📌 How to get started with Asana? - A Guide from A to Z

I am regularly seeing questions about what should be the first steps when starting to use Asana or how to onboard team members.

Asana provides a lot of guides and many tips have been shared in the forum already.

However, I decided to prepare another A to Z list to compile key links and resources.


[A] - :sparkles: Asana Articles & Academy Tutorials

This is probably the first article I‘d recommend going through to understand „Why Asana?“. https://asana.com/guide/team/onboard/change-management-strategy

This will help you understand how Asana can help you and your team to become more efficient and improve your workflows

When signing up to Asana you will receive valuable tips and steps on how to get started via emails.

If you have never used Asana before I recommend going through all these emails in detail and testing out the things on the go as well. Ensure your team members do the same as this way you learn the basics super fast :slight_smile:

You will also find a lot of valuable information and courses in the Asana Academy:

https://academy.asana.com

  • Asana has prepared a nice project for Asana Ambassadors in Asanaverse about Get Your Team Using Asana which contains a lot of tips, tricks, research, articles and more.

Another MUST mention for „A“ is the powerful

:warning::traffic_light: Admin Console


[B] - :books: Books

Now if we are talking about Asana books for many of you that have been active in the forum already, the first name that will probably come to your mind is Bastien. He has written a bunch of Ebooks which you can find on his website.

He also lead the creation of this eBook that contains the best forum posts around Asana tips and tricks:

Asana Mind - 100+ Tips and Tricks from Asana Experts 📖 Asana Mind: 100+ Tips and Tricks from Asana experts - A new free eBook

And here is another list of general book recommendations related to project planning, collaboration and execution:


[C] - :handshake: Community

Whether you want to deepen your Asana expertise, are an Asana „freak“ or want connect with like-minded individuals apply now to become an Asana Ambassador or Solutions Partner.


[D] - :man_technologist: Developers & API

„Build apps that bring your ideas to life, and help your team do better work faster.“

More info on the Asana API here: https://asana.com/guide/help/api/api

Whether you are a developer or you have questions about the Asana API refer to the relevant category in the forum: Developers & API - Asana Forum


[E] - :airplane: Events

Join interesting learning talks and other events:

https://events.asana.com

Events for the Asana community team: Attend Asana events Asana Community Events | Trainings, webinars, in-person events, and more!


[F] - :desktop_computer::speech_balloon: Forum

Sign up to the Asana Community Forum to get started and connect with other Asana customers and fans to share ideas, help each other, create threads, upvote feedback requests and a lot more.

Before posting ensure to read through Asana‘s Community Guidelines: FAQ - Asana Forum

And don‘t forget to bookmark your favourite posts so you can access them easily at any time.


[G] - :woman_teacher: Guide

Asana has launched an In-product „Getting Started“ last year. New! In-product “Getting Started” Guide

Here is the main link to the Asana guide where you can find a lot of valuable info:

https://asana.com/guide

I‘d also like to link this awesome guide:

:dart: Goals & Milestones


[H] - 🛈 Help

FAQ - Here is a list of common questions around Asana: https://asana.com/guide/help/faq/common-questions

Questions about your account, billing or anything else that you cannot find the answer for just reach out to the Asana support team: https://asana.com/support


[I] - :gear: Integrations

Asana connects with many tools such as Zendesk, Google Drive, Dropbox, Slack and many more.

You can find the full list of integrations here:

https://asana.com/apps


[J] - :motorway::construction: Journey

Mastering Asana is a journey. Do not expect to know everything from day 1.

Set yourself some milestones and goals and celebrate when you achieve them :slight_smile:

Hint: For a special celebration use Tab-B and Tab-V. To work its magic, be sure you have “Extra Delight” turned on in the Hacks tab of your Profile Settings.

You will make some mistakes along the way, but don‘t we all know that making mistakes actually helps us learn better? :slight_smile:

It will be an exciting journey and I am sure you are going to love it!

Be prepared for an exciting journey, that I am sure you will love!


[K] - :thinking::woman::man: Know your team

So this is a very important point that goes hand in hand with the point „O“ Team Onboarding.

To assist your team with the whole process you will need to know the strengths and weaknesses of your team members.

Why? This way you can tailor the training process and the amount of guidance you give or the way you guide and assist them.

For example, sometimes people could be very reluctant in transitioning to a new tool. Those would need more communication in the first instance and it is important to explain the why. Why is the switch being made? How it can help them with managing their tasks, etc

Some might be fast learners, others need more time.

I also recommend somebody in your team/company to be the Go-to-person for anything related to Asana. This person needs to monitor things very closely especially at the start and provide tips on the go whenever they spot something that could be improved or praise team members that are doing well already.

And also think about ways to keep your team motivated. 💪 Keep your (remote) team motivated with the help of Asana - A to Z


[L] - :speaking_head::earth_americas: Languages

Asana is currently available in English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Japanese. You can switch the language from the display tab of your profile settings.


[M] - :iphone: Mobile App

The Asana mobile app allows you to work from anywhere: Download the Asana App for Mobile and Desktop • Asana

Here is a quick iOS start guide: https://asana.com/guide/help/ios/basics

And here is the Android start guide: https://asana.com/guide/help/android/basics


[N] - :inbox_tray::calling: Notifications

One of the first things you should be setting up as well are notifications.

Whether you prefer to receive notifications via email or you rather use the Asana inbox, whether you enable Asana notifications on your mobile phone make sure you review your settings over time so you do not receive more notifications than you need.

Also do not forget to constantly leave tasks or disable notifications for tasks/projects you do not need to be notified about or you cannot bring any value as this would rather be disturbing than helpful :slight_smile:

Here is a detailed overview of the notification settings: https://asana.com/guide/help/email/email-from-asana


[O] - :wave: Onboarding Your Team

Once you have set up your first projects and tasks, gone through various tutorials and articles and starting to master Asana you are ready to onboard your team:

Here is a handy checklist (project template) that Asana has put together: Team Onboarding Checklist

Here is the link to

“Roll out Asana to your team” webinar

And here is the relevant link to the team onboarding forum category


[P] - :memo:🕮 Portfolio

„Portfolios provide a holistic view of all your important projects in one place.“


[Q] - :raising_hand_man::raised_hand: Questions? Quiz?

Do you have a specific question and are not able to find the answer in the Asana guide?

Don‘t worry just use the search feature in the Asana Community Forum and then skim through relevant posts and threads.

Still not found what you are looking for?

Just open a new thread in the relevant forum category: Asana Forum

:question: Quiz


[R] - :bar_chart: Reporting Rules

Pull in data from any project and team to create helpful graphs and charts.

Advanced Search Reports

:repeat: Rules

Asana rules rule! You are going to love rules as they can help you a lot in improving the efficiency of your workflow and automating many things.

Want to learn more about rules? Look no further:


[S] - :hash: Shortcuts

Here is a list of the available keyboard shortcuts: https://asana.com/guide/help/faq/shortcuts


[T] - :pushpin: Templates

Need help planning first workflows?

Have a look at the Asana project template gallery: https://asana.com/templates

You will also find a lot of templates on Templana: https://templana.com


[U] - :card_index_dividers: Use Cases

Look through various use cases to give you an idea of how you can manage and set up workflows for your departments and teams.

I also recommend checking out the „Use Cases“ category in the Asana Community Forum:

https://forum.asana.com/c/usecases/


[V] - :video_camera: :woman_teacher: Video Tutorials

You can find a lot of helpful video tutorials in the Asana Academy:

https://academy.asana.com/series/video-tutorials-tips

and also on Youtube: https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJFG93oi0wJDMccrrEbbZha0v64Jo63K8

Another important feature to mention under the letter „V“ is

:white_check_mark: View Options

I recommend not just working with one view as each has its advantages.

Such as being able to sum numerical custom fields in list view.

You‘d probably always have your preferred view saved but that does not mean you cannot switch other views when those work better/ give a better overview for what you are trying to achieve/ see.

Learn about the viewing options Asana offers for your projects:

https://asana.com/guide/help/views/basics

And more info on „My Tasks“:


:eyeglasses: Visibility

Great thread by Bastien about who sees whom - especially related to guest users/


[W] - :computer: :man_teacher: Webinars

The Asana Customer Success Team is regularly hosting live sessions about various topics.

Don‘t miss out and sign up now:

Here is the relevant link to the Webinar Forum Category: Events - Asana Forum

I‘d also like to mention this workshop hosted by Larry Berger: Tackle (almost) anything in Asana: Step-by-step 509


[X] - :e-mail: x@mail.asana.com

You are probably wondering why I have posted this email address here. Well the cool thing is you can create tasks very fast by sending or forwarding an email to x@mail.asana.com

This will create a task in „My Tasks“

You could even set up a filter in your inbox for specific emails that should always be forwarded automatically.

More about this here: https://asana.com/guide/help/email/email-to-asana


[Y] - :arrow_forward: Youtube

You will find plenty of interesting videos on how to do things on Asana on their Youtube Channel:


[Z] - :bulb: Zusammenfassung

Could not come up with an English term now that fits well, so here you go, you just learned a German word :smiley: which means „Summary“

All in all, Asana is providing a lot of guides, tips and tricks in various forms, so whether you are more the visual or auditory learning type or you prefer to learn by just reading there are a lot of resources available that will help you master Asana very quickly :slight_smile:

And as a final tip, here is a great list of ways you can save time in Asana: https://asana.com/guide/team/advanced/save-time-in-asana

And make sure to look through other cool features such as forms, custom fields, dependencies and more. https://asana.com/guide/help/faq/all-asana-features


I hope I have covered the most important things. Should you see anything missing in the list please let me know :slight_smile:

19 Likes

WOW! Thanks for compiling these resources @Andrea_Mayer, that’s a great thread to share with anyone looking to get started with Asana :rocket:

6 Likes

Few Words.

Loved them. Full of Outbound links. Worth Bookmarking and coming back later.

3 Likes

Wow, this is impressive and super helpful

3 Likes

Wow! :star_struck: Another amazing post filled with such useful resources! Thanks @Andrea_Mayer!

4 Likes

@Andrea_Mayer I love your A to Z Asana guides!! Super helpful as always :star:

We also offer support in the Forum in French, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Japanese :globe_with_meridians:

4 Likes

Oh great thanks @Emily_Roman
Added your point above :slight_smile:

3 Likes

This is amazing - thanks for writing such an incredible guide, @Andrea_Mayer!

2 Likes