My circle often uses the “Start Date” function to put a task on our radar days prior to being due. The issue we run into is that tasks with a start date of today don’t appear in today’s tasks, it only appears on the date it’s due. It seems to me that for users who primarily use the My Tasks in list format don’t benefit from this function. I’m wondering if there’s work in the pipeline to show Start Date tasks in today’s tasks in list view up until the date the task is due? Use case: I have a task I’d like to start working on Monday and it’s due Friday, so I set the task Start Date to Monday and Due Date to Friday. Come Monday, I don’t see that task in today’s list, I only see it in Friday’s tasks.
Indeed it does not work that way, task auto promotion (fancy name for tasks moving automatically between Later Upcoming and Today) is based on the due date. @Marie can you confirme please?
Hi @Renee_Mohr and apologies for the late follow-up! @Bastien_Siebman you’re completely right, as it stands task promotion is based on due date. @Renee_Mohr thanks for providing us with some context this really helps us prioritising product improvements. Unfortunately I can’t promise if or when this will be changed, but we will definitely take your feedback on board when we revisit satrt dates or tasks promotion. In the meantime, I have moved your post to the #productfeedback; I’d encourage you hitting the “Vote” button at the top of this thread!
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This behavior seems critical for My Tasks to work as intended. I may have a task that will take multiple touches to complete during a specific time range (start and end date). Here’s a specific use case: Today I’m going to do this one part of the task - then delegate some work to another team member - as they complete their activities I need to come back to this task to keep moving the needle. For this to work, I would need something like a “Done for Today” option on My Tasks - where tomorrow it will bubble up again and let me determine if there is anything to do.
Having said that, the behavior I’m dreaming of seems very similar to a “Snooze” button - which would be even better where I could specify that I want to snooze this task until later today, tomorrow, or X days from now. A snoozed task would appear in the “upcoming” category with an indicator that the task has been snoozed.
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So I’m trying to use date ranges more because they are useful for a lot of reasons, but it’s annoying that they are sorted by their end date when I look at My Tasks because it creates the illusion that I don’t have to work on them yet, which is not true. I feel like this creates an incentive to use date ranges for broader tasks that can then be broken into more discrete subtasks with specific dates attached, which is possibly a good practice, but that’s not always the way things work, and so I wonder what it would be like if instead, any tasks with a date range that includes today would just be sorted to the end of today’s list, like a recurring task that doesn’t have to be checked off or regenerated, it just hovers at the edge of the list faithfully like a little puppy, reminding us to give it pets after our more urgent work is done…
Love, Kynthia
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Hi @Kynthia_Brunette and thanks for sharing this feedback with us! We already have a thread on this topic, so I’ve gone ahead and merged your post with the main thread. I would highly recommend to add your vote to this main thread; to do so, simply click on the “Vote” button at the top of this page 
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Currently, if I have a task due between Monday - Friday, it only pops up green and at the top of My Tasks list on Thursday and Friday, since Friday is the Due Date. For me, this creates a lot of chaos at the end of the week because my eyes are peeled for those green “DUE SOON” tasks. If I could see those tasks that are currently in range as green at the top of the list, it would give a much more realistic view of what is in the work pipeline for the week.
ASK: Create an option to view the My Task List in order of start date, not just default to End Date (“Due Date” in current interface).
Example
Today is March 26th. This task should be green, but it’s not.
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Thanks for taking the time to share your feedback with us @Anna_Greenwald!
We actually already have a thread on this topic, so in order to keep the Forum as organized as possible, I’ve gone ahead and merged your post with the existing thread; I hope you don’t mind!
Just wanted to add my vote for sorting/promoting by start date rather than end date. We use date ranges for two reasons: 1) the task will take longer than one day to complete, or 2) we are uncertain of the other person’s schedule and therefore want to give them several days in which to get it done. Many in my team sort their “My Tasks” by due date. Therefore they don’t even see these tasks until the day they are due, rather than several days before, as intended.
At this point, our only workarounds are to either a) skip date ranges altogether and put the “due” date as the start date and then explain the comments that it’s a “fluid” date. Or b) create an additional subtask due on the “start” date so that it pops up in their tasks at the right time. Both require additional time/energy.
Can someone explain the reasoning behind having ranges sort by end date?
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Happy to add my vote here, citing the same concerns other users have voiced about this feature.
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@Marie is it still the case that task auto promotion is based on the due date and not the start date?
Yes @Bastien_Siebman, that hasn’t changed
Please change this feature to add the option as start date. It has caused us to miss a few deadlines as my designer didn’t complete the work as the end date showed as the due date.
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I’ve long wanted to be able to organize my lists better. I wish I could order by project, and then due date within that project.
But now with start date the thing I want most is to be able to order my tasks by the start date. That way I can really think only about the things that I’m supposed to be working on now, but can also see ahead what’s coming up, even if the due date is far down the line. I can see it in the list, but It’s harder to think about when it’s not in order.
If I set a start date on a task it means I need to be reminded to start working on that task on a certain date. However, with this new feature the task appear ordered by due date (when I set “order by due date”) and it loses sense: what’s the point of setting a start date if I only see the task on top of my list when it is due? I hope Asana team solves this (or at least develops the possibility of choosing where the task is shown").
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@Alexis one of my team members asked me about this same thing- is there another topic that addresses this or suggests a work-around?
Hi there!
Loving asana so far but there’s this one thing that, for me, doesn’t really make sense and has caused me a lot of trouble last year.
Whenever we set a time span for the development of a task (start and due date), the task grid displays it at the bottom – on the due date. The problem is that I don’t see this task (that usually is a more complex one) flagged as green until it’s due date 
Wouldn’t it be nice to have such task positioned at the top of the grid on the start date and keep it fixed and green (as for today) until the due date? Doing so would help to make sure that this task gets some attention throughout the days.
What do you guys think?
Cheers!
Absolutely, Tasks should be promoted and given high visibility on their Start Date. That is the major benefit of a Start Date. I suspect it would be difficult to find someone who disagrees with this.
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Thanks to @paulminors pointing that out to me, it looks like now task auto-promotion is using the start date and not the due date anymore! My today’s test agrees @Marie can you confirm?
Hello! I found this online saying that it tasks that are in progress or starting should show on my Today tabs
" Now, your Today section will automatically include tasks that are starting, in-progress, or due."
This is not happening for my project. Do I have to change something? @Marie
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