Search - Search and search views

Modified on Fri, 19 Jul at 2:38 PM

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, portfolio, tag, person, goal 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.

You can also use the "@" key to search for individual users, tasks or projects

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 Enter on 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

Available on Asana Starter, Advanced, Enterprise, and Enterprise+ tiers, as well as legacy tiers Premium, Business, and Legacy Enterprise.

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 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.

Custom field and search views

Use search views to search for tasks using the same custom field across multiple projects.

Start by clicking the search bar to access the advanced search options. From there, click Add filter, then select Add custom field.

The custom field must be added to your organization's field library to show up in the advanced search options.

Sort results

Select Sort for a variety of fields to sort your search results by.

Saving your search results

If there are search views you will use regularly, you can save them for easier access in the future.

Click the star icon to save your search view.
Once saved, your search view will appear under your Starred items 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 by clicking on the star icon for this option to appear.

Find & access projects

There are many ways to access a project:

Search for the project's name
From the list of projects in Teams
From the list of projects in the sidebar

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.
Due dates and start dates
- Within the next: All tasks due from today onward
- Through the next: Includes all past due dates

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.