I’m having trouble setting up some multi-step tasks that repeat every Mon-Fri. The repeat option in Asana doesn’t work for me because if someone is late on a task by several days there won’t be a task created for the days in between the last time the task was completed and today. I’m thinking of using something like Zapier to create the tasks on a weekly basis for each day of the week. Something like a task title of “Jan 2: Example Multi-Step Daily Task”.
The other issue I’m having is the “multi-step” aspect of these tasks. Subtasks aren’t ideal for a variety of reasons. I was thinking of maybe using subtasks but only to outline the workflow and not actually have an assignee for the subtasks. For instance I could assign the parent task to Person A and the subtasks could identify the steps in their title. For instance…
Subtask 1: Person A Create Report
Subtask 2: Person A assign parent task to Person B
Subtask 3: Person B QA check the report
Subtask 4: Person B assign parent task back to Person A
Subtask 5: Person B do what it says in the report
Subtask 6: Person B complete the parent task
I just feel like there must be a simpler/easier/better way to set this up than what I’ve outlined above. Any thoughts/suggestions???
Hi @Joe_Gaines,
I’m not sure some of your assumptions are correct. Like, if someone is late on a repeated task, I believe it will only delay the repetition if it’s set to “Repeat Periodically” and not “Repeat Weekly” as in the case of your example.
I’m not a big fan of subtasks, either, but there are cases where they make a lot of sense, and this is one of them. You’re essentially creating a task template with all the steps of a process which is very helpful. By using Zapier, you can also automatically set dates for these subtasks to keep the process on track which is great because there isn’t a way to do that automatically for subtasks in Asana on repeating tasks.
I discuss this more in my lesson on using Zapier with Asana in the Asana Training Masterclass. Hope that helps!
Todd
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We use custom fields instead of subtasks for certain workflows. For example, an article that goes through various stages of writing, editing and approval. The initial task is assigned to the author with a “To write” label in the custom field and then re-assigned to the editor at the appropriate stage with a “To edit/approve” label. It is then either approved and handed on to the next person with a “To post/publish” label or handed back to the author with a “For revision” label, etc. This allows us to adjust deadlines as needed each time the task is handed off.
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