Here are my top ten advices about using Asana: unfiltered, and sometimes slightly controversial
Create more projects, use less subtasks.
This is one of the biggest problems we see: people are afraid of having too many projects, so they rely on either a very big project or way too many subtasks. Having a lot of projects is not a problem. It is a problem if you use the sidenav to move around.
Don’t use the sidenav to look for something
The sidenav is not the right place to look for something. It is the right place to click on My Tasks, Inbox or click on a project you starred. Anything else should be done with the search.
Use My Tasks. Several times a day.
Don’t tell me that it doesn’t make sense for your company. It definitely does. People need to be able to go to My Tasks to see what they should be working on. If it doesn’t apply to you, then you’re not using Asana the right way. You are either not assigning to the right people or not training people properly.
Ditch the email notifications, use the Asana Inbox
If you don’t see the value of the Asana Inbox compared to the email notifications, it means you are in “react” mode and only use notifications to know “what’s up”. Notifications contains answers, questions… If you have too many, that’s something we can help you with.
Learn to setup notifications properly
The number one reason you’re not using the inbox is that you never set up notifications properly:
- You need to disable the “new tasks” added notification.
- You need to disable it on all existing projects.
- You need to disable the “Due today” notification.
- You need to remove yourself from tasks quite often.
Use comments more
There’s a very good chance that you’re not using comments enough: document decisions, document your tests, write what worked, what didn’t work, document your change of heart. You need to do that to help AI and colleagues understand what has been done on that specific task.
Constantly clean up and improve
Your Asana account is a living organism. It has to be cleaned, it has to be maintained, and you need to constantly improve the processes.
Profile pictures. For everyone, no exception.
I don’t care that John doesn’t want to put a profile picture, it is compulsory. We are human beings. We need to collaborate. The work environment has to be friendly. It is important.
Use emojis more
You need to define a set of meaningful emojis to use in your Asana as a way to make it easier to understand, easier to navigate, as well as more colorful.
You don’t need more fields.
You need to properly use the ones you already have. Every time you add a new custom field, it means people have extra work to do to fill them in. You need to have processes to make sure the data is there. You have to check for consistency and errors. It is a lot of work, so it has to be worth it.
So, what do you think?
Bastien, Asana Expert
i.DO (Asana Partner: Services & Licenses)
