Asana Best Practices

Asana Best Practices

Asana Foundations

Before looking at best practice its important to note that the single most important thing you MUST do in Asana is:

– Assign EVERY task an Owner
– Assign EVERY task a due date

Now this may seem obvious to some, but so many Asana users resist this. Without a due date and owner Asana will be useless to you.

Without an assignee/owner the task will not show up in the ‘My Tasks’ section so no one will have visibility of it, no one will take responsibility for it, and it will never be done.

Without a due date, the tasks will never be done, because there will always be something more important and because the days of having ‘spare time’ are gone.

If you take away only one thing from reading this article – implement this – immediately.

1. Create Clear Milestones in Asana

Define project milestones and goals before creating tasks in Asana to ensure clarity and direction. A project has a defined start and defined end so these should be added to your project at a minimum. If you have payment or delivery milestones – generally noted in the contract – than add these. Remember the principle that a milestone cannot move. Imagine New Years Day as a milestone, its always on the 1st Jan and never moves. This should be true of your milestones.

2. Organise Asana Projects with Consistent Naming Conventions

Maintain a structured and uniform naming system for projects, tasks, and custom fields. This improves searchability and prevents confusion across teams. Asana allows you to colour-code your projects and add icons. Add key projects to your favourites so they are easy to find. When a project is complete Archive it to avoid old projects cluttering up your workspace.

3. Use Task Dependencies to Streamline Workflow

Link related tasks using Asana’s dependency feature to ensure work progresses in the correct order. This prevents bottlenecks and improves team coordination. It also makes it really clear which tasks will hold up your project if they aren’t completed in time. Use the timeline view to visually see the connection between tasks.come into play.

4. Maximise Productivity with Asana Templates

If your projects are similar you can save time by creating project templates. If there are large and small versions of a project, break the template project into sections and create the MAX project template that has everything in it. If you have a smaller project you can delete sections easily if they aren’t relevant. This can save considerable time adding in every task.

5. Leverage Automation for Repetitive Tasks

Use Asana’s automation tools to set up rules, triggers, and recurring tasks. Automating routine work reduces manual effort and minimises errors. Not every Asana package has all the rules you will need. You can also use automation tools like Zapier and Make for automations outside Asana.

6. Work from within the My Tasks section

Unless you’re the Project Manager, most team members should be concentrating on completing tasks. This means you should start and finish your day by reviewing (and doing) the tasks that are in your “My Tasks” within Asana. Generally 80% of your time as a team member should be spent in this section of Asana.

7. Enhance Team Collaboration with Comments and Mentions

Keep communication centralised and in Asana by using task comments, @mentions, and project discussions. This eliminates scattered messages and ensures accountability. There’s nothing worse than having to go back through old emails and Slack messages to find where the project details are. You can also link Slack to Asana to keep content inside Asana but have it send Slack messages through Asana rules.

8. Track Progress with Dashboards and Reporting Tools

Monitor project health using Asana’s reporting features and dashboards. These tools help teams stay on track and identify potential risks early. Its good practice for the project manager to review the “On Track, Off Track” status weekly or monthly. This reporting will then show in your portfolio and is an easy way to identify project status at a glance. Clicking the numbers in the dashboard will take you to the details.

9. Regularly Review and Update Your Asana Setup

Periodically audit your Asana workspace to remove outdated tasks, refine workflows, and improve the overall process. Continuous optimisation keeps your system up to date with your ever-evolving team and business needs.

I would encourage you to create an SOP or Asana Summary that describes how your business uses Asana. Its great for new team members who may have never used Asana before, or used it differently in a previous organisation.

Many clients tell me “We’re not getting the best out of Asana” so you’re not alone. I’ve created a scorecard that allows you to benchmark your use of Asana – give it a try, it takes only 5 minutes to complete.

I am always happy to help you fill the gaps through Asana Consulting for your and your team. Book a free call here.