Asana can’t seem to get this figured out. I do not want the custom fields of the parent task in my subtask. Every project I have now is functionally confusing with the latest update.
Before the parent task custom fields were hidden, in the task but hidden by default. Now we have a feature upgrade and all 20 of my projects are confusing. Subtasks are forced to have the parent task listed as a project and it is listed first. Which in and of itself, is not necessarily a bad thing. The bad thing is that the custom fields in that project show up in the subtask expanded and the subtask custom fields show up at the bottom, collapsed. Plus the information in the parent task doesn’t even transfer down to the subtask where it might be useful as reference. They are completely new empty fields that look like they need to be filled out and completed. The stuff that needs to be worked on? Hidden at the bottom.
Can I set custom fields to not propagate to subtasks? No
Can I set the parent project to default to collapsed at the subtask level? No
Can I disconnect the parent project? No
Can I reorder the projects in the subtask so the subtask project is at the top? No
I use custom fields as checklists. Processes are 40 - 90 steps long. Some of the steps are minor (move documents to a specific location) and might take seconds. Some steps are more involved and might take hours to complete. Some steps are situational dependent and don’t need to be done at all. I use rules and the toggle of a custom field toggle to create a subtask with its own custom field checklist. I use sections to give a high level overview of where a task is in the process.
All the steps listed as custom fields are there because they must be done. With such long processes it is easy for people to forget something. Having a checklist to toggle makes all the difference. And different people are responsible for different activities. One person is charge overall so having a main task with someone managing and other people working on subtasks works.
I guess I have 2 options.
- Get rid of the majority of the custom fields and create projects where each task would have 40 to 90 subtasks. Basically map each existing custom field to a subtask. Plus a rule for each to decide if it needs to be created for this particular task. Then instead of assigning one person to a subtask with the list of things they need to work on I can scroll through all the subtasks and pick out the 5, 10, 20 subtasks that they need to work on.
- Create 90 custom fields to replace the subtasks. Create rules to change the custom fields based on other custom fields. If A is Yes then B - E can turn to N/A. Then assign each task to the person who needs to work on the next batch of activity. Of course that means that multiple people can’t work simultaneously since only person will have the task. Plus having to watch that people don’t complete the task when their work is done instead of reassigning it the next person.
Of course there is a 3rd option - create a project for each task. Currently that is 77 projects. That does not include any tasks that I am working on personally. Manage oversight on these with portfolios. I’d have to create 3 or 4 additional portfolios and then make sure every time a new project was created it got added to the right portfolio.
At this point I am frustrated. (Lots of other words come to mind but NSFW) So much work just tossed out the window.
