Hi @Alexis thanks for clarifying. I was erroneously under the impression that the participation in the forums by Asanees like yourself would lead to deeper dialogue than “This is a great suggestion” I shall therefore refrain form requesting answers , but probably also reduce the suggestions, since response is minimal.
I do however still have a challenge with Asana and our projects, where we are loosing track due to a cluttered view. I have assigned a person the task of re-organizing our Asana during the summer, and if this does not work then we must look for another platform.
4 Likes
Hi Peter,
Thanks for reaching out. We in the Community will be happy to assist in reducing clutter. Cleaning up My Tasks and establishing Asana Conventions on one’s team can be a big help. Please feel free to reach out to us or encourage your colleague to reach out to us during your re-organization of Asana. 
1 Like
Thanks for the continuous sweettalking @Alexis - Cleaning up is not enough, so we shall carve our own path…
2 Likes
Thanks @Alexis for the workaround and everyone else for the feedback and proposals.
I have to admit I am not a fan of creating a task to represent a project because it raises the entropy in the organisation of the system (tasks with archived projects, projects without the task and so on…)
HOWEVER, one of the advantages I see in using a task to represent a project is that you can then use the custom fields to specific the status of the project without having one simple way of organising the list of projects. Moreover you can add the tasks in a board, which can function as a “stage” for your projects.
Thanks
Carlo
2 Likes
I too would like to see some sort of folder structure available within Asana, I’d be happy if the existing Tag infrastructure/approach could be applied to the project node rather than just the task node. That way I could group projects from across teams that might all be related to a particular “theme” such as “Conversion Rate Improvement”. Agencies could tag projects with the client name.
In the mean time have you considered using Teams as the top level “folder”? In your example above Electrical, Software, Mechanical would be “teams” with their own projects). Kludgy, but might work, particularly if you do not use the team conversations feature. I think you would loose access to a calendar view of all the project which might be a non-starter.
4 Likes
@Alexis I am setting up a Project Directory as your suggestion above but wanted to ask, is there a way to keep the project viewable to all but restrict editing? Because I know someone will forget to add the word “reference”. 
2 Likes
Hi Crystal! Glad this project directory idea will be helpful. At this time Asana doesn’t have the permissions settings you describe. However, I understand the concern 
I recommend that you visit your project member settings to ensure that you receive an inbox notification if anyone adds a new task. This way you can confirm that the word reference is included and reach out to the task creator or change the task title if something goes awry. Please let me know if you have other questions!
2 Likes
Hi @Alexis I really like @Mike_Hoefer’s idea about using Teams as “folders”. We’ve started doing that and really like it. However, we’re new and I’m worried if there’s some kind of problem with this “hack.”
Do you see any potential problems with this approach? We’ll have probably 2-3 dozen “teams” as folders.
1 Like
Honestly I think it all depends on the use case! If it works for your team, great. If your gut is telling you that this format is a little risky (which it sounds like it is), then I say hold off for now until you and your team are more familiar with the platform.
1 Like
Hi, we have the same concern here. The lack of solution to regroup projects forces us to use the project as categories of tasks, which are either simple tasks or project-like tasks because they have numerous substasks.
We understand that is not how Asana thought we would use their solution, but Teams organization doesnt make sense at all in our case. And where Asana shines is how we can freely use their tools to create something that responds to our business needs. But enforcing users to create Teams because this is the only way to group projects is wrong.
Our organization is currently testing the premium version and it could be a no go because of that unfortunately.
5 Likes
Hi @Franz - We appreciate your thoughtfulness here. Please let me or my colleagues @Marie and @Michael_A know if there’s anything we can do to help as you consider Asana. We’d love to help you find a solution that works for you.
1 Like
Hello Sam. Thanks for posting.
FYI. Your “video for other workaround/hacks solutions” link no longer works. It redirects to a landing page for Asana Academy. 
FYI my company is working on an Asana integration that will display both workspaces/teams/projects, and also tasks/subtasks, in collapsable outline format (and also provide offline use), i.e.:
1 Like
Did this get completed?
1 Like
Do the people who work at Asana still use reference projects, or do they use something else in the years since this post?