Task Templates with dependencies & relative dates

[Brian_Fewell]

I used Asana in the past & my new workplace is implementing it now and I see one issue I had previously still exists.

I’m trying to build out a task template for sending course promotion emails for my professional association clients.

I want to be able to set it up so that each email has a specific dependencies and subtasks that are scheduled for specific times relative to the send date of the email.

So, in the example here, if the send date is 3/20, the first subtask is scheduled for 3/13, & so on. For each email, we want to follow this pattern where content is collected 7 days before sending, the email is built & sent for review 6 days before, reviews are due 2 days before, and final edits are made the day before.

I want to have a template set up so that when I build the projects, I can put in the send date for each email, and the other dates populate automatically along that same timeframe — and I can sit down in one session and build them all out at once.

But with task templates, it looks like the relative dates feature only works based on the time a task is created. So I can’t sit down today & build out the calendar with emails on, say, 3/20, 4/5, and 4/16 all at once, because if I use relative dates, all three of those would end up the same due date if I build them on the same day, which is not what I want.

Am I stuck having to manually set all of these dates, OR having to make sure that I always go in on the correct date to create the task from a template?

Is there a way to accomplish what I’m trying to do?

[anon91170507]

I don’t think so. Here is a similar question: Relative task due dates depending on the final subtask due date - #3 by Rebecca_McGrath

[Brian_Fewell]

Ugh. It seems like such a fundamental thing that I’m surprised it still hasn’t been implemented. It’s not a deal breaker, but it would save me a few minutes every time I have to add an email task, and over the course of a year that’s hours of my time.

[Bryan_TeamKickstart]

@Brian_Fewell - but there is a solution. Now that rules support dependencies between subtasks, you can essentially build a task template replica by using rules. And the relative dates can be based on Start Date.

So, in the example from your screenshot, make the start date of the parent task March 13th, and then trigger your rule (by using a custom field or a specific section as the trigger+condition). Your action is “Create Subtasks” and then open each subtask and add the dependencies and relative due dates.

[Brian_Fewell]

Ahh, okay — I hadn’t thought about specifying a start date. I’ll play around with this & see what I can figure out. TY!

[Brian_Fewell]

Well, that technically works but it means I need to have a separate subtask for the “Send” task because otherwise it shows up in the email calendar for the full duration of the task instead of just on the send date.

Really frustrating to have to go through a bunch of extra hoops for this.