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Collaborating in Asana

In This Article

This article will help you discover the key components of successful collaboration in Asana. From writing detailed task descriptions to effectively using comments, likes, and appreciations.

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Getting started with team collaboration

Setting up your team structure

Before diving into collaboration features, organize your team structure to mirror how you actually work together:

  1. Create teams that reflect your organizational structure (Marketing, Sales, Product)
  2. Set up an "All Staff" team for company-wide projects and announcements
  3. Keep it simple—too many teams can become overwhelming

Understanding project visibility

Projects in Asana can be:

  1. Public: Visible to all team members
  2. Private: Only visible to project members and collaborators

Choose the right visibility level based on who needs access to the work.

Assigning tasks

As core building blocks of Asana, tasks are where most of your collaboration will take place. One of the best ways to collaborate is to assign someone a task.

Assigning tasks isn’t just for managers, team leads, or those who manage large projects.

If you need something from a colleague, assign them a task. If you need to distribute work amongst your team, assign that work with tasks.

Where to begin with assigning tasks? A well-crafted task will answer three questions: who is doing what, and by when?

Note iconNote

Read Creating effective tasks in Asana for more on how to write great tasks.

Task collaborators

Add collaborators to your tasks by clicking the + at the bottom of the task pane, below the comment section.

Another way to add a new collaborator to a task is to @mention them in a comment or in the task description; type @ and immediately begin to type their name or email address. Your chosen collaborator’s profile will appear in the typeahead - click on them or hit enter, and your colleague will be added to the task as a collaborator. They’ll receive inbox notifications about any updates on this task going forward—more on @mentioning below.

Commenting and @mentioning

Commenting on a task is a great way to move work forward. Use comments to ask questions and share updates or resources. When you comment on a task, all its collaborators receive an inbox notification to keep them in the loop.

Make sure your message gets seen by @mentioning a colleague in your comment. Think of it like CC’ing someone on an email.

If a task is no longer relevant or is too noisy due to frequent updates, a collaborator can click the bell icon in the bottom-right corner of the task pane and select Leave task. They won’t receive inbox notifications about the task anymore.

You can also @mention other tasks, projects, portfolios, and goals in your comments and task descriptions. 

Your Asana Inbox

Your inbox is the notification center for all the work you’re involved in—tasks, messages, status updates, and project activity—so you can review what’s changed and take action without leaving Asana.

In the left sidebar, click Inbox to see your most recent updates. On mobile, tap Inbox in the bottom navigation. 

Filter what you see: Use filters to zero in on what matters—for example Assigned to me, @Mentioned, Assigned by me, or to view updates from a specific person or project. 

Act directly from a notification:

  • Open the task or message to comment, @mention teammates, or update details.
  • Mark tasks complete, like a comment, or follow/unfollow to adjust what you’re notified about.
  • Keep your Inbox tidy by archiving items you’ve reviewed (you can unarchive anytime)
Note iconNote

If you prefer fewer emails, rely on Inbox and adjust your email notification settings anytime.

Likes and appreciations

Likes don’t have a concrete meaning, but are often used to signal your approval or quickly let someone know you’ve read their update. Likes are a great way to say “I’ve seen this,” “I like this,” “Good job,” or “I agree” without having to type anything at all. 

Appreciations are another way to celebrate a win or  a significant update. Getting a big chunk of work over the line might call for a surfing yeti, or you might choose to celebrate someone’s achievement with a narwhal jumping through a hoop. Choose from different animations by clicking the Appreciations button in the comment toolbar.

What does collaboration look like in Asana?

If you’re a collaborator on a task, you will receive updates about that task in your Asana Inbox.

Some tasks only require passive collaboration, like keeping an eye on how work is progressing by receiving updates when custom field values change, or reading stakeholder comments as they discuss their next move.

Other tasks will require more active collaboration, where you’ll need to write comments, @mention colleagues and other tasks, update the task description, change the task’s due date, and maybe even the assignee. While you’re taking action inside the task, your collaborators receive updates about your actions in their inbox - just as you receive them when someone else moves the work forward.

Invite people to Asana

Bring teammates, contractors, and stakeholders into Asana so everyone can collaborate in one place. You can invite people by email, add them directly to a team or project, or share an invite link (if enabled by your organization).

Ways to invite

  • From anywhere: Click the Create (+) button and enter names or email addresses. Choose the team or project you want them to join and set access (can edit or can comment).
  • Project or portfolio: Open the item and click Share to add people who should collaborate there.
    Team: From a team page, use Invite or the Invite with link option (if available) to let people join that team.

Guests and access

  • You can invite people outside your company domain as guests using their email address; they’ll only see the specific items you share with them.

Note iconNote

You can paste multiple emails to invite several people at once, and manage pending invites from the same dialog

Fitting Asana in with your other tools

Asana integrates with your existing tool stack. You can pull the most important information from emails, documents, and other applications into your Asana tasks and projects where you can most effectively collaborate on the work to be done.

Asana offers multiple ways to use Asana and email, from turning emails into tasks to emailing messages to Asana teams to integrating directly with your favorite communication tools.

Emails contain a lot of information, and sometimes important action items can get buried in long threads. Use the Gmail or Outlook integrations to create clear, actionable tasks in Asana without leaving your inbox.

Communication isn’t restricted to email, of course. Many teams use different tools like MS Teams and Power BI from Microsoft or Google Drive and Looker from Google throughout their day. Whatever the combination, Asana integrates with hundreds of such applications.

Additional resources

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Enhance Team Collaboration in Asana | Asana Help Center