Option to use Drop-down custom field to measure task effort in Workload

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When we researched moving to Asana from our old PM software, I loved the idea of Workflow, which would make my job as a Producer easier, as well as allow me to report to higher-ups on our resourcing and current workloads.

Now that I have all my projects and tasks set up and running, though, I found out I can ONLY use numeric fields to set “Effort Level.” Unfortunately, I set up my Points field on all my tasks and projects as a dropdown so that I could write “Rules” for them (e.g., when I put “Email” as my execution channel in one field, my Rule automatically applies 2 points in the Points field). I had to set up drop-down menus to make this easy and feasible within the constricts of the Rules.

I wish, under “Set Effort Field” in Workflow, I could use that dropdown field, since it IS all still numbers (just a dropdown list of them). Otherwise, my only option is to go back and change my Points field to straight numbers and updated every task, but then I can’t use automated Rules, which makes my daily life WAY harder (manually assigning points for every task).

Please tell me there’s a workaround for this???

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Hi @Rachael_Caldwell, thanks for reaching out and sharing your feedback with us! As it stands, it’s currently not possible to measure task effort using a drop-down custom field. Apologies for any confusion here!

When you create a new number field on your projects, you can add the value to multiple tasks at once using our multi-select feature. Unfortunately it’s not possible to convert a drop-down field to a number field and update all custom field values at once. I’ll pass this feedback to our product team and will let you know if this is something we will implement in the future!

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I know this discussion dates back some time but wondering if there is currently any means of taking a numeric value chosen via multiselect and tallying effort? In other words: my organization has the same need as Rachael’s; I imagine it’s a common one.