Snooze / boomerang tasks

#1

Let’s say I’m looking at a task that I need to work on, but that task cannot be worked on right now (maybe because of some external dependency, maybe because I’m not in the mindset to do that kind of task, maybe because I’m dragging my feet and I want to drag them a little longer)

I would like to get it out of my sight for a while, and have it reappear after a time interval.

This is a powerful productivity technique, because it creates mindspace for that which I can and want to tackle.

If I’m looking at “My Tasks” (a view I wish was available in other screens of Asana) I could just mark it for later and since my Later section is normally folded, it would effectively disappear.

But then I would have to manually dig it out of there for it to make it back to “My Tasks”.

You can take a look at how Boomerang does it for Gmails, as I think they got the paradigm largely right. (I pay Boomerang just to have this feature in Gmail)

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#2

Hi @SamA! What about rescheduling your task? For example, you can move it 15 days later, move it to your Later section, and it will automatically moved back to upcoming and eventually Today on the new due date!

I really like the Boomerang add-on, but the solution above is very similar!

#3

This is called task auto-promotion and for me this is the most powerful feature in Asana, I use it all the times!

#4

I agree. I’d just let it auto-promote based on the due date.

Also, @SamA, doesn’t Gmail have the inbuilt snooze feature now? I’m curious about what Boomerang does differently that’s worth paying for.

#5

@Marie, @Mark_Hudson and Bastien_Siebman yes, task autopromotion is great and I use it too.

But: not all tasks have due dates, and in fact, I find it bad practice to assign due dates to tasks just to force myself to do them by a certain date, and tasks that have a date had that date for a meaningful reason beyond when I need to get them done (for example I have a view with overdue tasks)

The idea of snoozing is to declutter my task view as suggested here https://blog.asana.com/2012/12/automatic-task-promotion/ but for a small time window (let’s say until this afternoon when I’ll be ready to deal with the snoozed tasks, or until friday when I have a lighter workload or more time to do task-driven work)

#6

This isn’t exactly relevant, but there may be a creative way to use it that you or someone else might think of…

There is a “hack” available in your profile settings that will allow you to create “follow-up” tasks that you can schedule for alternate dates, rather than rescheduling the original task’s due date. I use this for projects/large tasks that have been put aside for a unknown amount of time. I have the follow-up assigned to myself and scheduled to repeat every two weeks so I remember to check in with my supervisor if it’s okay to pick it up again.

#7

Hi @SamA

Couple of suggestions;

  1. I have split “My Task Today View” to include 3 sections, one called “Important” which are tasks that I really need to get done today. One called “Less Important” stuff I would like to get done today etc. and one called “Personal” which you could rename to “Snoozed” and then you could more tasks to either the Less Important section or Snoozed and then tackle them later that day or that week.

  2. What about creating a Custom Field or Tag called Snoozed or Boomerang and Setting up a report that looks for Custom Field or Tag. That way you can flag the Task and clear it from you My Task view and use the report to follow up on those tasks.

The only concern I would have with not setting due dates is that those Snoozed or Boomerang tasks might not come back… As per https://open.spotify.com/track/3kLzyreZ2HFJZYNZhJ8TcY?si=anUT0WXQSUCdDdKSkc42Ww

Hope this is of some help.

Jason.

#8

Ask I understand it, the core of @SamA request is granularity. Have a Task disappear from Today for 3 days or 3 hours. And it would be useful for people that like to live in a minimal My Tasks that helps them focus just on a small and very current list. And as I understand it is a work philosophy that many others like to use as a way to organize themselves.

I haven’t played with this at all, but I wonder if setting a due time effects when Tasks get moved to Today?

#9

The due time has no effect I believe.
This kind of boomerang could be done using a Chrome extension to add buttons in the interface. @lpb don’t you feel like give it a try?!

#10

@SamA, Nice idea, and thanks @Bastien_Siebman for the push! I do use this feature in Gmail and have made a note. I can’t promise to do it but I might, and will at least explore the idea a bit a minimum.

Larry Berger
Asana2Go & Asana Certified Pro consultant at Trilogi