Projects and tasks are the building blocks of Asana. I'll show you how to use them to track your work.
When you have a deadline to hit, an initiative to kick off,
or need to make a shared list of tasks, create a project. Just use the quick add button.
Add your project name - make this as specific as possible.
Describe your project so your teammates know what type of tasks it will be used for.
If you have a project goal or high-level details
this is a good place to share them. Select which team will be working on
this project. If multiple teams will be working on it,
pick the team the majority of the people are on. Don't worry, other people in the
organization can still access it. If you are in a premium organization you have
the option to make the project private. In this case people who aren't following
the project, can't see anything in it. Your project has different views, list,
conversations, calendar, progress and files. We will go into more detail later on views.
But we'll move forward with a basic list view for now. When you add
members to a project they will be notified when tasks are created or the
project status is updated. You can add or remove members anytime.
Break down your project into tasks - the pieces of work required to complete the project.
The fastest way to add task to a project you are working out of, is to treat this just
like a list and a text document. Just press enter to keep adding tasks.
To add another level of organization to your projects create, sections.
Sections or groups of tasks within a project. Sections can be used for stages,
priority levels or classifications. A quick way to add sections is to put a
colon at the end of any task name. You can drag and drop task to reorder them or
remove them within sections.
To add information to a task use the task details pane. I'll walk you through
the anatomy of a task. The project and section name tell you where this task lives.
Here is a quick way to move your task to another section in a project
without having to drag or leave the task details pane. Add a description about the
work that needs to get done. Assign the task to the person who is responsible
for moving this task forward. Add a due date so expectations are clear. You can add
more granularity with a due time and also have the option to set a recurring due date.
Show appreciation excitement or approval by clicking the heart on a task.
Use tags to keep track of your work across multiple projects. Tags help show
priority, urgency or categorization across your teams. Use subtasks to break a
task into smaller pieces or to assign part of the work to someone else.
Subtasks, like tasks can have assignees and due dates.
Add attachments to include files relevant to this task.
You can add attachments from your computer or these other file sharing tools.
For more task options click the drop down menu. You can convert a task to a project, copy a task,
delete a task and more. To comment back and forth about a task, use task conversations.
Undo a comment if you typed too quickly.
You can heart comments to show support or pin the most important comment to the top.
To see a record of changes to the task description, due date or assignee
look in the task activity feed. One of the best things about Asana is that you
can opt-in and opt-out of task updates anytime. This is our solution to the
neverending email chain of forward cc's and bcc's. Add or remove task followers when
you want to involve a teammate. Each person listed here will get
notifications in their inbox when activity happens on this task.
If you loop someone with a @ mention in the description or comments they will
automatically become a follower, as well.
One final thing to note, you can create tasks that aren't in projects.
If you have a quick to do for yourself or a reminder for a teammate just use the
quick add button. But we recommend putting tasks and projects most of the time.
They are easier to find and keep track of this way. Projects and tasks are
the building blocks of Asana. Now that you understand the basics you can start
using them to track all of your work.