Asana is a great project management system, with tons of functionality. However, like with any system that you elect to use to manage your work, there are some gaps. One such gap is the ability to generate a unique number for each task.
No Unique Numbers?
Before we get started on the benefits of a unique number associated with each task, it is important to point out that Asana does have a unique identifier associated with each task. You can see it in the URL when you select a task. Below is an example of one such URL.
Notice that there are a few numbers in this URL. For our discussion, we are interested in the last two:
873530153610019 - This is the unique identifier that Asana for the project.
1116730675646330 - This is the unique identifier associated with the task.
The URL will follow this format:
https://app.asana.com/0/{Project Identifier}/{Task Identifier}
So Asana does have unique identifiers for each task, however, this doesn't really resolve the issue at hand.
Benefits of Human Readable Number for Tasks
There are several benefits to having a simple number for each task. The ability to quickly reference a specific task if you happen to have a number handy will make all of your searches must faster. Consider common requests you may receive today like "Did you finish the task about finishing the proposal?" Not much detail there. However, those types of requests can change to "Did you finish task 86?"
Searching for tasks within Asana also becomes much easier. You can simply search for the task number to pull up the task instead of having to remember a portion of the name. Below is an example where you are able to search for "20" as the task number, and the search will return the task with the matching number.
How it Works
We have built an integration with Asana that provides an auto number capability for all tasks. You can watch the video below that walks through the setup process.
Our process allows you to setup a prefix, a suffix, and the number we should start counting from. Once you have your format configured and saved, you can then immediately head back to Asana to see the auto numbering in action.
Simply create a new task in Asana. Then wait a few seconds and you will see the number automatically applied to the task. As you modify existing tasks they will also get a number applied. To get started with your configuration, click here.