How to work with projects and tasks in Asana so that work stays visible, transferable, and easy to prioritize.
Asana is not just a task management tool: it's the backbone of transparent collaboration. In a self-managed organization, visibility of who is working on what replaces top-down management. Put work in Asana, including work you're moving forward alone. Future colleagues who take over your role can then find the full history and context in one place instead of in your head.
, e.g. "Chosen new website platform" . The name doubles as the definition of done, and stays understandable for colleagues further from the work.
if the project consists of only a few steps (see Asana helpcenter: Add subtasks ). with the same name if it has many tasks or if several colleagues collaborate on it (see Asana helpcenter: Create a project ). The date says when the assignee expects the work to be done. Moving it is fine, hiding it is not. Don't use due dates to set deadlines for colleagues unless an external deadline forces one; if you want something done faster, ask what is blocking the assignee.
with links to the relevant strategy, related projects, and affected metrics, so the what and why are clear without a meeting.
- When completing or updating a task, add a comment with what was done and where to find the result. Your future self and the next holder of your role will thank you.
- Use Slack when you need fast back-and-forth, then add the conclusion to the Asana task. Discuss directly in Asana comments when the topic benefits from asynchronous thought.
- Disable Asana's notification emails and go through the built-in Inbox instead. Press to open it and to archive each item (see Asana helpcenter: Inbox ).
- Asana creates transparency; you decide what to do when. Respond with an estimate of if and when you can pick the task up. If it's clear you won't do it, reassign the task back to its creator so the creator can find another route.
- to tag colleagues in comments or to reference other tasks and projects. The discussion stays attached to the work.
- Recurring tasks clutter your overviews. Often it's better to move the due date of one task forward each time and comment on completion, keeping all history in one place.