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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Auto promote in My task not promoting tasks with due date in the past
Make a task come back later / hide till due date
Make a task come back later / hide till due date
Feature Request: Snooze tasks from 'Today'
Make a task come back later / hide till due date
#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

#11

Well, I am using GTD and I use the “new” section of my todo list as the GTD inbox.

When I need to defer the processing of an item I move it in the “later” sectiion in order to “snooze” it for a better moment to look at it.

I usually put a due date in order to use autopromotion to make the item higher again in my list.

I feel this is wrong in a sense… those items need to be processed at that certain date… they are not “actionable” in a strict sense.

Therefore I tag them as “snooze” and when a snoozed task emerges I move it manually to the new section and remove the due date.

It could be nice for new tasks to add a “snooze until this date/time” without messing with the due date… something google boomerang style…
So I vote for this.
.
Regards

Mauro

#12

One of my favourite things about Asana is how I can leave most of my tasks in “Upcoming” and “Later” so that I can focus on a select number of tasks in “Today”.

I often have tasks that I don’t want to work on today, but I want to be reminded of on a future day.

My workaround at present is to set a Due Date in the future and put the task into Upcoming or Later. On the due date, the task is returned to my “Today” section for consideration.

However, this means I’m using Due Date for two different purposes:

  1. To tell me the date something is actually due
  2. To set a date on which I want to be reminded about the task.

I would like a ‘snooze’ feature that works similarly to Due Date (auto-promotes the task to “Today” on the date) but is separate so that I can clearly see real deadlines, rather than a mix of deadlines and reminder dates.

#13

Welcome to the Forum @Craig_Drayton :blush: Thanks for sharing your feedback and some context to help us understand why this feature request could help you and your team! Hopefully this is something we can consider in future improvements, I’ll make sure to keep you posted as soon as I have some updates!

#14

HI @Craig_Drayton

Do you have a premium account? If so, you can use start dates to achieve this. Tasks are promoted to Today by their start date, so that could be your reminder, and the due date would be the actual date by which it must be completed.

If you don’t have a premium account, you could add your own section in Today for tasks that you want to keep an eye on but not complete yet. I have a section titled ‘Ongoing’ for this very purpose.

#15

Thanks Marie and Mark :smile:

#16

I really agree that there should be some type of feature where you can at least boomerang/snooze a comment in your inbox.

For instance, as someone who manages the workflow…

If someone said, I will be able to add a due date for this task once I speak to XYZ.

I don’t want that lingering around in my inbox/task list especially if it is not a task that I need to complete. I would prefer to BOOMERANG/SNOOZE that message to come back into my inbox to follow up with that person in X amount of days.

Will you guys be looking into this kind of feature for Asana? I use it ALL THE TIME in Gmail, I think it would be extremely useful on Asana as well.

This way fewer things “fall through the cracks”

Thanks! :+1:

#17

I want to pile on that this is a critical feature. There are some things that you cannot do anything about and you want them out of your mind. My favorite examples are annual events (start planning holiday party in October of next year) or recruiting (this candidate is great but gets paid their bonus in 4 months - ping again 45 days before their bonus). I find myself using my email to snooze these items rather than Asana from this deficiency.

#18

I came here to suggest a snooze feature, so am glad to see it has already been proposed. One problem with simply redefining the due date is that this can mess up recurring tasks (or at least certain kinds, ones that repeat on an interval — if you don’t want to alter the basis of the interval, but simply want to temporarily hide a task you cannot work on right now).

#19

Once you start using Snooze it becomes invaluable. I can’t stop thinking about how useful this would be in Asana.

Examples:

Complete my tax return. You can’t do it until a particular date so I don’t want to see it until that date.
Check x again in 4 days to see if it’s done. Sure, I can move it to the bottom of the list, but then I need to check the bottom of the list.

Snoozing would be super, super useful.

#20

@lpb our Chrome extension expert, don’t you want to develop it? :heart_eyes: