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Using Asana for project management

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Asana offers a range of features to help teams manage projects effectively. Whether it's organizing tasks, tracking milestones, or balancing workload, Asana’s capabilities ensure teams can stay on track and achieve their goals. This article explains how to make the most of Asana for your project management needs.

Should I create a project, task or subtask?

Before you get started, users often wonder if they should create a project, task, or subtask when adding work to Asana. Here's a quick framework to help you decide:

  • Create a project for your large coordinated efforts with lots of steps and stakeholders and the need to see them across different views (like a campaign, launch/event, or an editorial calendar/pipeline).
  • Create a task if you're trying to capture a singular to-do for one person that can be achieved within a few minutes or work days (like writing a blog, or fixing a bug).
  • Create a subtask to divide a task into smaller pieces or to split the workload (like a subtask to check blog SEO keywords).
Note iconNote

Read our article on understanding tasks for more tips.

Create a project

The first step in using Asana for project management is understanding how to create and use a project in Asana. This will help your team move away from spreadsheets, long email threads, and unnecessary meetings.

Setting up your project

  • Create a project in Asana by following the steps here. Name the project based on its purpose, for example: "Product Launch." You can use projects for just about anything, from deadline-driven initiatives (like a launch), ongoing processes (like managing an editorial calendar), or tracking information (like incoming design requests).
  • Choose a layout that best suits your project needs - you can switch between List, Board, Timeline, and Calendar view at any time.
  • Save time with a template. Our templates include recommendations on how to set up a project and move your tasks through the workflow. You can also create your own template to save you time when setting up similar projects in the future.

Structuring your project

  • Create sections like "To Do," "In Progress," and "Completed” and organize your tasks into the appropriate sections.
  • Break down the work into manageable tasks and subtasks, each with a clear title, description, and assignee.
  • Make responsibilities clear by assigning tasks and giving them due dates. Then everybody knows what they're responsible for accomplishing, and when it needs to be done by.
  • Create subtasks if needed. Tasks can only have one assignee, this ensures responsibilities are clear. But if a task entails pre-work, extra steps, or you need a quick ask from another teammate to complete it, subtasks help you break it into more manageable pieces and show ownership in the process.
  • Use milestones to highlight key stages in your project, such as "Design Phase Complete."
  • Create a project overview so you can share the project brief with your team right where the plans and tasks live, and clarify project roles for easy reference at any time.

Customizing task details

  • Add custom fields such as "Priority," "Status," or "Due Date" to capture specific task details.Think of custom fields like spreadsheet columns. They track details for each task, while allowing you to filter and sort by them.
  • Set dependencies between tasks to show which tasks need to be completed before others. If you’re waiting on a teammate to finish their work, Asana can help you keep track of its status so you can start your portion at the right time. That also means you spend less time checking in on the task, or not realizing when it was ready.

Resource and team management

  • Monitor updates across multiple projects with portfolios. Portfolios help you manage and keep track of multiple projects at once. You can monitor progress towards specific initiatives all in one place.
  • Use workload to visualize team capacity and distribute tasks evenly.

Collecting information and automating workflows

  • Use forms to gather input from stakeholders. Add a form to your project and responses will automatically populate as tasks in the project.
  • Automate repetitive tasks by adding rules to your project. For example, you can create a rule to move tasks to the "In Progress" section when a custom field is updated.
  • Automate reminders and notifications to keep your team aware of deadlines. You can do this by creating recurring tasks for work that needs to be done on a regular basis or you can create a rule which will add a comment to a task to remind the assignee that the deadline is approaching.

Visualizing schedules with timeline and Gantt view

  • Switch to Timeline or Gantt view to visualize task schedules and dependencies. Adjust timings and dependencies directly from this view where you can easily shift things around to avoid overlaps and conflicts.

File management and collaboration

  • Connect Asana with tools like Google Drive or Dropbox for file sharing, and with Slack or Microsoft Teams for streamlined communication.
  • Use comments to collaborate with your team in real-time by providing feedback directly within a task, asking questions, or attaching documents.

Tracking progress and performance

  • Create customizable dashboards to monitor key metrics such as task completion rates or upcoming deadlines.
  • Provide regular status updates to keep stakeholders updated on project progress. You can @mention teammates, link tasks, and projects in the update for easy reference. All project members will be notified and can comment on the update. You can use Asana AI to speed up this process with the Smart status feature.
  • Generate reports to review project performance, identify bottlenecks, and track key metrics such as overdue tasks, upcoming deadlines, and completion rates. These reports help in making informed decisions and adjustments as needed throughout the project lifecycle.

Post-project closeout

  • Once the project is completed, take time to review the progress, achievements, and areas for improvement. Summarize key learnings and document them for future reference to improve upcoming projects.
  • After the review, archive the project in Asana to preserve a record of the work while keeping your workspace organized and clutter-free.

By leveraging Asana’s project management features, teams can effectively organize, schedule, and execute projects with greater ease. From tracking milestones to managing resources and visualizing project timelines, Asana helps ensure that teams stay organized, productive, and aligned throughout the project lifecycle.

Additional resources

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How to use Asana for project management | Help Center