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Quick-start guide to Asana

In This Article

Intro to Asana 

Does coordinating work feel chaotic? Kickoff meetings end, but teammates aren't clear on what to do next. Time is wasted searching for information across different tools. Often, there's no visibility into progress and priorities.

Watch: What is Asana?

Asana is a collaborative work management platform that gives your team a system for turning the chaos of unstructured work into a single place to coordinate and communicate about work. Whether you're managing a complex project or organizing your daily tasks, Asana organizes work so everyone knows exactly what to do, who's doing it, and when it's due.

That’s what Asana is, now it’s time for you to get a quick-start in Asana. 

What you'll learn:

  • How to add and track work in Asana
  • The basics of navigating Asana
  • How to use Asana for personal productivity
  • Best practices for collaborating with teammates
  • 5 hands-on actions to get started

Time commitment: 15-20 minutes

Creating projects and tasks

Watch: Getting Started

Projects and tasks are the foundation of work in Asana.

Projects organize major initiatives or ongoing workflows.

Tasks are individual action items within projects.

Subtasks break down a task when multiple people need to contribute to its completion.

When to use projects, tasks, and subtasks

Before you start building, here's how to decide what to create:

Create a project when you have a large coordinated effort with multiple stakeholders working toward a common goal over weeks or months. Examples include launching a new marketing campaign (like "Q2 LinkedIn Marketing Campaign"), planning an event (like "Customer Education Team Meetings"), or developing a product (like "Product Website Redesign").

Create a task when you need to assign specific work or capture an actionable item. Tasks answer: who is doing what and by when? They typically take minutes or hours to complete. For example, create tasks like "Draft homepage copy," "Review design mockups," or "Schedule kickoff meeting."

Create a subtask when you need to break down a task into smaller steps or when multiple people need to contribute. For example, if you have a task called "Publish blog post," create subtasks for "Draft article," "Review and edit," and "Schedule publication."

Building effective projects

You can create projects in a number of ways:

  1. Use the filter at the top of the workflow gallery to find the project template you need
  2. Choose a pre-built template from the workflow gallery
  3. Import work from another tool
  4. Create a new project from scratch

 

Customize your project

  1. Projects represent major initiatives or areas of work. Organize your projects in a logical way by creating Sections to break down work into smaller steps or phases.
  2. Use the Customize menu to optimize your project for your team's workflow. Access it from the top right of any project.

Start with these features:

  • Fields: Track priority, status, effort, or any data relevant to your workflow
  • Apps to connect Slack, Gmail, Microsoft Teams, and more

Other features to explore:

  • Forms to standardize request intake
  • Rules in AI Studio to add intelligent automation to your workflow (e.g., auto-assign tasks to appropriate team members when moved to a section)
  • Task templates for recurring work
  • Bundles to apply rules and templates across projects

Assigning clear tasks

1. Use task titles effectively

Task titles should be concise, specific, and action-oriented. Start task titles with an action verb to clearly indicate what needs to be done.

For example, say "Review presentation with product leads" rather than "Presentation with product leads."

2. Add context to your tasks

Use the task description to include all necessary details, instructions, and context so the assignee has everything they need to start and complete the work. Use Asana AI to improve formatting, alter description length, or adjust the tone.

Attach files or links directly to tasks for easy reference. This keeps all relevant information connected to the work in one place. 

3. Assign responsibilities and set due dates

Assign tasks to yourself and team members so everyone knows who is responsible for what. Asana allows you to assign tasks to a single individual and add multiple collaborators, facilitating accountability and collaboration.

Add due dates to tasks to establish deadlines.

There are a number of key areas to know as you move around Asana:

Watch: Navigation in Asana

Area

What you'll find

1. Home

Your personalized dashboard with work that matters most to you

2. My tasks

All tasks assigned to you across every project (your personal to-do list)

3. Inbox

Updates and comments on work you're following

4. Starred

Work that you've starred for quick access

5. Search (top bar)

Find any task, project, or conversation instantly

6. Smart chat

Your AI-powered assistant that will help you prioritize upcoming work, summarize work in flight, and ask questions about how to use Asana

Organizing your personal work

Watch:  Plan your day with Asana

Use My tasks and Inbox to organize your day and stay in-the-loop on work you’re involved in.

My tasks 

My tasks is home to all tasks assigned to you across every project in Asana. 

Tips for using My tasks:

  • Check periodically throughout the day to ensure you are budgeting time for and completing work that has been assigned to you
  • Organize My Tasks in sections that work best for you:
    • By due date: "Today," "Upcoming," "Later"
    • By priority: "Must Do Today," "This Week," "Later"
    • By status: "To Do," "In Progress," "Waiting on Others"
  • Take action on tasks assigned to you! Complete tasks when you're done with them and adjust task due dates if they're overdue
  • Get ready for the next day by checking in on tasks due tomorrow

Your Asana Inbox

Your Asana Inbox serves as the notification center for all the work you're involved in—tasks, messages, status updates, and project activity—so you can stay up-to-date on work in progress and take action without leaving Asana. 

Tips for using Inbox:

  • Check periodically throughout the day to stay updated on the work you're involved in
  • Organize Inbox notifications in a way that works for you
  • Take action on each notification:
    • "Like" notifications to acknowledge updates you've seen
    • Respond to comments and questions directly in tasks
    • Archive notifications you've addressed or that are FYIs
    • Create follow-up tasks on updates that require further action
  • Get a snapshot of updates with Asana AI's smart summaries summary

Collaborating with your team

Here are a few best practices to maximize collaboration in Asana.

Collaborate about work in Asana, in Asana!

Collaborate in Asana with comments, messages, attachments, and @mentions, to promote effective communication among team members. Add collaborators, ask questions, and provide updates within tasks, projects, and portfolios. As collaboration happens, relevant stakeholders will stay in the loop with Inbox notifications.

Ways to ensure teammates are looped in:

  • @mention teammates in comments to get their attention and notify them
  • Add collaborators to tasks so they receive notifications about updates
  • Attach files or links directly to tasks for easy reference

Use the Overview tab for project context

Project creators should outline the purpose and objectives of each project or initiative in the Overview tab. Additionally, you can define project roles, connect your project to team or company goals, and share key resources. The Overview tab gives project members the context they need to contribute effectively.

If you've recently been invited to a project, use Asana AI to summarize recent project activity.

Update task and project statuses

Update teammates on task progress by adding comments when there are timeline or deliverable changes, adjusting custom field values to reflect the current status, or marking the task complete when it's done.

Project status updates keep stakeholders informed on progress, blockers, and next steps. Status updates appear at the top of your project and in project members' Inboxes, ensuring everyone stays aligned. Use Asana AI to help generate your status update by summarizing recent project activity and progress.

Practice in Asana

The best way to learn Asana is by using it. Complete these 5 actions to build your foundation. Each one takes just 2-3 minutes.

The best way to learn Asana is by using it. Complete these 5 actions to build your foundation. Each one takes just 2-3 minutes.

1. Create your first project

Projects organize major initiatives or ongoing workflows that involve multiple tasks and people working toward a common goal.

From the +Create button, select Project. Choose a project from the workflow gallery or create a new one. Name it based on a current or upcoming initiative—like "Website Updates," "Q1 Planning," or "Team Onboarding."

2. Create sections to organize your project

Sections organize tasks by breaking work into phases like "To Do," "In Progress," and "Complete." Add sections that make sense for how your work flows. You can edit or add new ones anytime.

3. Add a task to your project and assign it to yourself

Tasks are the actionable pieces of work within a project. Create a task for something you need to do, using an action verb to start the title (like "Review homepage design" or "Schedule team meeting"). Assign it to yourself and add a due date.

4. Collaborate with teammates

Most Asana projects include multiple members. Invite teammates to your project—click the Share button at the top of your project. Then create tasks and assign them to the right people. Add a due date and use the task description to provide context about what needs to get done.

5. Move work forward from My tasks and Inbox

Navigate to My tasks and Inbox from your sidebar.

In My tasks, you'll see all tasks assigned to you across Asana. Focus first on tasks due today. If any tasks are overdue, adjust their due date to reflect when you'll actually complete them.

In Inbox, you'll see notifications about work you're involved in. Take action: comment if you have questions, "like" to acknowledge you've seen it, or archive notifications that are just FYIs.

Continue your onboarding

Where to go from here:

Where to go

What you'll find

Asana Help Center

How-to articles and video tutorials on Asana features in the Asana Help Center.

Live trainings

Instructor-led sessions:


• Getting Started in Asana to onboard effectively

•  Managing projects in Asana

Asana Academy 

Certifications and skill badges:


• Asana Foundations Skill Badge for in-depth onboarding

• AI for Work Skill Badge to incorporate AI into workflows

Community Forum

Learn from other users and become an Asana ambassador

Ready to get started? Jump back to the Practice section and complete your first 5 actions in Asana

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Quick-Start Guide to Asana