Background: I use Todoist for all my personal stuff. Todoist and many other task management apps give the user the ability to quickly enter a task in an inbox (totally different from Asana’s concept of an inbox), in either the desktop or mobile app, where you can go later to set due dates, move a task to a project, etc.
The idea behind this functionality is to enable the user to quickly get a task out of their head and into a device without having to deal with any details. It’s the GTD concept of an inbox.
Unless I’m missing something, Asana doesn’t allow for this. Yes, I can create a task without a due date or project. But to “process” these tasks later, I need to scroll down through hundreds of tasks with due dates to get to the “Later” section, then keep scrolling down to “No Project.” (I have also never understood the concept of “marked for today/upcoming/later” either, but that’s a separate issue.)
This seems like a really clunky way to process tasks that need dates, projects, etc. I use this “inbox” functionality in Todoist dozens of times a day. Am I missing something with Asana? Thanks.
Yes, I think you’re missing something, or doing too much maybe.
When you use the orange + button to create a task, you can just type the title and nothing else and when you click Create Task the new task appears in your My Tasks at the very top in the “Recently assigned” section. If you’re not finding it there, and see it only in Later, it might be because of something else you’re doing, I think.
I agree with @lpd, the easiest way to do this in Asana is to use the quick add function Task actions: create, move, duplicate, and more | Product guide • Asana Product Guide The task will automatically be assigned to you and as a result it will automatically appear in the “Recently Assigned” section of your My Tasks. From there you can add them a due date, description… and sort it to your Today, Upcoming or Later section based on the due date you’ve set.
Another two options that you might find useful:
The Asana Chrome extension, allows you to create a task automatically assigned to you in one click. (This task will also be automatically available in your “Recently Assigned” section).
Huh. I don’t have (nor have I ever seen) a “recently assigned” section.
I sort by due date in “My Tasks.” To find the tasks that I’ve added without date/project, I have to scroll down through a hundred tasks, then down to the very bottom of the “Later” section under “No Project” to see the task.
I just had to search for it but the Recently Assigned is actually under My Tasks and then Sort as “None”… only then will you see the Recently Assigned section. Sounds like you were like me and prefer to have that list sorted by Due Date. I’m not a fan of toggling because when you add a task like this, you have to actively remember to search for unassigned tasks so it’s easy to lost track of it. It would be great to have an unassigned or default settings assigned for Quick Add (like Todoist has).
I created a project called “Task List” and added the project’s Import -Email address to the address books on my phone and computer. I email those tasks to asana, I review my “Task List” project daily to complete, delegegate, or assingn those tasks to other projects.
I use Google Assistant speakers & IFTTT to do this quickly – I love that it automatically puts the due date as today, so that I see it when I look at my default task list view. Every other solution I tried would bury the task at the bottom of my list.