I have a task A created, then I create a task B, and I just think that task A is a subtask of task B.
How can I move task A already create as a subtask for task B just created ?
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Hi @Marion_Cabanel - it’s possible to move tasks and subtasks around in order to change their status (from task ↔ subtask). I suggest experimenting with moving tasks around from the project view to task view and subtask view depending on the divisions you’re looking for. When in doubt, your safest option is to drag all your tasks bask into your project view, then you can easily drag a task to become a subtask and so on. I hope this helps! Please let us know if you have other questions.
I suggest you read this Guide article on how to use subtasks, as well
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I’m just starting out (1d) and was scratching my head for this. Thanx for the pointer @Alexis!
Just a follow-up question:
I appreciate the simplicity and the overview not inheriting parent tasks gives. I can live with the small hurdle of assigning a subtask a project just to be able to move it to another supertask within the same list/project. But then it becomes visible in that project which I don’t nessesarily appreciate.
So I’m wondering what would be your recommended best practice. Should I remove the the project for the task again?
- This is probably a matter of preference and taste, but any hints are welcome even if they are (i.e. subjective).
As mentioned, I tend to break down a lot and clobbering views easily becomes an issue not only for me but for my team. Overview is important but habits could be difficult to break whence established 
Hi @Michael_Ambrus! If you’d like to hide the subtasks that have been assigned to parent projects, I suggest that you create a section at the bottom of the project where you put subtasks. However, that does in effect defeat the purpose of having subtasks as part of the parent project.
Is this advice helpful? If not, please describe why you add subtasks to the parent project and then choose to remove them. Perhaps when I better understand your why I’ll be able to better assist you.
Thanks!
Hello @Alexis and thanks for your reply 
Answer to my question
I think you’ve answered my question (i.e. the subjective one):
- I.e. best practice is not to leave tasks not belonging to any project. However, the default in Asana for newly created sub-tasks is that they’re are state-less and inherit nothing. I.e. leaving new tasks “as is” makes them i.e. somewhat “hidden”. This led me to think that - Hmm, that’s maybe not such a bad idea as by having access (i.e. visibility) to each parent task, sub-tasks can always easily be found and as side-effect, the project looks nice and tidy and easy to overview with only root-tasks shown. It also would promote shorter Task Captions, which affects speed which is important for creativity. But this is not what you advocate as best practice at all.
Thank you, then I’ll not do that…
But… (there’s always a “but”…)
The workflow that comes natural (i.e. fast) in Asana doesn’t IMHO promote automatic build-up of structure. Also it seems somewhat contradictory that new parent tasks actually do have a default belonging into a project (at least in “Board” projects, not sure about “List” projects). This disrupts my thought-processes and makes certain use-cases like brain-storming much harder to do in-tool.
Feature request?
(No need to reply to this @Alexis, it’s just thoughts/suggestions.)
Asana is clean and tidy which I appreciate. But perhaps Asana could consider to introduce the concept of “inheritance”, “modality” or (temporarily) “default settings” for task/sub-task creation? Something like the following:
- Parent-task inheritance for project belongings
- Template setting for new tasks taking into account project+user
It’s not a big deal and I’ve learned today how to adapt my work-flow. Also there exists this Chrome plug-in plug-in that does exactly what I want: AsanaNG
Some semi-related hurdles - day 2
(Sorry for stealing the thread @Marion_Cabanel . Issue just kept on growing but it’s still on topic. I hope you don’t mind.)
I encountered some more hurdles which I think may be worth mentioning to the community and also for Asana-team to pick-up as improvement potentials. (Key-words: drag-drop, multiple task operations)
Here’s some background:
- I use three functionally quite different types of devices for PM-work
- A convertible laptop (primary). I.e. it has two modes “normal” and a “tablet mode”
- Android tablet/phone
- Chrome on a “normal” desktop
- The convertible has three pointer- input-devices that work very differently in Asana (usually they don’t).
- I started a test project in “board mode” with a traditional Kanban board.
- All sub-tasks were made from within a parent task. (I think this comes natural when one’s though-process are in “divide” and “conquer” -mode).
- I like love mind-maps, but the thing with mind-mapping is: Mindmap-modelling has to be quick and effortless not to affect creative though-process, which by nature is a very sensitive and fragile entity. Asana is almost there, but not quite.
The last bullet is especially close to my heart (I’m an entrepreneur and always seem to have 10x more ideas/tasks in my head/on-going that I can manage. To this day only one tool besides Pen & paper has come even close to ful-fill this need was an old DOS program called Tink-tank). If a tool could go from mind-mapping into project-planning, that would be a wet-dream come true (Or at least, use the same tool for both PM-work and organising ones own chaotic thoughts.)
Drag & drop for moving tasks around
The guide in @Alexis pointer has some limitations, especially since dragging & dropping seems to be the only way to move sub-tasks around (is this true?). I’ve commented the guide for improvement. Here’s a copy for the community:
-
Emphasise that one need to start in some of the “list modes” (as I think starting in “boards” does not work as there will be no “right pane” to drag tasks to, but a new in-view window instead).
-
As it’s difficult to see on the video: Emphasise that to start the “drag” operation, one has to start at the leftmost little icon with 6 dots. (This took me a good while to figure out as my preferred input device (pen) did not work at all the way the video suggested).
-
With some input devices, like pen & finger, and on some devices (Android tablets) drag & drop simply does not work. For me, only the following setup worked: Mouse on a the web-app using desktop (or convertible in desktop-mode).
Moving several sub-tasks around (multi sub-tasks moving)
I’ve seen others mention this so I won’t go into depth with it. Here’s a guide of how to do multi-select operations.
Unfortunately moving sub-tasks is not one of them, or I couldn’t figure out how (#tag:feature-request):
Cheers!
(and sorry for making this post so incredibly long)
//Michael
Hi Michael,
Thanks for these thoughts! Wow, you’ve got lots of great reflections and ideas. For future reference we try not to take threads too off topic, so next time I recommend creating a new topic in the #productfeedback category for any product requests.
Regarding your thoughts on subtasks - this is a topic that we’ve discussed a lot in the Community. I think you’ll enjoy starting with this thread:
You can also search for more threads in the search bar.
Let us know if you have other questions!
Thank you both for the valuable feedback
Minor correction just for the record.
It turns out that multi-operations on sub-tasks do include moving them around. Guides I’ve read so far are just not explicit about it.
The operation is the same as for single operations, just select them first.
Hello, the information presented above is helpful, thanks.
I have a follow-up question. I’ve worked with epics, stories, and tasks in other Kanban apps such as YouTrack, Pivotal Tracker, Trello, and Jira. While viewing a complex task in Asana’s kanban, is it possible to create a new “story” from one of the detailed sub-tasks? Some of our sub-tasks are so complex they need to be placed at the higher level. I can do it the hard way by copying the task, deleting it, then creating it at the higher lever; however, this seems like it could be handled in a much easier fashion. 
Hi @Lorn_Christal - at this time you’ll have to move your board subtasks manually. This could present an opportunity leverage list view for certain processes where detailed subtasks become an issue
Hi, for moving subtasks from deep levels I use Instagantt.
Unfortunately, for me is the simplest way to do it, and in some cases the only way I found.
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I don’t know if it’s a bug or by design, but when I drag a task to make it a subtask, it loses the assign.
Ex.:
- Create a quick task at My Tasks
- Search and select a parent task (now, the parent task is in the right corner)
- Drag and drop the task from My Tasks to inside the parent tasks
- The task is no more assigned to me and I have to reassign
Am I doing something the wrong way?
Best regards
Hi @Millor_Machado - I just fiddled around and it looks like this is by design. Sorry to hear this isn’t the functionality you’d want. Hopefully it will still work for you to reassign to yourself. Let us know if you have any other questions!
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Hi there
I am using the board view for a project and have created a task with a number of subtasks.
I now with to add re-worded subtasks and move some of my existing subtasks (with notes/attachments etc. so not quick to retype everything) so that they’re subtasks of my newly created subtasks.
Is this at all possible?
Thank you, @Alexis. This was helpful.
Is it possible to multi-select tasks and move/add them as subtasks to another task? It looks like you can multi-select subtasks and move them OUT of a task. Doing so seems irreversible if you cannot then multi-select them and move them back in.
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