I love being organized and I’ve tried numerous task and project management tools over the years. Outlook tasks, Excel spreadsheets, various paper systems and more. Some I liked, some I hated. Asana is the latest app that I’ve tried in my quest for improved productivity and I’m in love. It’s a keeper, my friends!
I love how intuitive the app is and that pretty much everything can be dragged around, which makes it super-easy to reorganize.
Every morning when I’m planning my day, I drag and drop my day’s tasks into order. Projects can be dragged into a different order to keep high-priority projects at the top of the list. Tasks can be dragged into other tasks to become subtasks and subtasks can be dragged out to become tasks.
Also, the unicorns! You read that right. There are unicorns. Sometimes, when you mark a task complete, a colorful unicorn flies across your screen. Is this a necessary feature in a project management tool? Well, no. But it makes me so happy. Every time.
Now you’re probably wondering, what does all this awesomeness cost? Nada. Nothing. Zip.
There is a premium version that offers more features, but I haven’t found the need for any of them yet. The free version does everything I need it to do and it can do the same for you.
When you’re ready to start using Asana, this is how you set it up:
Create a free Asana account
Just head to www.asana.com and sign up for a free account. Woohoo – you’re on your way to a super organized and productive life!
Next, create a team
Head to the sidebar on the left, click ‘New Team’ and give it a name. If you’re just one person, you don’t need to add anyone else to your team, but if you work with a virtual assistant or any other team members, you can simply add them by clicking ‘Invite People’. Anyone who accepts the invite will then be able to collaborate with you on your Asana projects.
Create a new project
Head to the sidebar on the left and click ‘New Project’. Name your project whatever your heart desires. Once you’ve successfully named your project, you can add other team members to the project if you wish.
You can choose between a ‘List’ and ‘Board’ layout. List organizes your to-dos in an itemized list, this is great for projects that consists of lots of single tasks and what I use for most projects. With the board layout, you can organize your tasks like sticky notes on a board. I use the board layout for example for a content calendar, see below.
Create a to-do list within your project
After you’ve created a new project in Asana, you’ll need to fill it with your tasks for this project. Break it up into sections. For example, if your project is a yoga retreat, your sections could be location, program, marketing, participants and travel. Add the tasks you’ll need to complete in each stage. You can add tags to your tasks, images and fiiles, so everything is in one place.
Pro Tip: Create Templates
Instead of writing out a new to-do list every time you create a new project, use an old project as your project template! Just hover over an old project, click the three dots on the right and select ‘Use as a template’.
If you’ve been looking for a way to get more organized and be more productive, then I encourage you to try out Asana. From the largest project to the tiniest detail, Asana will keep up with everything.
