Hi everyone! 
I’m a familiar face here in the Forum, but something not everyone knows about me is that I’m proudly Autistic and ADHD. My brain processes the world a bit differently, and while that comes with challenges, it’s also one of my greatest strengths.
For me, structure and flexibility go hand in hand, which is why Asana has been a game-changer. It’s helped me stay organized at work and manage tasks, ideas, and deadlines in a way that makes sense for my brain. Before joining Asana, I’d never used the platform, and honestly, I wasn’t sure what to expect. But since all our work happens in Asana, I had to learn it quickly. What I didn’t realize was that it would change how I organize not just my work but my personal life too.
In celebration of Neurodiversity Awareness Week (March 17-23), I want to share some personal tips on how I’ve made Asana work for me. Asana’s flexibility allows it to adapt to your brain and work style, and with its AI and smart features, it’s become my ultimate personal assistant. Here’s how I use Asana to stay on top of tasks (and I’d love to hear your strategies too!) 
My ADHD brain: a chaotic browser with 110 open tabs
Having ADHD means my brain loves to take the scenic route. I can dive into 10 exciting projects in a burst of inspiration, and then an hour later, completely forget what I was doing. On the other hand, Autism means I get overwhelmed by too much visual clutter and lack of organization.
To balance both, I needed a system that keeps me on track without annoying me. Here are some ways Asana helps me manage that:
1. The “out of sight, out of mind” fix 
I keep my biggest priorities in “My Tasks” so they’re always in my face. To keep my tasks organized and clutter free, I use the popular auto-promotion rule to move my tasks from Later → Upcoming and Upcoming → Today (Tip: This specific feature is available in all tiers, including free 
)
That alone is super helpful if you’re on a free plan. In my case, since I have access to custom fields (Starter plan or above), I’ve added an extra layer of organization for when my “Today” section starts overflowing. I created my own My Tasks custom fields, packed with colors and emojis to rank my tasks in a way that speaks to my brain better than the usual High, Medium, Low priority fields. The best part? These fields can be private, so you can customize them however you like!
2. Helping my time-blind brain stay on track with deadlines 
Time blindness means I don’t always sense deadlines approaching until they’re right on top of me. To help manage this, I use start dates, due dates, and reminders to create urgency before things get too close.
- Start dates instead of just due dates: If something that takes time is due on Friday, I set the start date to Tuesday so my brain sees it earlier. Setting due times is also helpful when you need to complete a task by a specific time.
- Task dependencies: I unlock tasks step by step, so I don’t get overwhelmed by the entire list at once. This is especially helpful when a task depends on someone else’s completion. Once the precedent task is done, I get notified and can dive right into mine.
- Task reminders (with custom rules): When a task is assigned far in advance, I often forget about it until it shows up in my upcoming tasks. To prevent that, I set reminders a few days (or even a week) before it’s due, so I’m ready to tackle it on time.
3. I made my to-do list a work of art (because aesthetics matter) 
ADHD brains thrive on visual engagement. And to me, Asana is the best project management tool in that aspect! 
Turning my to-do list into a colorful, interactive space makes me actually want to use it. If my task list looks boring, I won’t look at it. But if it’s fun, colorful, and visually stimulating, my brain is more likely to keep it tidy and organized.
- I color-code tasks, projects, portfolios, and everything else I can. I separate my projects by categories (marketing, operations, personal, etc) with specific colors and icons to easily differentiate them.
- I use emojis everywhere.
- The Extra delight hack is always on! The extra dopamine always helps. For even more dopamine, I eventually hit Tab+B and Tab+V
- Project views: Personally, I prefer to work on List view, but I super recommend exploring all the available views and use the one that suits you best. Many ADHD friends prefer board view, and use Asana like a Pinterest board.
4. I use Asana for personal life too 
I work at Asana, work with Asana, and somehow manage to run my whole personal life with Asana. Talk about a full-time sidekick! 
- Asana isn’t just for work. It’s my personal life’s organizational superhero! With ADHD, I need a trusty spot where I can store everything I might need, whether I’m on my phone or laptop. So, I’ve turned my personal Asana workspace into a well-oiled machine of reminders and projects.
- Let me paint a picture: I once bought a brand-new camping chair for a trip because I completely forgot where I’d put my old one. I honestly could not find it anywhere and didn’t understand how something could simply disappear. A few days after the trip, I opened my storage cupboard to put the new chair away… and there it was—the old chair, just chilling like “Hey, I was here the whole time.”
- That’s when I created my “
Where’s that thing?” project in Asana, where I list everything I don’t use regularly but will inevitably lose my mind looking for later. It’s saved me from countless “Where the heck did I put that?!” moments:
(Look at my now—two camping chairs listed there…)
5. Last but not least! AI features make Asana the ultimate personal assistant 
I rely on Asana AI to skip boring tasks, reduce decision fatigue, and avoid mistakes.
I often get overwhelmed by long tasks and spend too much time overthinking project details, such as structure, names, descriptions. Instead of fighting my brain, I let AI handle the parts I’d typically mess up or ignore. This frees me up to focus on what really matters, saving both time and energy.
Some of my favorite AI-powered features and how they help me:
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Smart projects: Allows me to quickly create customized projects by generating suggested descriptions, sections and custom fields based on my prompts.
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Smart summaries: These provide quick insights into recent activities and progress, helping me stay on top of work without getting overwhelmed by details.
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Smart editor: This feature helps me write clearer, more impactful responses, with my desired tone, which is a lifesaver when I’m having trouble organizing my thoughts. It’s especially useful since English isn’t my first language. No more second-guessing my writing!
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Ai Studio: AI Studio deserves its own article (or several), as it’s unlocked so many possibilities and made staying organized much easier. Instead of diving deep, I’ll share some helpful articles from fellow Asanas and Forum Leaders with tips that I’ve applied in my day-to-day work and highly recommend:
You can find many more use cases and tips in our AI Studio - Asana Forum category.
Wrapping it up before I get distracted 
These Asana features have been game-changers for me, allowing me to work more efficiently and effectively despite the challenges that come with AuDHD. I hope sharing my experience inspires other neurodivergent individuals to explore how Asana can support their unique work styles and needs.
Do you have any Asana tips or experiences that help you stay organized? Whether you’re neurodivergent or not, I’d love to hear how you make Asana work for you! Let’s celebrate diverse ways of thinking and the tools that help us succeed! 
And if you have any tips or strategies that have helped you, I’d love to hear them!
Overdue: I have a rule setup to move all tasks that are out of date to this section. Rule Trigger = 
Today (Prioritized): Every morning I look at what is due today and manually move what is most important to this section. Because it is manual there are no rules.
Today: Tasks due today are automatically moved to this section. Rule Trigger = “Due date is approaching” (Due date is today). Action = “Move task to a certain section” (
Approaching: This is a bucket for all things due in the next week. Because the project is sorted by due date, I am able to see which tasks are due tomorrow at the top of the section. I’ve also considered creating a “Tomorrow” section to make these more visible incase a really large task is due within the net 24 hours. Rule Trigger = “Due date is approaching” (1 week before). Action = “Move task to a certain section” (
Later: This is a bucket for any tasks that are due more than one week out. Once you get ramped up you’ll find that you have a lot of tasks that are either very far out as reminders, or are recurring every month or year. Rules can only be “for less than [interval]” so I manually move tasks here when I triage tasks in my “
References: You’ll also find that you will have tasks with interesting notes, or FYIs still relevant in the long term that are assigned to you but aren’t timely. Tbh this becomes a bit of a random bucket, but generally things I don’t want to forget about - but also aren’t worthy enough for their own project. Tasks are manually added.
Parking Lot: I use this section to park AoR tasks and task templates that aren’t actionable or informational but are still assigned to me.
Completed: When a task is marked complete, a rule moves it to this section; keeping all other sections clean with just incomplete tasks.