How to duplicate tasks across multiple projects

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1

I work for a nonprofit and part of what we do is host events - this involves putting fliers up all over town at the same locations every time. Is there a way to plug in the same task that’s full of subtasks with the various locations into multiple projects in a way that keeps them as unique tasks?

2

You can duplicate tasks via the three dots, but if you’d like this to be set up for future projects, it sound like you need a task template or rule.

  1. Set a central project to house the rule (i.e. Event Planning project which has all tasks multihomed to it)
  2. Go to customize, then “rules”
    1. When: rule is run manually
    2. Check if: due date is not empty
    3. Then: add subtasks
      1. Create flier
      2. Review flier
      3. Make revisions
      4. Final approval
      5. Distribute to coffee shop
      6. Distribute to community center
      7. Distribute to bookstore
      8. Set relative due dates for each subtask (i.e. 3 days before task due date; 2 days after task creation date)
  3. Create a new task, click the 3 dots and select your rule from the “run a rule” dropdown menu
3

Hi, @MeganIO

Thanks for sharing this — before suggesting an approach, I want to make sure I understand exactly what “unique” needs to mean here, because Asana has two very different mechanisms that could both sound like what you’re describing:

  1. Multi-homing — the same task (and its subtasks) lives in several projects at once. Marking a subtask “done” in one project marks it done everywhere it’s homed, because it’s literally one task with one completion status.
  2. Duplicating from a template — you keep one master task/project as a template and create a fresh, independent copy for each event. Each copy has its own completion status going forward, but they start from the same location list so you’re not rebuilding it from scratch.

A few questions to figure out which one (or hybrid) fits:

  • When you say “keeps them as unique tasks” — do you mean each event needs its own independent completion status per location (e.g. “posted at the library” can be checked off for Event A in June without also checking it off for Event B in September)? Or is “unique” more about not wanting duplicate clutter / wanting each event’s list to look self-contained in its own project, even if underlying tracking is shared?
  • Do you track flier posting as a one-time setup per event (post once, done) or as recurring maintenance (check/replace fliers weekly until the event)?
  • Does the list of locations itself change between events (new spots added/removed), or is it essentially fixed and you’re just running it repeatedly?
  • Are these events each their own Asana project already, or are they sections/tasks within one recurring “Events” project?
  • What Asana tier are you on (Starter/Advanced/Enterprise)? That affects whether project templates and some automation options are available to you.

Once I know whether you need independent tracking per event or just want to avoid rebuilding the list each time, I can point you to the actual setup (template + “Instantiate template” is very different from multi-homing a persistent task).