I add small recurring tasks to Asana that I’d like to do, but they aren’t crucial so I allow myself to skip them. The way I see it, there are only three options to handling them, none of which are interesting:
Mark as complete: This doesn’t work for the times I opt not to do the recurring task because I like to track completed tasks so it makes it look like I accomplished more than I did.
Delete: This deletes all future occurrences and I won’t be reminded of it again - not helpful.
Move the due date: This means I end up with multiples of the same task all occurring at the same time. Alternately, if I did this with a non-recurring task, I’d have to keep moving the date and then re-create the task which feels like more work than is worth it for the tasks in question.
Anyone know a way I can track these minor, recurring tasks and quickly skip them?
Hi @Kimberly_Nichols, this is a great question, and I use recurring tasks like this as well. I would recommend option #3, which is what I do when I need to push back those types of tasks (this is great for when you’re out of the office as well and want to push the recurring tasks back to your next day in the office).
The next recurrence of a recurring task doesn’t get created until the existing one is completed. So for example, if you have a weekly recurring task due “Weekly, every 1 week on Thursday” (screenshot below), the recurrence for next Thursday isn’t created until I complete the task due today.
So, if I don’t complete the task today, and I adjust the due date to next Thursday, it wouldn’t create a new task for next Thursday. Once I complete the task next Thursday, there would be the next recurrence created on the following Thursday.
Therefore, this option allows you to defer the task, without having a bunch of tasks pile up on the next scheduled day. It’s a bit confusing to explain, but I would encourage you to try option #3 for your recurring tasks to see how it works.
This is what I do with those kinds of task, but to avoid falls impressions, I add [CANCELLED] to the beginning of the task title before I mark it as complete.
I do that also with tasks that I have started to work on but decided not to complete it.
I think it would be nice to have a built task status called “cancelled”, in addition to “complete” and “incomplete”.
Much can be learned from your list of cancelled tasks and it brings some honesty into into the workplace: Currently. Asana supports a work climate where the assumption is that everyone completes their tasks (eventually). That means, if you cancel a task, you do it “in secret”. You failed. You may even go as far as never really cancelling the task even for yourself, and your growing backlog will increase stress. So a “cancel” button in Asana is also a matter of sanity
If you think so too, vote on this feature request:
I have this issue as well with some of my recurring subtasks & I have taken to just completing them-- although I don’t like that it is misleading as to what was really done. However, if I deleted the undone subtask, I would lose it as a line-item the next time the task was set to recur. But if you don’t complete the subtask, they do build up in the project even after the main task gets completed. Some type of solution for this would be great. “Cancelled” does seem to make sense.
Has Asana publicly addressed this possibility? I haven’t see anything. I would love to have it. Sometimes I revive or copy an old project and it’s good to see where a task or subtask was cancelled rather than be deleted or marked complete so I don’t repeat the same mistake or waste time doing the same thing again.
@brian.johnson there was some related conversations in this thread: Display Reference to next due date on yearly repeating tasks but it doesn’t touch on offering an option like “cancelled” for recurring tasks. It does however point out the different behaviors between the recurrence cadences. The solution to push out the due dates works well for weekly recurrence, but monthly and yearly don’t seem to act that way.
What I do when the recurrence is weekly is complete those things I have deferred and either mark it as such using a tag, custom field or comment.
Another safe option is to remove the recurrence and re-apply it on deferred tasks.
So a “cancel” button in Asana is also a matter of sanity 