Tasks Created Via Email Needs Due Date

Most of our default views are sorted by due date. I often forward emails to Asana to create new tasks, but they do not appear because there is no due date. I have to send the email, go to asana and search for the new task, and add a due date. This is often not possible when I am on the go.

Is it possible to email with a due date? If not, could you make all new tasks default to a due date of today?

16 Likes

Due dates are not available when emailing a task. I know this from my Outlook Add-in, Sendana.

I like this suggestion as a work around for the fact that you can’t add due dates via email.

13 Likes

@Michael_Kinney If your default views are by due date, I suggest that you forward emails to your My Tasks rather than a project. From there you can add a due date, a new assignee (if necessary), and use Tab+P to add the task to the necessary project. This Guide article shows how you can forward tasks to My Tasks.

1 Like

That does not help me. The idea is this: a customer submits a reservation on our website, we get an email from the website with the reservation details, gmail forwards it to Asana, our staff monitors Asana for all tasks including managing reservations.

I am trying to make this automated so I can focus on other things rather then watching for emails.

7 Likes

@Michael_Kinney If you’re looking for more automation, then I suggest that you explore Asana’s many integrations. Zapier has pre-built automations. Tray.io might be able to give you the custom automation you’re looking for.

1 Like

@Michael_Kinney, this is definitely possible using Zapier. You could set it up so that when you add a Gmail tag to those emails (whether manually or using a Gmail filter) it automatically adds a task to Asana in a specific project with a due date (such as “+3 days” which is 3 days from today). As long as the due dates were consistent, it would be fairly easy to set up. I cover that exact scenario in more detail in the Asana Training Masterclass.

2 Likes

Even Todoist has this functionality by simply using [Date 6/17/17] in the body of the email. I don’t use todoist as it is extremely primitive compared to Asana, but I hope this functionality can be implemented.

8 Likes

The real solution is for me to continue the work on G-Mail version of Sendana, www.sendana.net .

so all you non-Outlook users don’t feel discriminated against. PC users that use G-Mail can simply buy Outlook and use its automatic sync. Believe me I know about every field that can be emailed or has to use the API because we had to address all of them and how to have Sendana look them up. Next week, we work on Tags. :slight_smile: When I complete the G-mail project I assume the MAC users will be happy also.

3 Likes

@James_Carl Looks very cool! As a gmail user - looking forward to seeing this!

3 Likes

It is in the works. Unfortunately it is our policy to not promise any estimated time of release but know that it is in the pipeline :slight_smile:

8 Likes

Sounds familiar :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye::grin:

I thought you would like that and know you have a great sense of humor :slight_smile:

1 Like

@Alexis One big difference though: @James_Carl told us it’s in the pipeline! So far, asana will not even take that step. (I know, I’m ruining the moment I’m sorry :smiling_imp: - but this is really important to my business so I keep harping on it).

A good compromise would be what Spotify does: at least let us know when a feature or fix is completely off the table for the foreseeable future.

The Community team talks with various other Spotify teams several times a month about the ideas that have over 100 kudos. It’s from these meetings that we apply one of the following statuses to each idea:

Good Idea, Give It Some Kudos - We like this idea. A decision has not been made but we want to see how much the Community continues to vote on it.
Not Right Now - We talked about this internally and it’s not on our timeline for the next few months or more.
Under Consideration - This has been brought up internally.
Watch This Space - This feature is coming. We have a rough timeline for its release.
Implemented - This feature has rolled out.

2 Likes

We hear your suggestion, @Tyro. As I’m sure you can understand a lot of people are involved in the decision to reveal or to not reveal a product roadmap publicly. As your community manager, I have delivered your feedback to my team :innocent: and they’re aware of your feedback.

4 Likes

Thanks, @Alexis! I do appreciate it.

1 Like

simply using [Date 6/17/17]

This would be a great implementation.

3 Likes

This is my highest-priority need from Asana right now. My organisation doesn’t use gmail, so I can’t use Zapier. At the very least, I would appreciate the ability to do a search within Asana for tasks that do not have a due date, so that I can manually add due dates to tasks from email.

I will most likely stop using Asana soon due to lack of this feature, as manually creating tasks that correspond to email is taking too much of my time.

5 Likes

Hey @Rebecca_Fiebrink, regardless of what email client you use, you should still be able to email Asana tasks and forward them, etc. Sorry if you already knew this and you just mean assigning due dates is taking too much of your time.

You could always just add the due date in as the first line when you email tasks? None of it’s ideal, I want this fixed too, but that way whomever gets your task can assign the due date on their own, etc. And when you go through your My Tasks every morning (or whatever), you can arrange your day and add due dates while you do it.

The problem we only use tasks sorted by due date and therefore don’t show up. If they could default to today that would work as well

1 Like