Asana is a great project management app with plenty of features to make a business projects flow seamlessly. Sometimes, working on tasks will require you to re-arrange the project. This may require you to transform a subtask into a task or vice versa.
The process is super simple when you know how to do it. But if you’ve never tried converting tasks in Asana before, you may find the challenge a bit unclear. Fortunately, with proper guidance in the form of step-by-step instructions, you’ll realize that converting a subtask into a task is a breeze. This is exactly what this article will help you understand.
How to Make a Subtask a Task
Asana allows you to use subtasks to break up one task’s work into smaller parts to split the project among different team members. A subtask works like an independent task and features all the fields as its parent task. The only difference is that the subtask is embedded into a parent task.
Before we dive into explaining how to turn in a subtask into a task, it’s important to make sure you know how to create a subtask in the first place.
Here’s how to do so:
- Open Asana on your device of choice. You can use any browser to perform this step.
- Log into your account.
- Hit the “Subtasks” button in your task detail pane. Alternatively, hit “Tab” + “S” using your keyboard after selecting a parent task.
- After creating a subtask, select it and hit “Enter” to create a new one.
That’s it! You have now created a subtask in Asana.
If you’re new to the app, you may not know that you can only have five levels of subtasks under one task. Maybe you realize you can’t fit all of the subtasks into a task and wish to regroup your project or simply want to re-arrange the tasks.
The next logical step is to make a subtask a task. When it comes to doing so, things can get a bit tricky. The Asana menu doesn’t feature any buttons or options for converting subtasks into tasks directly. That’s why proceeding with this action can be unclear if you’re just learning how to use the app.
However, this doesn’t mean transforming a subtask into a task is an impossible job. Quite the opposite – it’s super easy once you get a grasp of it.
When you open your Asana project, proceed with the steps below to transform a subtask into a task:
- Click on a project containing a subtask you wish to convert. You can access a list of available subtasks by clicking on the small triangle pointing to the right next to the task’s name.
- Hit the “Details” button to the right of the task’s name.
- Scroll down until you see the “Subtask” section with all the available subtasks.
- Hover over the subtask and click on the six dots icon that appears on the left of the subtask.
- Drag the subtask over to the left-hand side view and drop it wherever you want it to be moved. A black line will appear as you drag the file through the project list showing you the future location of the task once you drop it.
- Let go of the subtask to place it in the new location.
You’ll see that the subtask has now become a task within that specific section. You can go back to the original task you converted the subtask from and see that the file is now missing from the list.
If you try to drag the subtask back to its original location, you’ll notice that it doesn’t work like that. If you suddenly realize you’ve made a mistake and wish to bring the subtask back to where it was, you should follow the steps below:
- Open the details of the task you wish to convert to a subtask.
- Scroll down to the “Subtask” section.
- Drag the little six dots next to the task on the left-hand side over to the right-hand side under the “Subtask” section.
You can see that the task on the left-hand side now has a new subtask included in the respective “Subtask” section.
Getting Around Subtask Conversion in Asana
Transforming a subtask into a task and vice versa isn’t immediately straightforward for first-time Asana users. However, once you realize how easy it is to simply drag and drop subtasks from one page to another, you’ll be able to perform the job in no time at all. You can better organize your projects, prioritize tasks, and split them according to their importance with a simple tweak.
All it takes to master this process are little practice and detailed guidance. That’s why we have made sure to provide the clearest possible steps to help you complete this conversion successfully and make the most out of your Asana experience.
Did you have an easy time following the instructions in this article? Do you know of any other ways of making a subtask a task in Asana? Share your experience and know-how in the comments section below.
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