How to Add Milestones in Asana (2026 Guide)
A milestone marks a meaningful moment in a project — a launch, a sign-off, the end of a phase — rather than a chunk of work. Asana renders milestones as diamonds so they stand out from ordinary tasks, and they’re available on every plan including free. Here’s how to add them.
1. Create a New Milestone
Web and desktop
- Open the project.
- Click the dropdown arrow next to the Add task button (top of the list or board).
- Choose Add milestone.
- Name it (e.g., “Beta launch”) and set a due date.
The milestone appears in your list or board with a diamond icon instead of the usual circle.
Mobile
- Open the project and tap + to add an item.
- Choose Milestone.
- Name it, set a date, and save.
2. Convert an Existing Task into a Milestone
If a task turns out to be a key date, you don’t have to recreate it:
- Open the task.
- Click the more options menu (···).
- Choose Mark as Milestone.
The task keeps its name, assignee, comments, and attachments — only its type changes. Choose Mark as Task from the same menu to switch it back.
3. See Milestones on the Timeline
Milestones earn their keep in visual views:
- On Timeline and Gantt views they show as diamond markers at their due date.
- They sit alongside task bars so you can see how work lines up against key dates.
- Connect milestones with dependencies so a slipping task visibly threatens the milestone after it.
4. Use Milestones in Reporting
- Status updates: Project status updates can reference upcoming and completed milestones to summarize progress.
- Portfolios: If you track multiple projects in a portfolio, milestones give leadership a clean read on phase completion without opening every project.
- Goals: Tie milestones to the outcomes they support so the “why” stays attached to the date.
5. Troubleshooting
I don’t see “Add milestone”
Click the small dropdown arrow beside Add task — milestone creation is tucked in that menu, not a separate top-level button.
My milestone isn’t a diamond on the Timeline
It needs a due date to render at a point on the Timeline. Add one if it’s missing.
Converting a task removed its subtasks
It shouldn’t — converting type preserves details. If subtasks look gone, check whether the task was duplicated instead. Milestones can technically hold subtasks, but it’s cleaner to keep the working subtasks on a regular task and use the milestone purely as the marker.
A milestone shows as complete too early
Milestones are marked complete like any task. If it auto-completed, someone (or a rule) checked it off. Reopen it and confirm no automation rule is closing it.
More on Asana: How to create a Gantt chart in Asana · How to set task dependencies in Asana · How to use board view in Asana · How to archive a project in Asana. To get a milestone-reached alert pushed to your team automatically, see Carly’s Asana integration.
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