15 Useful Tips on How to Use Asana most effectively

My Marketing Advisor introduced Asana to me several years ago and I fell in love with it the first time I logged in. Since then, I started to use it not only for my various Businesses, but also to manage my private tasks - scheduling medical appointments for my kids, all the little projects at school, and even managing gift lists for my beloved. However, the greatest contributions of the program is when I manage my Business projects.

If you're looking to maximize the potential of Asana for project management, it's essential to learn some advanced tips and tricks. While Asana is user-friendly, understanding its hidden features can significantly improve your productivity.

Here are 15 quick tips to help you get the most out of Asana for both project and task management, enabling you to stay organized, productive, and on track with your business.

1) Customize Your Project Display

When setting up a project in Asana, tasks are initially displayed in the order they were entered. If you prefer a different layout, simply change between the various display options (ex. List, Board, Grantt, Calendar etc.) listed under the project name.

For teams using Asana, you can save a customized view for the entire team, including sorting options like date, assignee, priority or status.

2) Rearrange Projects

Easily adjust the order of your project list in the sidebar by selecting among Alphabetical, Recent or Top orders. This feature allows you to customize the organization of your projects effortlessly.

3) Incorporate Sections into Projects or Tasks

Utilizing sections in Asana proves beneficial for segmenting extensive projects. For instance, you can establish sections based on task types like Marketing, Sales, Social Media, Products and more.

Alternatively, you can categorize tasks by time frames such as 1st Quarter, 2nd Quarter, or specific deadlines like 2 weeks out, 4 weeks out, and so on.

To add a section, simply press Tab+N on your keyboard within Asana. This straightforward shortcut enables you to efficiently structure and organize your projects and tasks for improved clarity and workflow management.

4) Organize Tasks into Today, Upcoming, and Later

Asana allows you to categorize your tasks into three sections: Today, Upcoming, and Later. Initially, I was skeptical about this feature, but I've come to rely on it. It helps me concentrate on my immediate tasks for the day, while also keeping track of tasks that need to be completed soon.

To assign a task to a specific section, simply click on one or more tasks and use the following Asana keyboard shortcuts:

Today: Use the shortcut Tab + Y
Upcoming: Use the shortcut Tab + U
Later: Use the shortcut Tab + L

5) Conceal Upcoming and Later Sections

Once you've categorized your tasks into On-going, Today, Upcoming, and Later sections, it can be useful to hide the Upcoming and Later sections during the workday. This helps you focus on the tasks that need to be completed today.

To do this, simply click on the arrow next to "Upcoming" or "Later" to toggle the view on or off. This allows you to declutter your workspace and concentrate on the tasks at hand.

6) To Set up Repeating Tasks in Asana

By utilizing repeating tasks in Asana, you can streamline your workflow by automating repetitive tasks, ensuring they are completed consistently, and freeing up mental energy for more strategic activities.

To set up repeating tasks, follow these steps:

Navigate to the project where you want to add a repeating task
Create a new task or select an existing one that you want to make repeating
Click on the task to open its details
Click on the "Due Date" field to open down for more options
Next to "Repeats", click on the dropdown menu to choose the recurrence pattern that suits your task (e.g., daily, weekly, monthly)
You can also set the specific details for the recurrence (e.g., start date, end date)

7) To Establish Task or Project Priorities

This approach allows you to efficiently prioritize tasks and projects, ensuring that critical items receive the necessary attention and are easily accessible for follow-up or completion.

Asana doesn't offer priority levels in the free version, however there is an easy way to add it to your tasks by following these steps:

Create custom tags using preferred priority labels (e.g., high, medium, low)
Apply these tags to tasks or projects to denote their priority level
Utilize Asana's search function to quickly locate high-priority tasks or projects by searching for the corresponding tags

8) Add a Task to Multiple Projects

This method allows you to save time and eliminate re-work by assigning a task to multiple projects. It also ensures that you have a better visual of your workload and only need to check off the task once, regardless of how many projects it belongs to.

To add a task to multiple projects, follow these steps:

Click on "My Tasks"
Create a new task by clicking "Add task"
Name your task and then press "Enter"
Click "Details" to expand the task details
Click "Add to projects"
Select the projects you wish to assign this task to. To add more than one project, click "+"
Click away from the details menu to return to the task view and you can already see all the projects your task had been assigned to

9) E-mail Tasks to Asana

Any task-related email can be forwarded to Asana using x@mail.asana.com as the forwarding email address (this is the address for all Asana users).

Asana matches up the "from" email address that is tied to your Asana account and creates a new task. You can add additional "from" email addresses in your profile settings.

10) To Modify Multiple Tasks Simultaneously

This feature allows you to efficiently assign team members, set due dates, or perform other bulk actions on multiple tasks at once, saving time and streamlining your workflow.

Here's how to use the multi-select function:

To select a consecutive group of tasks, click on the first task, hold down the "shift" key, and then click on the last task. This will select the first, last, and all tasks in between.
To select non-consecutive tasks, hold down the "control" or "command" key, then click on the desired tasks individually.

11) Utilize @mentions for Connecting People, Tasks, & Projects

@mentions serve as dynamic links within Asana, connecting various elements seamlessly. By typing @ followed by the initial characters of the object you wish to link, Asana will auto-populate the rest.

Although, for Soloentrepreneurs this feature may serve differently as you were in a bigger team.

For Solopreneurs, @mentions can be used to link projects or tasks to each other, or even descriptions or comments, so that you don't have to review a whole list of tasks or a bunch of projects to find what you are looking for.

When it comes to team work, @mention can be employed to tag fellow team members which is very useful, because people don't have to search for every single information they are concerned about, but they can see immediately thanks to @mention feature.

This feature enhances Asana's collaborative capabilities, allowing all project-related discussions to be centralized within the platform, and reducing the need for external communication channels like email. This is a very useful time-saving feature that is worth to use for sure.

12) To Visualize Workflows Using Boards

Asana boards are particularly useful for projects where tasks are batched or have distinct stages. For instance, you can use boards for processes like content creation, social media scheduling, or project management.

By utilizing boards, you can easily track the progress of tasks and have a clear visual representation of where each task stands in the workflow.

To do so, follow these steps:

Create a new project in Asana
Choose "Board" as the layout for the project
Organize your workflow by setting up columns representing different process steps
As tasks progress, drag them across columns to reflect their current status and position in the workflow

13) To Enhance your Workflow by Integrating Various Apps

Asana offers integrations with a range of tools including Google Drive, Toggl, Slack, Dropbox, Google Calendar, and more.

I find Google Drive integration useful for linking relevant files to projects and Toggl integration beneficial for efficient time tracking.

By leveraging these integrations, you can streamline your tasks, improve collaboration, and boost productivity within Asana.

14) To Document Processes

This platform simplifies the creation of project templates for large processes and enables the documentation of smaller processes using tasks and sub-tasks. Once a process is documented, you can easily copy the project or task whenever you need to execute that process again. This will significantly improve efficiency in your business operations, ensure consistency, and save valuable time.

15) To Implement an "Idea Pool" project

By incorporating an "Idea Pool" project into your Asana workflow, you can maintain a running list of potential tasks and ideas, ensuring that you don't forget about them while keeping your immediate to-do list manageable and focused.

Use this project as a repository for all tasks and ideas that you may want to pursue in the future but are not yet ready to commit to.

Do not forget to regularly review and update the project, moving tasks to your active to-do list when you're ready to tackle them.

If you want to know more features, this article is for you.

15 Useful Tips on How to Use Asana most effectively

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