Common Asana Mistakes to Avoid

In this video, I share some of the common mistakes new users make in Asana. This is a list I've put together after working with hundreds of clients and seeing the types of mistakes that come up again and again.
0:00 - Introduction
0:43 - 1. Not using 'My Tasks'
2:06 - 2. Creating too many tasks
5:04 - 3. Not checking your Inbox
6:59 - Leaving tasks open
8:15 - Changing assignee back and forth
9:31 - Leaving tasks overdue
11:01 - Dumping Asana on your team with no plan
13:07 - Creating a project instead of using 'My Tasks'
14:07 - Not using Due Dates
15:34 - Being too vague with task details
17:05 - Using too many communication channels
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[@RalphErvin]

Hi Paul! Love this update! Thanks for sharing and please keep them coming.

[@minor-co]

Thanks, will do Ralph!

[@SkyCharter]

Excellent... thanks! Just getting started with Asana and YT videos are really helping. Also, you had me rubbing my eyes with those moving dots on the wall till I figured you have some sort of slo-mo disco ball or equiv.

[@minor-co]

Haha, thanks for letting me know.

[@HorrorbleDriver]

I have literally been making ALL these mistakes over the last couple of months. Thank you for this. Have an awesome week!

[@minor-co]

Glad I could help!

[@PlanningwithBumble]

This was super helpful. Thank you so much!

[@minor-co]

Thanks!

[@yellowmik3]

Great content!

[@minor-co]

Thanks!

[@HollyFortenberryGC]

This is fantastic! I don't have a team yet but when I do, I'm definitely hiring yours to train mine in using Asana properly. Thank you!

[@minor-co]

Great! Happy to help any time 😀

[@lancelotdulac6076]

This is a very helpful video, thanks Paul! P.S.: as an insider, do you probably know if Asana is going to introduce a solo Premium plan at all? I'd love to use it (and pay for it) but currently there are only 2 seat plans whereas I use Asana on my own. Many thanks!

[@minor-co]

Thanks! Sorry I have no idea on this I'm afraid. I hope so...

[@AustinCrawford-or7kq]

The issue we run into with using 'My Tasks' is that anything in someone's list that is not in a project goes unreported and their work is not recognized. I am not sure what the solution to this is other than having a project to replace My Tasks and have whoever has access to the portfolio join the project.

[@minor-co]

It may be worth creating a separate 'Misc' project to create more visibility of these tasks.

[@nicolekuczynski5373]

Thanks for this video, Paul! I was wondering if it's possible to duplicate the same behavior and make a connection between columns under Projects and My tasks. For instance, when I move one project task from 'In Progress' to 'Blocked', if this can be duplicated to My Tasks and also change in there. (considering I have the exact same columns under My Tasks)

[@minor-co]

Hi Nicole, I'm afraid not as what you're describing involves a trigger from one project and an action in your My Tasks which Asana rules can't handle. However, this could be possible with Zapier if you'd be interested in exploring this?

[@kategreene9933]

Hey Paul! Just discovered you - you're a lifesaver. I'd like to create priority sub-sections within the "today" section of My Tasks. For example, High Priority, Medium Priority, etc. I've seen boards that show these priority sections as bold, underlined headings under the dropdown sections. How are these created? I hope that makes sense...

[@minor-co]

You may have seen then set up as a custom field (which is how I'd recommend setting it up).

[@phyllistene]

Great Video. Questions for you.. I have two roles within a nonprofit- each with unique teams/projects and assigned emails. I would also like to integrate personal projects and home management into this. Is there a way to use Asana as a hub for all the varying teams AND have them all integrate into a calendar or task list? Would it make sense to assign my own different roles as different team members or would tags be the better route? I know you suggest not Overusing Projects rather than just the My Tasks list but can you sort the task list by tag?

[@minor-co]

Sorry, I'm not sure I understand what you're trying to do. But feel free to reach out here and maybe we can discuss on a call: paulminors.com/contact/

[@emreerden5205]

good video

[@minor-co]

Thanks!

[@gustavoscalso]

Hi Paul. Can we visualise multiple projects at the same time in the timeline? I own a bathroom renovation company and sometimes we are running few project at the same time so I need to be able to see all the project on the timeline so we don’t make a mistake when scheduling the subcontractors that will be working on each job and each day. I would like to open asana and have a clear view of when I can schedule my plumber to start my next job for example. I have around 10 different subcontractors that work with me and we need to be very well aligned. Hope I’m making sense. Thanks, Gus

[@minor-co]

I'd recommend having a look at Portfolios which lets you visualise the dates and milestones for multiple projects at once.

[@DaveSaysYesh]

We add each job as a separate project with a template that adds tasks automatically into master timelines, I.e fitting/ordering. Find it handy to have that zoomed in view on a singular project with nitty gritty details but also zoomed out collated views of the different schedules and how they fit together

[@JLALALALA]

Was this a repeat video? I feel like I saw this before even though it has todays date.

[@minor-co]

It's an updated version of a video I made a few years ago with some more mistakes added 👍

[@joseleon5824]

Hello I have a question. I want to integrate an inspection sheet to Asana currently we do it in an Excel sheet. but I would like to integrate it to Asana so that at the end of each month apart from having A sheet that adds all inspections and repairs of the month also has the possibility of knowing that technician reported more of each point of the inspection. This is possible?

[@minor-co]

I'm not quite following... if you're asking if you can import this to Asana with the technician details, the answer is yes.

[@angelocapaldi3957]

Hey Paul! new follower here! I'm looking for a solution to get an unique ID for each task. Why? we need to link our tasks in Asana to Github branches, any suggestions?

[@minor-co]

Each task has an ID. You can see it in the URL bar, it's the last number when you select the task. You can use this in your integration when integration Github.

[@DaLeSy.]

Is there any way to get your projects or to do lists into folders to organize them?

[@minor-co]

Projects are organised into Teams (if your account is set up as an Organization not a Workspace), so you can use these as folders if you like.

[@DaLeSy.]

@@minor-co That is the second person that told me that, but I don't see any way to do that. So I'm guessing it's because I have it set up as a workspace then. Is there any way to change it to an organization?

[@WhitneyCook-EmboldenWI]

For Judy's task, I'm guessing you didn't make the checklist into subtasks because that would overwhelm her task list, correct? What are your recommendations on when it's okay to give someone subtasks and when not to?

[@minor-co]

Correct. Really I assign the subtask if I want them to get a task on their list that I'd like them to complete before a specific date.

[@parthdesai4741]

Brother appreciate your “मेहनत” How can i make task to reminding me alerts for specific thing Like Task:- paul Sub task :- meet paul for equity portfolio review Due date :- 17th dec 2pm I set all this but not getting notifications or alerts for this unlike TODOIST And yeah i am using free plan for my self only not having any team or anything

[@minor-co]

Hi there, Asana doesn't really 'alert' you so to speak. The best way to see what you have coming up and what you need to do each day is to work from the My Tasks page. This is where you can see all tasks or subtasks assigned to you.

[@user-is3tj5lv9l]

"Leave the task to the person assigned too"..... If we follow this rule how do we expect people (who need to interact and action pieces of that task) to use the My Tasks page to manage their work? If tasks is not assigned to them them it wouldn't should in their My Task Page right? We would they rely only on following comments through the Inbox but if, by any reason, this notification is lost then it would be so easy to loose the task until the original assignee just follows up on that on the Due Date which is already late? Just trying to better understand how these two recommendations/rules do work together

[@minor-co]

Good question. One option is to create a follow up task (which you can do from the inbox) to set a reminder for yourself to follow up on it later.

[@rvanner]

Is it possible to set estimates for tasks and then have the system show the predicted end date? A lot of what we do is task a followed by task b and c etc. We like to list all the tasks and then set estimates on them. So imagine having 20 tasks and all are say 1.5 days long. That would show an end date 30 days in the future. If I have to use the due date method I have to work out when things are due based on other tasks and that should be for the software to work out for me.

[@minor-co]

I'm afraid Asana doesn't really work this way. You need to manually set the estimates and dates of each task individually.

[@jessica.nicole]

This is so helpful, thank you!

[@minor-co]

Glad I could help!