Asana is a project management software aiding in organizing, collaborating on, planning, and executing tasks. If you feel as if your actions are chaotic and meeting deadlines is hard or impossible, the Asana project management tool is your best option. Firstly, it is web-based, which makes it convenient to work on your projects whenever you wish to. Secondly, it has a variety of features that help teams keep track of all tasks, collaborate, share files, and many more. Millions of people using it in 195 countries cannot be mistaken. Today, we would like to take a closer look at Asana task tracking and the ways it can improve employee productivity.
What is task management?
Some may think that to track tasks we only need a to-do list. It may be a good solution if you are planning the spring cleaning of your house or how to run all your errands in one day before Christmas. However, task management in business is by no means just a to-do list (it should not be, at least).
Effective project management requires tracking tasks from start to finish. It involves delegating subtasks and setting deadlines to ensure projects get done within deadlines. That is why Asana with its wide array of features can empower teams to work more productively and efficiently.
No more sticky notes, searching through your inbox, or endless to-do lists. One effective task management tool to prioritize tasks and manage time and workload more effectively.
Task management features
An effective task management software has all the features needed to manage and execute your work. Let's look at the useful features Asana offers you to track projects effectively.
My Tasks
My Tasks allow for an overview of tasks that were assigned to you, no matter which project they belong to. You can easily have the whole picture of all to-dos in one place which will help you not miss anything.
Multi-homing
Multi-homing of tasks allows for tracking tasks across various projects. Any changes done to a task are instantly transferred across all projects in real-time.
Time tracking
Asana native time tracking allows for a quick estimation of expected time devoted to tasks concerning the actual time spent on these tasks. As a result, you can get a real-time assessment of project progress which helps with budget and forecasting.
Workflows
Asana provides teams with a Workflow Builder which is a tool that helps in building automated workflows with no coding involved.
Custom fields
In Asana, you can tag, sort, and filter work thanks to custom fields. They work perfectly for any information you wish to track (priority, status, email, or phone number).
Rules
Asana lets you automate manual, mundane activities so your team can spend more time on important tasks. Thanks to Rules you can automatically assign work, set due dates, notify stakeholders, and many more.
Mobile app
You can get the Asana app on Mac, iOS, and Android. Thanks to that you can always be up to date with inbox notifications, send messages, project tasks, and other relevant information.
Custom templates
Your existing workflows and processes can be duplicated in the form of custom templates. It saves plenty of time and simplifies the team's work as they do not have to create tasks and work from scratch every time they start a new project.
Project views
Display your work your way thanks to the project views. You can choose from List, Board, Calendar, and Timeline to find a view that is perfect for you.
Timeline
Loving the Gantt-style view? Asana's Timeline View will be your best friend as it shows all your tasks in a horizontal bar chart.
Calendar
Calendar view helps you see all future and past work in a calendar format. It works great for giving stakeholders insight into tasks' due dates and overall progress.
Tracking tasks in Asana
Let us move on to the most important issue, which is how task tracking works in Asana. The software can display tasks in a project as a list or as sticky notes on your board. It also allows you to view the tasks in Calendar View when you click 'Calendar' below the project name.
The task list is what you start from when you want to track your projects. The list of tasks allows us to see:
team members responsible for the completion of the tasks
due dates for every task (marked in red means the completion is past due date)
Asana will display all tasks within the given project. However, if your project is large, it is good to filter them to display only the relevant tasks. To do that, click on View, which will display the filter settings. You can choose to see only Incomplete Tasks or Completed Tasks.
Operations you can perform on the tasks include:
accessing the task details - click on the task
updating task information - available on the task detail view
marking task complete - click the Checkmark button
The project progress is visible on the progress tab. It will show all the completed tasks and all the ones that are still in progress.
Multi-homing
One of the very useful Asana features is multi-homing. It allows one to have the same task in multiple projects. It is especially helpful when multiple teams are working on tasks within different departments. In such a way, there is no need to duplicate tasks, and with one task, any updates or changes are instantly and automatically transferred to every other project the task is a part of.
Subtasks
Another useful idea in task tracking, especially with more complex projects is the ability to divide it into smaller parts, called subtasks. This function helps to make specific team members responsible for completing specific subtasks. All subtasks form parts of a parent task which makes it easy for everyone involved to see the bigger picture and context of their work.
Task templates
Task templates can significantly help with all task processes. For instance, if your task requires 4 stages of completion and you want to make it a standard for completing every task within your project, you can create a task template, which you can easily bring up every time you create a task.
Time-tracking integration- the best way of task-tracking
Asana may have very good ways of task management and tracking, however, only once it is integrated with other tools, it becomes a really powerful platform with comprehensive tracking of the Asana tasks progress. What integrations should you choose to get the best tracking? Consider getting the below:
Communication and collaboration features: Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Gmail, Outlook, and Slack
File sharing: OneDrive, Adobe Creative Cloud, Office365, Box, Google Drive, and Dropbox
Time tracking: TimeCamp
One of the most noteworthy features is time tracking. What can you achieve thanks to the integration with TimeCamp?
Smart timesheet management - includes timesheet approval features and automatic timesheets,
Visualizing even the most complex workload, with projects, tasks, and tags,
Clear-looking charts will help you improve your productivity, staffing, and finances,
In-depth reporting is available in the XLSX, PDF, and CSV formats or Google Spreadsheets.
You can get our free forever plan with basic features or opt for more advanced functionalities within one of our premium plans with a 14-day free trial available.
Time management
