I am all ears! I just learned how to enhance forms to create real-time dashboards, but what other magical ideas do you all have?
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Only one?
I’d say my best hack - and I’ve rolled it out across our organization - is to rethink of “Due dates” as “Do dates.” In most cases, if people are working properly from My Tasks, they should be scheduling things to pop up when they’re relevant to work on, not when it’s too late.
If something has a hard deadline we’ll put that in the task description [MARCH 18] or add a custom field. But day-to-day we can see when someone intends to work on a task, whether they missed working on it, and bury it until it’s time to work on it based on rules.
I honestly don’t know how anyone else uses “Due dates” as they’re intended, having this one static far-off date that’s reference info more than actionable… Unless you’re looking at a timeline, of course.
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My big one is the “All Activity” tab in tasks.
This provides next level transparency and collaboration. It allows folks to see who’s “holding the football”, the changing deadlines, notes, etc.
I love this idea and I am going to try it, because you are right-putting things in only on an abstract due date means the work that has to come in front of that can get lost. Thanks for lifting this, as well as the nomenclature around ways to put the hard deadline in the task name/description.
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Can you say more about this? What do you mean?
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I love this idea and plan to use it
Nice idea!
I think improving productivity by automating workflows like requiring manager approval for tasks, creating automated workflow for moving tasks to a section when certain fields are selected.
This saves time and also productivity.
I have a different take on this. But I’m not trying to change your mind; I respect your opinion as a familiar face around these parts. I just want to offer another perspective for those others reading here.
For tasks completely private to oneself, I agree with you: use the Due date as a “do” date as you suggest, if you want to.
But for shared tasks, I recommend to clients using the Due date field for the actual due date only, not “do” date. If you want, and you’re on any Asana paid plan, use the Start date component of the Due date field as the “do” date; that’s effectively a date range of:
"Do" date - "Due" date
Using just the one Due date field is simpler. Also, relegating the actual Due date to part of the title or to another custom field is less clear. Also, it prevents you from taking advantage of Asana’s built-in support for that field across different surfaces and features.
Many (most) of us do! My approach to My Tasks has Start date (not just Due date) rules to allow tasks to “to pop up when they’re relevant to work on:”
Thanks,
Larry
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Thanks for the alternate perspective, @lpb. I imagine you’re absolutely right, and what you’re describing is far more in line with common and best practice. Just another case False consensus effect - I’m an outlier here but assume everyone has the same experience as me.
For additional context, I admit that I have a narrow range of experience regarding business cases. Our import and distribution operation is small and probably not representative of the majority of Asana environments:
- We have few projects with hard deadlines like campaigns or service delivery.
- Our time-sensitive work is “orders in, shipments out” which flows through our ERP not Asana.
- We have small teams where information flow is still more effective informally than structured.
- Asana’s primary functions for us are structure, collaboration, execution - not reporting, tracking, updating.
In this context, “Do dates” are more useful than “Due dates.” But as they say on the interwebs and the car ads, YMMV 
Also…
Since when is this possible? 
I missed this feature release! Could change everything.
Finally, wow. The legendary @lpb recognizes me as a familiar face? That just made my week. 
I appreciate that very thoughtful reply, @Liohn_Sherer!
I loved reading about the False consensus effect, and it reminded me to be always vigilant against the Fundamental attribution error.
In your environment (“small teams where information flow is still more effective informally than structured”), you’ve found the best approach for you, which is great. It’s kind of an extension of my comment that “do” dates for private tasks are fine — to your close-knit team. I regularly advise clients that org-wide policies may not work across every team. The important thing is to have a team-wide policy that works; you check that box. Another example: A team operating in a fast-paced environment may need its members to check the Asana Inbox every half hour, while for another team, a daily check may be sufficient.
“Start date is approaching” rules were added maybe a year ago (don’t quote me). I agree–they may offer the best of both worlds for some use cases.
I have enjoyed your posts over the years, but I’m drawing the line with that comment 
I’ll quote someone (a jazz legend) who really did deserve that designation. After being lauded, he demurred: “It’s better to be a legend than a myth.”
I would also love to hear more @Danielle_Salamanca
@Danielle_Salamanca I have a number of hacks, but this My Tasks hack is the first one that I’ve created a video for, so here it is.