An ongoing struggle for many companies is: how to effectively keep track of all the tasks and projects. With a multitude of deadlines, and employees to manage, creating an efficient project workflow often seems like an impossible task. Luckily, thanks to Asana, it does not need to be like that anymore. This smart tool was developed with team managers in mind. You might have probably heard about it, or perhaps, you even started using it already. However, something tells me you would not be reading this article if you had full knowledge. So, here is a bit of good news: this article was written especially for you! Learn how to use Asana effectively and make it your best friend in the strive for your business development and efficient project management. Thanks to this guide and many useful tips, you can get your productivity to the next level.
What is Asana?
Let us start from the very beginning, from the Asana itself. What is it? Asana serves as a project management tool that unites teams in a shared workspace, in which they can work on the parts of their projects one by one.
The tool is in the cloud. This allows you and the team to create tasks, assign them, set deadlines, and track the progress from any place in the world. Of course, to create a project, the team members must be able to communicate, and Asana does not fall short when it comes to collaboration features. Members can comment, react, and attach files to tasks.
Asana has some advanced features too. You can enjoy various overviews of projects and tasks, such as visual boards, lists, etc. These are very useful in showing members responsible for tasks and project status.
The guide on how to use Asana
Since we already know what Asana can do, now, we can go through how to achieve it step by step.
Sign up
As with most software, we must start by registering. To do that we must visit Asana's website and sign up. We advise you to start with the free plan. Before paying any subscription fee it is good to test the software and get a feel of it. You can also get some initial experience and see if it is the right choice for your business.
How to get a free trial? Visit the Asana website and find the 'Start for free' button. Complete the form (email address, name, password) and hit 'Sign up for free.' Next, go to your inbox where you will find an email from Asana explaining how to verify your email address. After confirming your email address you can set up your account.
Setting up
The process of setting up your account involves filling out your personal details and selecting the time zone for your operations. Another question that may be asked is which pricing plan you would like to opt for. It is not necessary to commit to any, simply choose the free trial option. However, once we are on the topic of the premium plans, we will briefly touch on the pricing.
Pricing Plans
At the moment of writing this article, Asana offers five pricing plans divided into two groups:
Individuals & small teams
Personal: it is Asana’s free plan that offers basic features such as creating tasks, managing projects, and sharing files. It is perfect for those who are just getting started with this tool.
Starter: The price of this plan is $10.99 per user per month (when billed annually). It offers all that you get with the free plan plus more advanced features such as custom fields, advanced search, and integrations with other tools. It is suitable for teams who want to keep track of their projects' progress and hit deadlines.
Advanced: Asana’s advanced plan costs $24.99 per user per month (when billed annually). With this plan, you are getting all the benefits of the Starter plan plus some extra features, such as portfolio management, custom rules, automation, and priority support. It is a perfect choice for teams who wish to manage a portfolio of work and goals across departments.
Businesses & enterprises
Enterprise- one of the individually priced plans that offer all features that come with the Advanced plan plus other useful features, such as workflow bundles, advanced integrations, and no user seat limit. It is a great choice for all those who must coordinate and automate complex work across departments, with no limitations.
Enterprise+- another individually priced option with all available features including audit log, data loss prevention, integration support, enterprise key management, and many more. The plan is perfect for enterprises that need to meet strict compliance requirements with flexible, precise controls.
Get started
Once you set up your account and sign in, Asana will display your dashboard. You can now get to know the interface and explore various features and project management tools Asana offers.
On the left side of the screen, you will find the menu giving you access to projects, tasks, and team members. The search bar at the top of the page will help you find any task or project in no time.
Create your Asana team
Now you have gotten the hang of the dashboard, the time has come to invite your team members.
In Asana, you can create as many teams as you need to. Teams are best to be organized according to your preference, so it can be by department, project, or any other criteria that suits you. Another useful feature is the ability to assign roles to the members of your teams. You can make your coworkers 'Admins' or 'Members'. Based on that, there will be a level of access and permissions within the team.
Set up your Asana projects
Once all details are set up, we can now get to work! Let's create your first projects.
You can have multiple projects in Asana. You can also organize the tasks by project, client, or other criteria that suit your business. It is also possible to customize the project settings and set such details as projects' start dates, due dates, and assignees.
Add your Asana tasks
Tracking and managing tasks in Asana is very straightforward. You can add names, descriptions, due dates, and any other necessary details.
To ensure the task completion, assign them to team members, and add attachments and comments with the appropriate instructions. You can organize your tasks into projects, and sections, and divide them further into sub-tasks, which are smaller, more manageable pieces.
Structuring work in Asana
Knowing all the basic elements of Asana brings us closer to creating your workflow. Let us then advise on how to structure your workflow most advantageously.
Organization
By organization in Asana, we mean the highest level in the hierarchy of containers. It comprises teams, projects, and tasks. It is advisable to create an organization if you run a business to manage teams and work better.
Team
A team is one of the parts forming your organization. You can create them to gather members who perform a given type of work. For instance, you can have a marketing team, a sales team, an HR team, an IT team, and an engineering team.
To create a team, go to the menu on the left, expand the 'Teams' tab, and then hit 'Create a Team'. Enter a name for your team, and add your members by entering their email address. You can then assign projects, tasks, and sub-tasks to every team.
Project
Projects are the best way to organize and track work in Asana. Thanks to them you can also create Asana custom templates.
You can create a project by going to the 'Projects' tab in the menu on the left and clicking 'Create a Project'. Then, enter your project's name and assign it to the team you want it to be completed by.
Task
Within your projects, there will be individual actions that need completion. These are tasks that you can create, assign, set due dates, add attachments, and many more.
You can add tasks, by clicking on the project you want to assign them to and then hitting 'Add a Task'. Give your task a name and set a due date. Now you can assign the newly created task to a team member, add a description to it, and attach any relevant files to it. Tasks can also be saved in the form of templates and reused for future projects. Once you complete the task, you can mark it as 'done' by clicking on the checkmark icon.
Sub-task
If your project is large and subsequently has complex tasks, it is good to divide them even further and create sub-tasks. It makes the job more manageable and allows assigning specific duties to specific team members.
The above five levels of the organization make the structure of your work in Asana easy and tracking progress and collaboration straightforward. They also help to make sure that all project aspects are taken care of.
Tips and best practices for effective use of Asana
Being one of the most powerful project management software on the market, Asana is a great solution for either small teams, larger projects, or even freelancers. Knowing how to use the software effectively is crucial for the success of your endeavor but can be quite a challenge, especially at the start. Luckily, we would like to give you a head start with a few practical tips on how to get the most out of your software. Have a look at the below list to get the hang of the best Asana practices and speed up your processes in no time.
Organize your projects
Getting the project done is an essential goal of using Asana software. That is why, learning how to break the projects down into tasks and subtasks as well as organizing them according to the business needs is imperative.
Categorize Tasks
In Asana you can easily categorize tasks using tags. It helps the team members to search for them. To add tags you first need to select the task you wish to add tags to. Find the ellipses icon at the top-right corner and click on 'add tags.' To add a task with the use of a keyboard shortcut, press 'tab + T'.
Change board view
The board view displays every task in the form of a card. This helps to better visualize the project's progress. If you want to turn on the board view, click on the 'board' tab located under the project name. You will be able to place tasks in the chosen column by dragging and dropping. This will automatically update their progress.
The board view is also called a Kanban view. It is perfect for projects that have many phases and tasks progressing at different speeds. The Kanban board is also perfect for navigating the workflows. For instance, when working on product features, you can add columns called 'planning,' 'development,' 'testing' and 'launch' to visualize the progress of every step.
Use templates
Asana templates, which are pre-prepared project structures, can be used as a starting point for your new projects. Such actions save time and have the right settings ready from the very beginning. Choose the '+' button from the menu on the left side of the screen and hit 'Use a template.'
You can scroll through various types of templates or get a specific one by using keywords. When you find a template you would like to use, hit 'use template.' Choose a name for your new project, set the privacy settings, and click the 'create project' button. You can also save one of your projects as your own custom template.
Optimize your dashboard
If you need to have an outlook on all your information, the Asana dashboard is the place to go to. It is important to customize it according to your needs so you can access all necessary data quickly. Click on the '+ add chart' button located at the top-left corner and choose the chart style you want to include in your dashboard.
Use search function
Asana’s search and filter options are perfect if you want to quickly locate certain tasks, projects, or team members. Use the search bar located at the top of your dashboard or press Ctrl + K to find what you are looking for.
Use calendar view
The calendar view shows your tasks and deadlines in a calendar format which is very useful if your project includes many deadlines.
If you want to use the calendar view, click on the 'calendar' tab at the top of your dashboard. Filter your tasks by project, assignee, or tag. Not all plans include the calendar view so make sure you check whether the plan you are currently on offers it.
Use sections
Adding sections will improve your organization. It is a form of grouping corresponding tasks on the dashboard with custom fields for specific projects or teams. To add sections go to the drop-down icon next to the '+ add task' button on the top left of your screen and click on 'add section.' After creating the sections, drag and drop tasks to place them in sections.
Monitor progress
The dashboard view is perfect for monitoring the progress of all your projects. It displays the status of every task and a bird’s-eye view of the whole project. This view will be the most beneficial for project managers and team leaders who oversee multiple projects.
Collaborate
Communication is crucial when it comes to working on and managing many projects. Asana covers the collaboration function perfectly. Moreover, there are various ways in which you can communicate with your teammates. Let's analyze them one by one.
Add team members
Tasks and projects are important but where would your company be without people and their input? That is why adding your team members is very easy in Asana. Simply click on '+ invite people' right below the 'my workspace' section in the menu bar on the left. You can also add them through the 'share' button in the top right corner of the project. Alternatively, invite them directly by assigning tasks to their email address. It is also a good idea to tag them in comments to assign tasks.
Set email notifications
Sometimes it is not easy to keep track of all that is happening. That is where you can set Asana notifications regarding activity updates, mentions, messages, or when a job is assigned to you. Such notification will come through as an email.
To enable email notifications, locate your profile icon at the top-right corner. Click on it and then on 'my settings' and find the 'notifications' tab. Choose the email address to receive the notifications, and what activities you want to be notified about.
Use mentions
Mentioning specific people in the comments has already become popular on many social media platforms. Asana, adds the same functionality to help you notify your team members about updates.
The function works exactly the same as anywhere else. Simply use '@' and the name to mention members in group messages, descriptions, or comment boxes. They will get notified and become collaborators on the given task.
Use conversations
It is a good practice to keep all Asana issues within the software not only for ease of communication but also for confidentiality. That is why Asana allows to keep internal communication via messages. You can do it through the inbox on the menu bar on the left, or through the 'messages' tab within the projects.
Update statuses
The best way to see the real progress is to use status updates. You can use statuses to monitor assigned tasks, milestones, and the entire project. One of the most effective ways is using name tags and colors. For instance, use a green 'on track' tag, yellow at risk' tag, and red 'off track' tag to clearly indicate the status of the project to your teammates.
How to save time in Asana?
Asana is a great time-saving software itself, however, the amount of work never stops coming, so it is worth taking more steps to ensure the speed of project execution is at the highest level. Let's see below what else we can do to be more efficient.
Use keyboard shortcuts
The necessity of taking hands off the keyboard is not only a hindrance with touch typing but also in any other digital work. Luckily, Asana minimizes such situations by introducing keyboard shortcuts.
Thanks to them you no longer need to navigate through any menu. To learn the shortcuts, hover the mouse cursor over icons or options. If you are an iOS user, press and hold the command key to display all the available shortcuts.
You can also download the keyboard shortcuts cheat sheet or press Ctrl + / to see the full list of available shortcuts.
Automate tasks
To automate all tasks that do not need your personal attention, you need to set rules in Asana. These can be some simple and repetitive activities. The rules in Asana work based on triggers and conditions that start an action. For instance, anytime the status of a project is set as 'new' you can use a rule to automatically assign it to a certain team member who can then action it as soon as possible.
To automate your tasks, click on the 'customize' button and then '+ rule.' You can create your own rule or simply choose one from the Asana library.
Use advanced search
The basic search field in Asana is a great way to find things. However, it may become harder to search with many similar keywords or completed tasks. Use the advanced search feature Asana offers. It will give you better search opportunities thanks to specific filters and keywords. This is a real help when you are dealing with plenty of subtasks or complex projects.
Use mobile app
If you are traveling or commuting, but your projects will not wait, it is imperative to access Asana on the go. And Asana allows you to do that thanks to the mobile app it offers. Stay connected, check updates, and add new tasks or comments on your phone.
You can get the app with all available Asana plans. It is also available for both iOS and Android.
Use integrations
Integrations are the software, apps, and tools that you can connect with Asana to make the project progress and workflow quicker and more efficient. They cover many features that Asana does not provide or has in a limited version. One such feature is time tracking.
This can easily be fixed by getting a third-party integration, such as TimeCamp. Thanks to TimeCamp you can enhance Asana with many features, making it truly the best project management software on the market. What can TimeCamp offer?
Timer and manual time entries
Weekly timesheets and timesheet approvals
Calendar view
Auto tracking
Personal activity timeline
Idle time tracking
Geofencing and GPS location tracking
Tracking with keywords
Apps, websites, and private time tracking
Activity levels
Screenshots
and many more other features, which vary depending on the chosen plan. You can start your journey with the forever free plan with basic time tracking capabilities, or choose one of our premium plans. You can try them out first for free with our 14-day trial. The software is available as a Web app, Desktop app, and Mobile app.
Time management
