In today’s video, you’ll learn 15
incredibly useful Asana tips and tricks which you can use today
to improve your productivity, make your workflow a whole lot
smoother and overall, get more done. Ready? Let’s do this! Hi my lovely people, it’s Natalia and welcome
back to my channel where I help you create better content and grow on social media! Asana
is one of the best free productivity tools out there and today, you’ll learn how to use it
better. Let’s start with the first tip my absolute favorite little gem hidden within the
Asana desktop app and that’s the Pomodoro timer! 1. Use Pomodoro
Did you know that there’s an in-built timer that you can use each time you work on a specific
task? It’s brilliant because it helps you focus and actually finish the task quicker! I’ve talked
about working with a timer in my productivity hacks for consistent content video (you can
watch it next) and it’s one of those small tricks that helps you get so much more efficient.
Of course, Asana thought of that too but not many people know that it’s actually there.
**TO FIND IT**, open the desktop app, it needs to be on the desktop rather than the
browser version, go to your tray, and click the Asana logo. Here, you’ll see the breakdown of your
tasks from the My Tasks view so choose the one you’ll be focusing on right now and click Start.
A standard 25-minute Pomodoro timer will start, helping you concentrate better. You can
also turn on Do Not Disturb to mute any notifications and if you click away, the timer
gets minimized. You can always get back to it by clicking on it and from here, you can also pause
the timer too if something does distract you.
2. Add Custom Views
Asana is so fantastic because of the flexibility it gives us with all
the different types of views we have for the projects. You can add filters and sort your tasks
to work the way you like, which can also be saved for that view so that you don’t need to faff about
and repeat the settings each time. But what if you want more of the same view but with different
settings? Well, you can add custom views too!
**TO DO THIS**, go to the views panel and click
the plus sign right here. Choose the view type you want and a new tab will appear for this one.
If you click the three dots right next to it, you’ll be able to rename it and reposition
it which is super useful to not mix things up between the same types of views. Once you
add your filters, sort, and save the settings, you’ll get to enjoy a custom view with
specific tasks you want to see. So so useful!
3. Show Appreciation
Working with a team is fun but can also be challenging at times. That’s
why it’s so important to show appreciation to your employees or teammates. And
it’s super easy to do in Asana too.
When someone’s doing a great job, go to a task
they’re working on, scroll down to the comments section, and click this icon right here. You’ll
be able to choose a sticker and once you post it, it will say you’ve shown appreciation. It’s a
fun little way to thank someone for attaching a crucial file for you despite being busy, for
giving you a great suggestion, or for finishing something earlier than expected.
4. Print projects
Although Asana is a fabulous tool to
stay on top of your daily operations, those of you who still like that pen-to-paper
experience with tasks and planning can feel like there’s something missing. And I think this
tip is a great bridge between the digital and the analog. You can actually print your tasks, both
from your projects and from the My Tasks view. It’s great when you want a physical to-do
list to still be able to tick things off.
**TO DO THIS**, go to my tasks or any of
your projects, pull up the drop-down menu, and hit print or Export/Print if it’s a project.
You’ll be able to print a list that’s sorted into your existing sections which is super
cool if you’re printing a weekly to-do list from the My Tasks view.
5. Use Shortcuts
Making your workflow quicker is crucial
in any app and shortcuts always play a huge part in increasing efficiency. Start using
shortcuts in Asana and you’ll see how effortless the process becomes. You can then focus on the
important things and let the creativity flow.
When you’re adding tasks one by one, it’s
enough to just hit Enter instead of finding the plus sign or going to the New Task button.
To complete a task, use CTRL + Enter. Deleting tasks is super easy too because you can
just hit Tab-Backspace on selected tasks.
I love how the planning process is so much easier
this way because I can add multiple tasks one by one by hitting enter and then selecting and
hitting Tab-M to assign them to myself. By the way, Tab-A will open up the assignee window so you
can start typing someone else’s name too. Tab-D helps you set a due date quickly and Tab-Z sends
you to My Tasks to manage your workload easily.
Fewer clicks means more efficiency since
you’re not losing those precious minutes on managing Asana itself.
6. Favorite projects
One of the best ways to always have
everything you need at hand is to star your favorite projects. It allows for super
easy maneuvering when juggling multiple tasks or currently focusing on a bunch of projects like
a product launch or an active partnership.
**TO DO THIS** go to one of your most used
projects, and star it from the top right here. Once you do it for the first time, a
new section with all your starred projects appears in the left panel. I love it because no
matter how many different teams you’re a part of, you can quickly jump to your favorites with
a click. FIY, to remove it, for example, when the launch is complete, simply go back into
the project and hit that star again or right-click it from the panel and remove it this way.
7. Task covers
Do you know those awesome Trello-style card covers
that make everything look so aesthetic? Well, you can do the same thing with your Asana projects!
Not only is it useful for quickly identifying what the task is without having to even read
the title, but it’s a great way to divide your project further, decorate it, or even mark
specific tasks as master tasks to duplicate.
**TO DO THIS,** simply get into the task and
attach a file you want to use as the cover. It can be done by dragging and dropping it into the task
or you can just copy something to your clipboard and simply paste straight into the description.
The best part is, Asana lets you choose your cover if you have multiple files attached. Right-click
your task, select Choose Cover Image, and choose the one you want. As a default, it’s always the
most recent one. From here, you can also decide against using a cover image at all.
8. Create tasks outside of Asana
Did you know you can create tasks outside
of Asana? When you’re on the go or working outside of Asana, you can quickly add new tasks
to different projects in many super simple ways.
One of my favorite ones is email since we
all spend quite a bit of time within our inboxes. First, you need to make sure that
you’re all set for this feature to work, so go to your settings from the profile pic
in the top right corner and go to the Email Forwarding tab. Here, everything is explained
to you in detail so you see that you can simply email a new task from your Asana-associated
email to x@mail.asana.com, and mind you, x is an actual x and not your name, username or
anything like that. It’s just universal since Asana connects the sender's email with the Asana
account. Take a look at this section first and make sure that your email right here is allowed
to create tasks & messages in the workspace, which in my case is nataliakalinska.com.
Before you send that email, make sure you understand how Asana interprets it. The
recipient of course has to be x@mail.asana.com, the email subject becomes a task name, any
recipients that you CC on that email are task collaborators, the email body becomes
a task description and the email attachments are then attached to the task. So incredible!
As an example, when I receive an email inquiry for a consultation, I can just quickly pop a
new task to follow up on my Asana workspace and it opens up a whole workflow for me so
that nothing important ever gets missed.
Another way to create a task outside of Asana is
via Slack. If you’re a Slack user, you can easily add new tasks as you chat along with others
so again, the workflow gets so much easier and nothing slips through the cracks. You don’t
have to jump between apps and fill out all the details, it can just be done in one place.
When you’re on the go, out shopping, or cleaning up at home, and you suddenly
remember something you absolutely have to do, you can just ask Siri or a Google Assistant
to create a task through your phone, as long as you have the Asana app installed.
And there’s also the Asana Chrome Extension which allows you to add a task with one click,
without having to leave whatever tabs you’re in.
9. Create recurring tasks for themed days
One of my favorite ways to stay consistent with content creation and function more
efficiently within my business is to work with themed days. If you don’t know what
this concept is about, it’s basically when your whole day focuses on one type of activity
like Script Day, Recording Day, Product Day, etc. I talk about it in greater detail in this
video right here so make sure you watch it next.
Asana is fantastic in supporting this system
and I love to use recurring tasks for those repeated activities I do on any given day. For a
Recording Day, it can be something like “Record a YouTube video”, “Record X amount of Reels” and
“Capture 5 lifestyle B-roll clips” from my setup, me working on my phone, my laptop, etc.
TO SET UP A RECURRING TASK, create and describe what you repeatedly do, let’s say Prep
for recording, and then select a due date. Below, click on this arrow icon right here and Set
to Repeat. You can choose different patterns like daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly plus
periodically, which is quite an interesting one where it lets you choose days after completion,
or custom for those more tailored schedules.
10. Section your subtasks
When you have bigger tasks like Publishing a YouTube video, for example, they
usually include a lot of smaller subtasks that happen in different stages. When you add all of
those subtasks, it sometimes becomes quite clunky and not easily distinguishable. One of my favorite
ways to organize my big tasks even better is to add sections to my subtasks and here’s where
one of our trustee shortcuts comes to play.
TO DO THIS, click on any of your subtasks and hit
TAB + N to create a new section. Give it a name, reposition it, and then hit Tab + N again
to repeat the process. Instead of a messy list of unstructured subtasks, you end up with a
beautifully sectioned list that helps you focus better and increases productivity since you
are working in defined stages. Love this one!
11. Dependencies
Staying on the subject of big tasks, sometimes, things can’t progress
unless something else is completed, right? For example, I wouldn’t be able
to publish a YouTube video unless it was actually edited. I wouldn’t be able to
edit unless I had previously recorded, and so it goes. To add an extra level
of efficiency and oversight, especially when you’re working within a bigger team, you
can create dependencies within your tasks.
TO DO THIS, go to a task that’s dependent on
another, click the three dots, and choose Add Dependencies. Another tab appears in our fields
section, and when you click it, you can begin typing the name of the task you want to be the
precedent task so the one that this current task is dependent on. It will then show right next to
Blocked By, indicating its dependency. By the way, you can keep adding those since a single task can
be dependent on multiple tasks and multiple tasks can be dependent on a single task. You won’t be
able to complete it unless the precedent one gets done. There’s a whole layer of notifications
connected to this feature and what I also love about it, is that you can choose for the due
dates to auto-shift when something changes with the precedent task. Very very useful.
Just an FYI, it is a Premium feature, so you won’t be able to use it on a free plan, but
it’s well worth a try to see if it works for your business and team. When you’re a Premium user,
you’re also able to draw out those dependencies within a timeline view which is super helpful to
manage time-restricted, collaborative projects.
12. Add integrations
Not sure if you realize this, but Asana has quite a few useful integrations
that can help with your workflow and frankly make your life that much easier. I personally
use it all the time to reference my content dashboard in Notion without having to go to
Notion, go to the specific page, and then find the video or the post I’m focusing on.
Another classic here is the Google Drive connection! I can just attach my files straight
to a project or a task without having to download anything and then upload it there from my
drive. They land in Asana with no hassle and can then be used by anyone else! By the way,
you do the same with OneDrive or Dropbox.
And there are so many other options! You
can monitor your email campaign metrics with Mailchimp, reference key lead details with
Salesforce, and do both of these and more with HubSpot. If you work with clients or rely on
meetings, connect your Asana to Zoom or Microsoft Teams and create or link meetings straight from
Asana, add tasks on the go within meetings and take notes right into your workspace,
or even attach transcripts into tasks.
I'm all about improving your systems and
making sure you're that much more efficient and it definitely helps when you have so many
integrations available from within Asana.
To check them all out, go to a project and
then Customize in the top right corner here, then scroll to Apps. You can browse
some of the integrations that Asana has available or search in the bar if you have
something specific in mind. When you click, you’ll get more details in there too.
13. Mention tasks for reference
Something that I really love in Asana is that
you can reference pretty much anything you like in the project or task description. It’s so
useful in many different contexts! When you add a task to create content for the week, you can
quickly reference the actual pieces of content in the description from your Content Calendar.
If you’re falling behind and need to Catch Up, you can reference all the crucial activities that
require your immediate attention. Same goes for checking KPIs or updating project status. It’s
so easy to just mention the tasks or areas that need to be revised without leaving the other
person to figure out the actions themselves.
To DO THIS, go to the task description
and hit @. This pulls up a field so that you can start typing up your task name,
project name, or even a specific person.
14. Record in tasks
Did you know you can record into tasks in Asana? Let me show you! Go to a task,
scroll to the description section, and click this recording icon here. A panel opens up giving you
a choice between recording just the screen, just your camera, or both. You can select your camera
and microphone, start recording and then choose the screen, window, or browser tab. Once you’re
done, your video will get uploaded, you can change the title here too. By the way, without connecting
your Asana to a Vimeo account, you have a limit of two videos but you can create a free Vimeo account
with gives you a total storage space of 5GB. This is what it looks like when it’s published.
It’s super useful for things like tutorials, walk-throughs, or brain dumps. A simple example
here would be if I were to outsource repurposing my YouTube content into shorts to an
assistant. I can record a video within Canva guiding her through the process. If
I’d be coming up with ideas for a video, I could just record myself, unloading anything
that comes to mind for the subject so that I can easily reference it when I script.
FYI, if you can’t see this feature in Asana it might be because you’re using the app. As far
as I know, currently recording into tasks is only available through the browser.
15. Bulk Update
This tip helps when you’re going through many
tasks at once and need to update them all. You don’t have to manually change things one by
one. In Asana, you can perform bulk actions.
TO DO THIS, simply select all of your tasks from
My Tasks or within a list view by clicking one, holding Shift, and clicking the last one,
you can also hold CTRL to add another one to the selection. Once you have it, you can
tick one to complete all of them or use the panel below for other bulk actions like editing
a Project or section, updating the due date or an assignee, or any of the other ones.
I love using it during my planning sessions to quickly spread the tasks out and for my themed
days when I go through different tasks all at once and don’t necessarily tick them off one by one.
If you’d like to learn how to use themed days and find out what my favorite 4 productivity
tips are for creating consistent content, then make sure you watch this video now. If you
have any Asana or non-Asana questions, drop them down below, I always try to help as much as I can!
Hit that like button if you’ve enjoyed this video, subscribe for more content like this, thank you
so much for watching and I’ll see you next time.
