I’ve found the “My Tasks” view to be largely ineffective. While it allows you to create sections like “Due Today” or “Due in 2 Weeks,” tasks aren’t automatically sorted into those sections. Instead, you either have to manually move them or rely on rules.
The issue with rules is that they only apply to tasks that already exist before they enter the defined time window. For example, if today is April 15 and I want a section for tasks due in the next 7 days, the rule will only apply to tasks that were created more than 7 days before their due date.
If a new task is created with a due date 6 days away, the rule won’t apply because the task was created within that 7-day window. As a result, it won’t appear in the “Due in 7 Days” section, which creates a real risk of missing tasks.
There’s a simple way to get the “by date” groupings that you’re asking for, no rules required. (See further below.)
I describe that in an article that thousands of users have used to set up their My Tasks:
For the “by date” groupings, this is the paragraph in the article that explains the one-time steps to set it up:
List by Date tab: Consider adding another tab for a different, pivoted view of your to do list grouped by Due date. Click the List tab, and in the menu that appears choose Make a copy and name this tab List by Date. Set Filters to Incomplete tasks. Set Groups to Due date, Ascending, and Hide empty groups (using the “. . .” menu). Use this List by Date tab view on occasions when you want to see your to dos grouped by their Due dates, earliest ones first (including overdue tasks). But the main List tab, the topic of the rest of this article, which is grouped by your custom sections, is best for your regular, day-to-date default use.
That’s not the default view that many of us recommend, but of course you’re welcome to make it your default view!
Hello, I read your article. I’m sorry. That doesn’t help my case at all. I’m not sure whether you work for Asana or are just passionate about it. If you’re just passionate, I appreciate you trying. If you do work for Asana, maybe I can explain the issue better.
The problem is that the method in your article still requires manually checking and moving things. I understand that there are automations you can put into place, but those won’t apply to tasks that were created past the rules window. Because of that, I can never fully trust that all my tasks are being properly routed, so it ruins it. It’s like the old addage about lying. If someone is honest 99% of the time, and only dishonest 1%, you can never trust them. Because you never know when the 99% is happening and when the 1% is happening. Thats what the Asana “my tasks” are like. We are in 2026. We shouldn’t have to go through and manually check our list every day and drag things to the right section before working on them. There should be a way to automate it.
This could all be fixed if the “my tasks” section allowed the “check if” portion of the rules to do time references instead of specific dates. I know Asana can do this, because basically everywhere else in Asana besides “my tasks” allows the user to choose options like “today”, x days from now, within x days. And you can change days to weeks, months, etc. So I know Asana has the capability and knowledge to create that rule, but for some reason, they don’t have it in “my tasks”.
I think you might have missed the List by Date tab paragraph in my earlier post here (which came from my article). It was just that one suggestion that I believe addresses your issue without rules. It sounds like you might not have tried it.
Thanks,
Larry
PS I don’t work for Asana; I’m a volunteer here, an Asana consultant, and daily Asana user for 14 years.
I did try it. It’s okay, but still has limitations. For example, it jumps from 1 week to a month. I dont have the ability to create a “2 weeks” option. Its very limited
