Have you seen the recent update from Asana whereby your task meta-data can now be visible on your project as custom fields?
What does this mean? And how can you make use of it?
Before I share some tips, a quick reminder of what the old norm was. You create a project, within your tasks select an assignee and a due date.
In most projects, throughout the life of a project, you would be required to have some strict monitoring of the progress of tasks so you know what changes, edits and completions have taken place. Such strictness meant you had to dig deep into each task to check what has been happening. As we all know, this can be (in fact - to me personally - is) an operational nightmare and nearly impossible.
So for that reason, I welcome this meta data to be visible as custom fields. Because:
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Now, I can see when a task was modified from the project list view at a quick glance and decide whether I need to tap into that task or not
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Now, I can filter by the custom field of last modified on and track tasks that seem to have been forgotten and untouched for a month
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Now, I can see when a task was completed on and compare that to the due date. It is a starting point to start tapping into productivity reports and lessons learnt for better planning of future projects
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Knowing who created a task for a project that is running for a long time could give you context to the story behind the task - especially if it was created a while back
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Now, you can extract your project data and do your own analysis on created on, modified on, completed on, and provide organisation leadership an overview of project time spent and where they can improve on it
Have you started using these fields already? How are you using them?
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I havenât used them already but I am sure the use cases will present themselves soon! Good post.
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Thank you! Je suis sur, you will love them.
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Great tip! Thanks @Rashad_Issa! We are gradually rolling out Metadata Fields and itâs currently available to 50% of customers (in case someone canât access yet). It will be available to all customers within a couple of days 
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Hello! This is a terrific, much-appreciated addition. However, Iâm struggling to identify a way to use them similar to how I use other custom fields. For example, I am trying to:
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Toggle the Created by field to display the name of who submitted a form (without opening the task).
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Sort by the Created on field, so I can work through tasks in the sequence a form was submitted.
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Create a Task timing rule based on a relative time frame after Last modified on field to send a reminder about tasks which may have âfallen off of the radar.â
If I am missing instructions or other information around using this captured data, I apologize. Otherwise, I would appreciate any suggestions or feedback to point me in the right direction.
Thanks!
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Hi @Rob_Watson
Welcome to the forum!!
can you please provide a bit more details as to what it is you are unable to do? I can go to customise, scroll down to the field that says created by and then toggle it. Once it is toggled, the field appears in the project list view and I can see who created the task without clicking into the task itself.
And I also tried the created on field and you can click on the filter option at the top of the project, click custom filter, and then select created on. The tasks will show in the order.
Are you saying the toggle is not showing for you? or the desired action is not happening?
Thanks so much for following up,@Rashad_Issa.
Once it is toggled, the field appears in the project list view and I can see who created the task without clicking into the task itself.
Ah, I see that you specifically mentioned List view; I have been attempting to use these, as I do other custom fields, on the Board view. I just verified in both the desktop app and web version, that these fields do appear as columns on the List view when toggled. However, despite toggling from Board view, they do not appear for use within our Kanban workflows.
Perhaps I missed something, but I did not see any notes indicating that these new fields are restricted to List view. Could someone verify whether this is a bug, a development oversight, or a coming feature in the near future?
Hello @Rob_Watson
I am glad you tried it in list view and it worked.
I can confirm this is not a bug. It is the correct behaviour. The task metadata is a new release which is currently only available to list view. It will not doubt be released to other views in the future.
Thanks, Rashad
Thank you, @Rashad_Issa . Could you please point me to the official documentation or comment from Asana you used to confirm this? Iâd like to read up on what else I may have missed.
Cheers.
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Hi @Rob_Watson 
you can find more info about Metadata Fields in our Guide article here: Using Asana List Layout | Product Guide âą Asana Product Guide. I hope this helps!
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Hi everyone! Iâm excited to share that Metadata Fields also appear in My Tasks list view now! This update is available to all Premium, Business, and Enterprise customers 
Let us know if you have any questions!
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Can you please change the âCompleted onâ field to a date?
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You canât edit the value anyway, so what does it change?
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Hi Emily!
Iâm SO excited about the Last Modified field but unfortunately I am running into a problem. I am able to add/use the field on my personal tasks, but Iâm not able to do so on a project. I confirmed our company is on the Premium Organization plan. Any idea why this is happening?
Hi @anon18414279 Could you check the âShow fieldsâ menu on the left hands side of your project? You can show/hide metadata fields from there
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That worked! Thanks so much @Nao_Kumazaki 
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I was unsure where to find this. It now appears in a section called âHideâ it seems - is there an update to docs I was missing or could that be updated? Love all the functionality and the fact it continues to improve! thanks for all you guys do!
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Yes it has been moved/renamed a few weeks ago. A lot of us donât agree with the wording though.
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