Hi Asana Community! 
I’m Vicky Phan from Asana’s Product Marketing team, and I’m excited to share that we’ve begun rolling out new functionality for our Asana + Outlook Calendar integration! This functionality is part of a series of Asana + Microsoft integration enhancements that we are planning for the coming year.
To provide feedback on this functionality, please feel free to fill out this form.
Creating or linking Outlook Calendar events to Asana tasks
With this update, you can choose to create or link an Outlook Calendar event to an Asana task, without having to manually pull up your calendar. You can create an event by entering the starting and ending date/time on a task, or selecting “First available time within date range” (pro tip: the latter automatically includes the calendar availability of any collaborators whose calendars are visible to you–no more calendar tetris!).
It’s also easy to link to an existing calendar event, by simply searching in the drop-down Outlook Calendar field and selecting the relevant event.
Using rules automations for recurring events at scale
You can also easily set up automated workflows to schedule recurring events, cutting down on the time spent manually coordinating meetings like regular office hours, or transferring project milestones to shared calendars.
Easily transfer details like the title, start/due date, description, and collaborators directly into an Outlook Calendar event, with the option to attach files from the task or generate a Teams meeting for further discussion.
Once the event is created from the task, it can also be viewed within the task as a widget that displays notable event details.
Please note that this is not a data sync integration; so once an event is created from a task or an automated workflow, any subsequent updates from either the event or the task will not be automatically reflected in the other. However, you can always make updates manually from either tool.
How do I get started?
This integration is already built into Asana, but you need an Outlook account to get started.
Here’s how to create or link an Outlook Calendar event to an Asana task:
- Link an event to a task by clicking Add Outlook Calendar event from a task.
- Select Create Calendar Event or Search Existing Events
- If creating a new event, add relevant details like the Title, Description, Start/End dates, and more.
- If adding an existing event, search for the relevant event title within the search bar.
- Attached calendar events will appear as a widget beneath the description in the task pane.
Here’s how to set up the Asana Rules integration with Outlook Calendar:
- Navigate to the specific Asana project where you’d like to add the integration
- Click Customize in the top-right corner, navigate to Rules, and select + Add rule
- Select Outlook Calendar Rules from the left column
- Either select a preset rule or click Create custom rule
- If creating a custom rule, add a name, and choose a trigger and action to get started
- Authenticate by clicking Connect to Outlook Calendar Rules, and follow the steps
- Pick the calendar you want to set up the rules with and configure what you want to include in the calendar events.
Where to learn more
For more in-depth details about the set-up and usage of this integration, visit the Asana Guide.
This integration is available on our Starter and legacy Premium plans.
As always, we are excited to hear your thoughts and feedback! What are some ways this integration will help your teams streamline communications, reduce manual work, and partner even better together?
Comment below and let us know how we can help you continue to drive teamwork and collaboration at your organization. Thanks!