Search and search views
Whether you're simply trying to find a task you assigned to a colleague last week or preparing for reviews by gathering a record of your work, Asana keeps all of your work together and helps you make sense of it quickly with search.
Search allows you to find any task, project, tag, person, or team in your workspace or organization.
Press
Tab+/on your keyboard to focus on the search bar.
Basic search
To run a basic search, type the name or title of any object in the search bar.
The results of your search will display the following in the autocomplete below:
- Tasks
- Projects
- Templates
- Portfolios
- Messages
- Goals
- Project briefs
- Teams
- People
- Tags
Enter a person's name in basic search to access their profile.
Full text search
Run a full text search to search across every text field in tasks and conversations, including names, descriptions, and comments.
To run a full text search:
- Click into search and enter a keyword
- Select View all results with [keyword] (or press
Enteron your keyboard)
The results of your search will then appear in grid view, and you will see the Tasks, Messages, Projects, and Task in templates tabs.
Advanced search and search views
Advanced search allows you to specify additional requirements for a search. It appears at the very end of the display list.
Search views are lists of tasks, projects, or messages that meet the criteria you specify. Create a search view to find any specific group of tasks, projects, messages, or task templates.
The results of your search will only show tasks, projects, and messages you have permission for. Therefore, your colleagues may see different results, even if you're both searching with the exact same parameters.
Create a search view
- Click into search
- Select Advanced Search
In the Advanced search window, you will see a number of parameters that you can use to search.
Click +Add Filter to use additional search parameters.
Filters help you find exactly what you want, more quickly. You can either narrow or broaden your search.
When you create a search view, every field is optional.
The results of your search will appear in the main pane and the name of the search will appear at the top of the header.
From the search results, you can:
- Click Filter to change your search parameters
- Click Save Search to add the results under your Saved searches section in your sidebar
- Click Sort to reorder your tasks
- Click View to view as a list or as a calendar
Search views display tasks, projects, messages, and task templates that meet the parameters you've set.
Sort Results
Select Sort for a variety of fields to sort your search results by.
Save searches
If there are search views you will use regularly, you can save them as saved searches for easier access in the future.
- Click the Save search button to save your search view.
- Once saved, your search view will appear under your Saved searches in your sidebar.
Saving a search view saves the search parameters, so your saved search will update as you and your colleagues continue to work on tasks.
Click the drop-down arrow next to the search name to rename it. You first need to save a search for this option to appear.
How to search in a project
It is possible to search for tasks in a specific project. This is useful if you have projects with a large number of tasks.
To search within a project:
- Click the three dot icon
- Select Search this project
Search views quick tips
There are many parameters you can use in search views. Most of them are pretty self-explanatory, but here are some of the lesser known.
- Unassigned tasks - enter "Nobody" in the Assignee field
- Tasks in no projects - enter "No Project" in the Projects field
- Tasks with specific tags - choose "Has tags" or "Has all of these tags" in the Tags filter
- Tasks in a section of a project - after entering a project in the Projects field, click the drop-down arrow to select a section in the project to search in
- No parameter - use the "No Tags" or the "No Project" fields to find all tasks that are not associated with a tag or a project
- Assigned by - use the Assigned by filter to find tasks assigned by a specific member or guest
- Completion date - use the Completion date filter to find all tasks completed in the last X days
- Tasks with specific due dates - use the Due, Start, Completion, Creation, or Modification date fields to select "Between" to find tasks within a certain timeframe, or "On" to show tasks from a specific date
- Custom fields—use the Custom fields filter to search for specific custom field status.
Examples of searches to save
- Work you need to follow up on—Search for tasks you’ve created for others that are incomplete and due within 3 days.
- Tasks at risk—Search for tasks with a “high priority” custom field due today or tomorrow. Great for project managers to keep up momentum across projects.
- Blocked approvals—Search for tasks with a "ready for review" custom field and provide feedback for assignees to unblock work waiting on their approval.
- Work I’ve completed this quarter—Search for tasks assigned to you that were completed in a specific date range. Great for anyone to see their contributions for a review or to keep their resume updated.
How to make your work easily searchable
- Give all tasks clear, actionable names. Naming a task “draft customer spotlight blog” versus “blog” can help refine your search results—especially if the task is copied from a template.
- Give all tasks due dates, assignees, and put them in projects. This makes it much easier to narrow down your search with specific criteria.
- Use custom fields to categorize tasks within projects by certain criteria.
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