🕵️ Asana's secret shortcut guide

[Jan-Rienk]

If you are into productivity, you’ve got to love shortcuts.

Last year I’ve learned a lot of short-cuts, and I’m committed to learn more.

Here I’m going to highlight my favourites. From common, to not so well known, and even some secret shortcuts you won’t find in in Asana’s Shortcut guide!

Did you know that using shortcuts over the mouse both increases your speed and decreases risk of RSI?

Aren’t using shortcuts yet? No problem. Here is a winning strategy to master them!

1. Choose the shortcut you’d most want to learn/remember
2. Write it on a post-it note, and put it on your screen or somewhere else in sight of the workplace you use most
3. Practice only this ONE shortcut for at least a week, until you know it by heart.
4. Repeat

The well-known shortcuts

These are the usual shortcuts, both on Asana’s shortcut list and pretty well-known.

Action	mac	Windows	Remarks
Open shortcut menu	⌘ + /	ctrl + /
Create new task on next line	Enter	Enter	New line, new (sub)task
Turn text into hyperlink	⌘ + k	ctrl + k	Works in many programs
Multi-(de)select individual tasks	⌘ + click	ctrl + click	Works in most programs
Multi-select tasks in order	shift + click	shift + click	Works in most programs
Open new window	⌘ + n	ctrl + n	Also works in browser
Open new tab	⌘ + t	ctrl + t	Also works in browser

The not-so-well-known shortcuts

These can be found in Asana’s shortcut list (or are visible in the interface), but tend to be less well known.

Action	mac	Windows	Remarks
Assign task to me	tab + m	tab + m
Join/leave task	f	f
Add task to project(s)	tab + p	tab + p	Also works on subtasks!
New task (desktop app)	⌘ + shift + +	ctrl + shift + +	Works with Asana open in background!
Collapse side-bar	tab + o	tab + o	More space! Less distractions!
View full screen	tab + x	tab + x	Get distracted less when going through your inbox
Re-open tab last closed	⌘ + shift + t	ctrl + shift + t	Also works in browser
Smart Chat	tab + j	tab + j	Requires AI features enabled for your instance

The secret list

Now let’s move on to the things that you can’t find in Asana’s shortcut menu.

Action	mac	Windows	Remarks
Open thing in new tab	⌘ + click	ctrl + click	Works for links turning your mouse into a hand upon hover, also works in browser
Open thing in new window	shift + click	shift + click	Works for links turning your mouse into a hand upon hover, also works in browser
Next tab	⌘ + option +	ctrl + alt +	Different in browser
Previous tab	⌘ + option +	ctrl + alt +	Different in browser
Try it!	tab + v	tab + v	(For this you might need extra delight enabled)

In closing

During the making of this list I discovered tab + x for full-screen, so that’s the one I’m going to commit to next week.

Did I convince you yet? If so, which one are you going to learn?

Jan-Rienk Hemminga - Asana Expert & Partner @ Improving Every Day

[Bryan_TeamKickstart]

Shortcuts feel like productivity cheat codes. LOVE these! And one of my favorite ways to introduce people to the power of shortcuts is while we’re working together in the platform, they’ll say, “Wait how did you do that so fast?” And… up comes the shortcuts menu and… that’s the moment they’re now hooked!

Great share! Thanks @Jan-Rienk

[esully12]

I loved sharing the tab+b secret code with my team, but we’re more of a tab+v group, so I can’t wait to share that one, too!

[Michal_Bednarczyk1]

Love these! Shortcuts list is what i needed! Now what i really need is a cheat list for search operators. I’ve already asked support for a tooltip or something that brings this up. I often live in search but can’t always memorize these or the proper syntax. (although i’ll try your trick of focussing on one with a sticky note on my computer)

[Maria_Susan_Angustia]

LOVE this list! We’ll try your learning hack, starting NOW!

[Richard_Sather]

Great list, @Jan-Rienk!
I would just add that you can get to the shortcuts in the Asana interface using Ctrl+/ on PC or Cmd+/ on Macs.

[Jan-Rienk]

It seems you missed the top of the list

[Jenna_Nicoloff]

I printed these and am handing out copies to my team

[Richard_Sather]

Doh! And I scanned through it twice

[Jan-Rienk]

I’ve tested, and these don’t seem to be related to Search in Asana.

[Michal_Bednarczyk1]

Well i learned it through some webinar or something in the past. It’s from the official help link:
https://help.asana.com/s/article/search-and-search-views?language=en_US

[Jan-Rienk]

I’ll definitely look into that. Thanks!

[Debbi_Bewley]

Thanks for this list. I have it marked for future reference. I also made sure co-workers had it as well. So far the last one is the one they keep thanking me for!

[Richard_Sather]

don’t forget TAB+B!

[Vanessa_N]

Shortcuts really are time savers. Thanks for sharing this, @Jan-Rienk! I didn’t know quite a few of the ones on your list, so I’m definitely taking notes.

One shortcut I picked up this year is Ctrl + Command + Space for the emoji picker. Not exclusive to Asana, but surprisingly useful for folks who use emojis as much as I do.

[Kelly_Perry4]

I lost my beloved Tab+V function when my workspace updated to the new layout Anyone else have this problem?

[Jan-Rienk]

Cool! nice to hear

@Vanessa_N

One shortcut I picked up this year is Ctrl + Command + Space for the emoji picker. Not exclusive to Asana, but surprisingly useful for folks who use emojis as much as I do.

That’s probably the Mac version of Windows+.

[lpb]

@Jan-Rienk

That’s probably the Mac version of Windows+.

Can confirm!

[Bryan_TeamKickstart]

Kelly, I was so scared for you (and for me) re: Tab+V… but I’m on the new sidebar layout and it’s still working for me. Is the Extra Delight setting gone from your settings?

[Kelly_Perry4]

Thanks, Bryan, that was it!! My extra delight was disabled for some reason. We’re back in action