I want to add events to the calendar that are not tasks.
It would be nice to have “comment only” tasks per se that can’t be marked complete because they’re used as a reference only.
I don’t think a comment-only project helps because everyone gets full access when you multihome the task to the actual public project it should be associated with. Also, the multihoming gets a tad out of hand visually.
I feel Asana users would really benefit from a task type that is for notes/reference only and cannot be marked complete, and that doesn’t count against task completion percentages in the dashboard and progress views.
I’m a project manager for a creative marketing team. For each project, we have one or more “project notes” tasks that hold comments, files, and group conversations relevant to the project. All the other tasks in the project are to-do tasks that get assigned out to the team for completion. However, the Project Notes task is always visible and should never be assigned or completed, as it’s for reference only.
Unfortunately, this means that in the dashboard, progress, and portfolio views for the project, we can never achieve 100% completion because of these Project Notes tasks.
@Marie I think Asana is now considering or testing this feature and I just want to state that this would be absolutely amazing when it comes to providing help desk databases for our teams. I can get around it currently by doing view only, but then it complicates things a little more if I want to add tasks to the project, on top of having informational “tasks” that can’t be marked as complete. Additionally, there are several times where I need to give a description of a section, description of a project, or how to of how to use the project, and an information only “task” would be ideal for this. 1,000% vote yes for this.
We use tasks to create things like our staff directory or a list of resources. I have to write DO NOT CLICK COMPLETE to avoid that info being hidden. I’d like to have an option that allows me to make a task unclickable.
Hello @Amy_Saidman - we already have a thread on this topic → Reference-only Tasks that can't be marked complete so I’m merging your post with this main topic to gather all feedback in one place!
Hi @Amy_Saidman
Have you tried to set-up the project as comment only?
Or you could create a rule that incompletes a completed task (this rule is available with Business version).
Julien
Having reference-only tasks would be really beneficial to my team.
One use-case where this could apply is for past projects where certain deliverables were not met or were not needed. It would be great to be able to view details & workflows for these tasks without them popping up as “to-do”. I could mark them complete to get rid of them, but then I’d get inaccurate data on the # of tasks that my team completed for a time period. I could delete them, but then I’d miss out on all the info (descriptions, subtasks, etc.). I could convert them to task templates, but then they’d be hidden under the Customize menu.
Another use case is for when my team uses tasks for ideation purposes. While some of the idea tasks may turn out to be actionable, many turn out to used for reference only, or sit for long time periods before turning actionable.
How about utilizing the Key Resources section in the Project Overview for something like this?
In the case the content of a project is a repository on information. Items that have check-boxes next to them are anxiety inducing if the items are not in fact completable. It would be a better experience if content that fits this type did not display a check box.
Possible implementation
Hiding Uncompleteable Tasks
I think the simplest option is to require tasks to be restored back to completable before being checked off. However, I think many people will opt for just deleing the task when a hide action would be preferred. A few options:
Allow the UI to be a little inconsistent and actually allow completing an uncompleatble task via a context menu. Perhaps changing the action to “Force complete” or “Mark as completable and complete” or just “Mark complete”
Extend the concept of “completing a task” in include hiding it. “Mark as complete/hidden”
I notice there are a few other feature requests for allowing indicating the closure of a task that doesn’t contain the notion of “done” such as “closed unsuccessfully” or “canceled” etc. This would be another case where an “archived” or “hidden” state could be a solution.
Is this the same as the Messages feature?
No, because messages are ordered chronological as topics are discussed. Where as the content described here is semantically ordered like documentation or a book.
Is this the same as the Overview tab?
No, because the Overview tab describes information of the board itself - purpose, direction and meaning to the content of the board.
Case study / example
Please refer to Todoist’s “Uncompletable task” feature.
Hi @AdamTerrey ,
Thanks for the in-depth explanation to your use case, indeed such ‘reference’ tasks are needed and there is already a feature request which I have merged your post into, which you can vote on using the purple button in the top left corner, at the top of this thread.
As a workaround until this feature is implemented by Asana, refer to @Julien_RENAUD’s recommendations, above:
Asana guides frequently mention that should create “Resource Projects” and “Resource Tasks” to represnt information that can be referenced throughout Asana.
I love the idea of resource tasks! It lets Asana work kind of like Notion, but honestly it’s kind of too hacky a solution for general use.
What I’d love to see is the ability to designate a task as a special task type in the same way you can mark a task as a Milestone or Approval and have them render with the appropriate icon.
Are there any plans for giving us another task type to represent a “non-task”?
I’ve merged your post into an existing thread where you can click the title to scroll to the top and vote by clicking the purple Vote button.
Thanks,
Larry
I added my vote to this request!
I would definitely be a great improvement to be able to at least hide the checkboxes on the tasks without having to make it a comment only project.
I’d be really keen to have these reference-only/incompletable tasks.
I’d love for them to be slightly greyed out (or something else) so they look a bit visually different, but are visible even when viewing “Incomplete” tasks, and also to have NO checkbox. The number of times I am marking a task incomplete after someone new to the team goes to that reference task and thinks they need to complete it after they have read it 
I agree with the above poster who suggested it can be anxiety inducing to see these tasks with a checkbox right there for them to be completed.
Do we have this feature yet? It would be great to have this. It’s a few years later and still no ‘comment-only’ task. Let’s make it happen!
Agree with Justin! We have to have a way to implement all the advice about reference tasks without the risk of someone completing the task and hiding it from everyone else.
I agree with this request! We should also have the ability to filter reference tasks out of dashboards so that don’t effect the completion status of a project/tasks
