that field (by coding with internal code, e.g. is high priority, is low priority…)
- W12.3: use an external tool to manage that information (e.g. a time tracking tool the guest does not have access to)
- W12.4: store the value on the task, and share the subtask in which you duplicate public info
- W12.5: store the value on the task, and share another task in which you duplicate public info + add link to the private task (showing up as a private link for the guest)
F13. Ability to add sub-sections
- W13.1: use a combination of sections and custom field sorting
- W13.2: create visual sub-section with special task names like “----Sub-Section----”
- W13.3: cleverly use numbers and spaces
F14. Allow to have multiple forms attached to the same project
F15. Get a list of all forms within an organization
F16. Archive a task
- W16.1: move to a specific project dedicated to archived tasks
- W16.2: move tasks in a dedicated section of the project
- W16.3: move tasks as subtask of an archive task
- W17.1: use Instagantt and share link to the project
- W17.2: export with Asana2Go or screenshot and share export elsewhere
- W17.3: use a coded sync between a project & a website
F18. Get a full CSV untruncated export
- W18.1: split data into several projects and export them
- W18.2: use the API to export the data in CSV format
F19. Use Asana as a wiki
- W19.1: create a comment-only project with tasks
- W19.2: use the Project Brief to create a rich content page
- W19.3: use Asana2Go to export task list as “articles”
- W19.4: create a comment-only project with Notes view
Which feature or workaround did I miss?