I’m fairly new to Asana and really loving things so far.
I’m a freelancer (Web Dev) and have really tried to keep my setup simple.
I have created a single Project with Sections to group smaller tasks per client. This project is where I enter smaller requests clients ask such as ‘Add Testimonials’ to website for example.
I also create Individual projects for my larger client projects (eg. Build Website).
So nothing too complicated here I imagine.
What I’m kind of struggling with is figuring out when I’m going to work on each of the tasks I have to complete.
For example, if someone asks “hey paul I need XYZ done this week”, I’d like to be able to give a better indication of when this will be completed by, or even if it’s possible to get done this week.
I think of Due Dates as being the last possible moment when something needs to be completed, not the day to work on it.
Hope this makes sense and any suggestions would be amazing.
I think I know what you mean. I can see two solutions:
1.) By using Instagantt (https://www.instagantt.com/) you can define the time you need for a task and not just the completion date. The downside: It’s a third-party service (and not free).
2.) Inside Asana: Use the “repeat” function. Just set the due date on the day you start working on a task, then use “repeat daily” and choose as the last repeat day the actual due date. This is very easily done and it shows in your calendar your daily tasks - and not just the last possible due date. This is a solution I use quite regularly and it works quite nicely.
Thanks @Ulli, I’ll check that out and I like your 2nd idea as well.
I guess where I get stuck, and feeling overwhelmed is when I have a number of projects on the go, mixed in with a number of smaller (30min - 1hr) tasks from multiple clients thrown in.
I guess one problem is when I look at my todo list, a number of the tasks I have are probably more like projects and need to be broken down further. For example I have a task called ‘Build Proof Web App’ which might take me about half a day to complete.
While it does have Sub Tasks, I’m thinking that should be a project with each of the current sub tasks as tasks instead.
The problem I have with Subtasks is I can’t see the Tags or if it’s in another project without going into it.
I’m sorry that this probably makes no sense at all. It’s just a feeling of overwhelem and not knowing what to do, where to start, etc…
Hey @Paul - this is something that members of my design team struggled with recently.
I really walked through with each individual how to plan their day using My Tasks - I used to only use the sort by due date functionality of it, but now I am a ‘Today/Upcoming/Later’ disciple!
I also have to manage pipelines of several departments (Websites/Design/Video Production, etc.) and I check their My Tasks → Calendar view most of the time.
So for you, each day you can sit at your computer and go through the process of ‘Are there any new tasks I need to prioritize? What tasks am I going to work on Today, Upcoming (within the next week) or Later (more than a week out)?’. And you can move to your calendar view to see ‘Okay I have a mockup due on Friday, I need at least 3 days to do it, so I’m going to make sure that anything on Wed/Thurs/Friday can be either completed before, or moved to next week, etc.’
Calendar view gives you that due-date view of when things need to be done by (absolutely) where as the list view of My Tasks gives you the priority ‘what am I working on today’ view.
You could get more advanced with like custom fields for estimated time needed on tasks, etc. but I think just starting with that simplistic approach would do wonders for how you approach prioritizing.
It sounds like your project setup is working for you. Nevertheless, you might find that having a team for each client would help you.
It sounds like the way you organize your My Tasks could help you manage your time in a way that feels less overwhelming. Here’s how I organize my My Tasks.
Please let us know if you have follow up questions.
Hey @Caisha - That’s exactly the type of thing I was looking for.
I really appreciate you taking the time to write that detailed response and I will implement that immediately.
I was using a lot of Subtasks before. And while I do like them, I’m going to do a little bit of a restructure as I’m finding they kind of get lost among things.
There’s been an interesting and ongoing conversation on the worthiness of subtasks, you might be interested in it - as a solo-user, I think some of my arguments for using subtasks may be moot -