5 Keys to Mastering Asana for Team Tasks and Projects

[@MrMikeyPayne]

Wow! Two weeks ago, I decided to get organized and have watched literally 200-300 videos on productivity, apps, task managment, project managment, just trying to wrap my head around what it all means, and begin to organize my own situation and needs. This was unquestionably the most practical, well articulated, and clearest video I have watched yet. Edit, subscribing NOW!

[@trentolsen9880]

Most helpful video on Asana I've watched so far. Thanks!

[@Propsman416]

Subscribed just because you said "Have fun storming the castle." As a matter of fact, the next video had already started after your sign off, so I clicked back to subscribe. Thanks for that smile, and for an informative video too.

[@janispollard515]

YOU are the best! Thank you. Clear, personable, so helpful, and understandable. Finally!

[@williambeem]

Thanks for sharing your workflow in Asana. I just signed up yesterday and your videos on this product were very helpful. One thing that I'm doing in a slightly different manner than you are is using a Custom Field to track my workflow lifecycle rather than using columns. I created a dropdown field that shows my lifecycle states (such as Ready, Pending, Development, Complete, etc.) with a different color for each state. Since these show up on every task, I can see where I am at a glance and don't have to move from one column to the next for my lifecycle. Like you showed, I have a column for Templates and Ideas. My next column is Development, which is where my custom field tracks the stage of each task. Then I have a Complete column for my archives. Both of our methods get to the same place, but I wanted to share this in case anyone else reading the comments was looking for alternatives. Thanks again for providing a great source of information to help me grow my own way.

[@dottotech]

I like that idea, thanks for sharing!

[@signaocean5847]

nice summary Steve, I'm compiling a list of the best productivitiy tools and asana came up. After your video I have a good overview on how to use it effectively... thanks!

[@haikaamusic]

Thank you for your amaaaaazing help Steve. I'm starting a new life after years as my husband's sole caregiver and I've felt overwhelmed at how much things have changed. Feeling empowered thanks to this vid!

[@joeabe2022]

I had used Trello before and decided to look into Asana. Very well done!

[@derekbrunson779]

I've been thinking of getting organized with Asana. I really enjoyed this review (as I always enjoy your videos). I especially like the Princess Bride reference ("Have fun storming the castle") at the very end. Thank you for that!

[@stephentucker493]

"A," my fellow Canadian, I love your suggestions, you have sold me on Asana & Slack. We are a training content company, with team members all over the world and I believe that Asana will meet my needs. Bye the way your presentation is excellent.

[@kathysmith5250]

Steve, My son introduced me to ASANA and I started going through their tutorials. I stumbled across your KZbin videos and they are superb! It has helped give me a concise overview of the capabilities and the simplicity of use. I am evaluating tools to run an organization more effectively and efficiently and this has helped a great deal. I have subscribed to your channel and look forward to more of your videos. Thanks for your efforts and great videos. It is much appreciated!

[@old_man_den]

Hi Steve, I am a young guy in my 70s. Because of you I have started using google keep, google calendar and the new google email. I really like the football and baseball schedules in calendar. I tried google+ but dumped it mostly because I didn’t get it or wasn’t using it correctly. Did you do a video on google+? I also have diabetes and have become sort of an expert as I needed to. If you have any questions on diabetes just ask. Thanks you for all you do and remember people my age also try to keep up with technology. Take care!

[@withoutbordersband-2434]

Excellent presentation of Asana ,definitely allowed me to further understand how Asana works.... great job!

[@PaulreynoldsMCMXXLII]

Thanks Steve, very useful introduction into asana.

[@remoteworkstuff]

Thank you so much for the wonderful video! very insightful.

[@sfdigital]

We've just moved over to Asana from Trello. Loving it. So much more powerful with due dates & task assignments. Thanks Steve for this video.

[@BikeRunYoga]

Thanks for your detailed video. Set up Asana for marketing projects. Wasn't even thinking about it and then you mentioned Slack, which we are also using. Win -win with integration!

[@wayoutwestcreatives9769]

“Isn’t that kind of meta?” (answers own question) “Yes it is.” 😂👏🏻👏🏻

[@sebaenu2b]

Excellent video, Dotto-man!!!!!!!! Thanks

[@BrianMerryPhotography]

Tx Steve. Rich, Andrew and I are starting to work with this, and I am a newbie! I appreciate your overview of what it can do.

[@dottotech]

Awesome, Brian!

[@debtisdum]

You explain things SO well Steve! Thank you a ton!!!

[@thabisonaha3939]

You are very clear. Much appreciated..

[@kelleyohara8903]

Great job! Such good energy and terrific information. I'm heading over to Asana now:)

[@mercedesbanchon48]

Great introduction to Asana for a beginner like me Thanks

[@bryantTheFatBadger]

Very timely, I've been looking at PM/Task tools recently and stumbled upon Asana today. I personally like this better than Trello. Thanks, subscribed!

[@farukkarim1871]

Have always enjoyed your publications. This one was produced in 2018. Would be good to have an updated version four 2022

[@christopherdavis736]

Thank You Steve! I have just completed a three week process checking out project managers and I have decided on Asana. Your demo helped a lot.

[@dottotech]

So glad to hear that! Let me know how the implementation goes!

[@ricksegalCanada]

This video was exceptionally helpful and by grounding it in your practical use, made the video rock solid. The only thing I would suggest is you consider making yourself smaller when sharing your screen so I/we can see more of what you're showing. Well done.

[@chasedowns3260]

This is awesome, thank you for the great video!

[@dottotech]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@Oscarito_us]

I really appreciate this tutorial! Going to set up my boards now! 👍

[@shayraquezada25]

Thank you this is the best tutorial I've seen.

[@dottotech]

Wow, thanks!

[@randyparnell8827]

Thanks, Steve, a simple basic video that explained the integration of Asana into the real world.

[@cassialupo2148]

This was so helpfully laid out. Thank you!!

[@512Fury]

Thank you so much for your honesty. Two thumbs up.

[@peterkhn8485]

Thank you - very interesting!! Have struckled with OneNote, Evernote and Zenkit. But Asana seems to suit me and my needs better! 🙂

[@Unukadesign]

Im going to sort out my projects now. Thank you for sharing your video :)

[@merthrka2583]

great explanation thank you !

[@dottotech]

Glad it was helpful!

[@alexandrareilly9710]

Thank you so much for making this! Very helpful!

[@dottotech]

You're so welcome!

[@Askdrannette]

How cool! I've been using Asana but did not understand how awesome it could be! Thanks so much for sharing!

[@adosian]

Very helpful, thank you!

[@hadykamal7711]

Thanks, Steve; just want to mention that Asana actually has templates!

[@sallyrycroft4874]

Thank you for a fun intro to Asana. I like your presentation alot! :)

muy bueno! gracias por compartir

[@jeffmerc6701]

Love the logical layout, reliability of the tool, the ability to track time, set deadlines & reminders, and to have team task-based communication. I use Zentao still the best project management tool for me.

[@timothymarshall8761]

Thanks Steve I learned so much from this video!!

[@Unukadesign]

I was on trello a while back.. but lost interest and then i downloaded Asana app a few weeks ago and its just been siting in my mobile lol but now im going give it a go because i need something like this to organize all my projects and dates etc thanks again for sharing :)

[@lynseyford2632]

You're so great! Thanks for all you do!

[@LitoValencia]

Great overview of Asana ... Thx!

[@businesswealthstory]

Wow for you to say indispensable is pretty high praise.

[@anoopwriter]

Hey Steve, this is awesome. I was trying to wrap my head on using Asana and this video was a great way to learn. Thanks.

[@grantburris]

Excellent demo. Thanks for the lesson.

[@adriennemccue-SUFMH]

I love Asana so much I got the paid version. It's just a great project management tool.

[@c_itmartin2209]

Thank's for the stunning work you present.👍👍👍

[@rozfairburn6521]

Hi Steve, thank you for the great video - can I just ask why you use slack as well as Asana as Asana seems to have all the facilities that slack has? Many thanks, Roz

[@rainbowparrotart]

Great video! I am new to Asana and Slack and this was so helpful. I loved the sub tasks in your video task template. And the way your explained how you delegate your production process. I would love a video that talks about how you film, store and share videos. And how do you keep all the footage organized? In this video there was mention that you use dropbox, but I saw google doc videos files, and I want to learn more. I'm still confused about how google docs and dropbox can work together for video production/storage/collaborative editing and how exactly you use them.

[@dottotech]

Check out my KZbin library on all things videos here: kzbin.infosearch?query=videos

[@rainbowparrotart]

@@dottotech Awesome thanks so much for the reply. I have bookmarked this link and will refer to it as I continue to educate myself on video production and work-flow. Thanks for making all these amazingly helpful videos! :)

[@dottotech]

Most welcome!

[@citru1329]

thank you for this great video, steve & team! :)

[@alexbleiberg2175]

Would love to see a video on the Premium features. I agree... now that Asana has boards... I've decided to go with this.

[@michaelmyers3730]

New subscriber and user of Asana and Slack. Love the video and am now viewing your others. In this video, you mention at 10:36 "and now anytime there's a comment in Asana it appears here in my Slack thread." We have the two apps linked but can't get comments to appear. We get the other aspects of the integration/linkage. We've looked everywhere for the comments connection. Any tips/suggestions? Thanks for any help that you can provide.

[@cagatayelmaci9874]

thank you steve , brilliant

[@carolynberry815]

Great video. Asana is good but Restyaboard is way more powerful hoping to see you make a review about it.

[@dottotech]

Noted!

[@davidkincade]

Thank you so much! Very helpful.

[@frankiemartinez2734]

Thank you Steve! I love Asana and this video encourages me to push it more with our team of 4. However, I'm trying to figure out how to set up the board you showed and how to use it. Can you please explain that whenever you make another video or commentary on Asana. Thank you in advance. Hope you have a great week.

[@dottotech]

this may help, kzbin.info/www/bejne/iYPKh5mOr7B9Zpo

[@frankiemartinez2734]

You're the Best! Thanx.

[@HealthandBeautyAP]

I love your videos. I like that idea of copying the project. I have done this for our meeting projects. I do have a problem with Asana that I am trying to solve that I did not see in this video. I manage staff. It is a small staff right now due to covid (6 including me). We use multiple teams to communicate. Many of us are in all the teams but some types of employees only need very limited specific direction so I have a separate team for them because they don't need to know about the admin side of the business. My issue is this: Is this: Asana has due dates but these types of tasks are really only good for smaller tasks like make phone call etc, very succinct direct, not time consuming tasks that require multiple check ins. Asana has HUGE blind spots for overseeing the team productivity. I love it, I am not leaving it but this issue has cost me thousands so I need to resolve it and from watching your videos I know you value feedback. When you create teams, and send tasks, there is not a overview of what everyone is working on at that time, no way to tell how long they are working on it and if they should even be working on that task at that time. The only way to track down a task is to use the search box at the top unless you can remember what team you put it in and who you assigned it to. The transparency and over sight of a team is not good in Asana. The paid version might be good for this but it would cost me hundreds per month which is not in my budget to pay.

[@dottotech]

Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Candice.

[@ivonneducharme8831]

I appreciate your video and I am trying to test it out for my company. I do not like that do not have an online Chat support. I have remove/ deprovisioning a user from my Organization in error. I am the Admin and now I cannot get back in. Any suggestions? I see the team under the Organization as an indv.

[@nealpolshuk1]

Can you place Section Titles in the sub-tasks in board view? Thanks so much for your videos...been watching for years!

[@ArunachalamAruAm]

That Great! Super thanks

[@dottotech]

Glad you like it!

[@doodle0007]

Hey Steve, awesome video but is there any dependency and resource planning?

[@aerongn]

Steve, I love your video on Asana. I just subscribe to your channel and looking forward to your videos. By the way, In the video, you have you iphone hooked up to the video feed, what are you using to accomplish that? What type of hardware/software are you using?

[@alexrouhani3693]

What do you think of asana for construction management ?

[@michaelbaker5070]

Wish you would do reviews on good notes5 and Notability

[@zahraahmadi2234]

I want to schedule the shifts of the operating room personnel by applying restrictions with the software automatically? What software do you recommend? Can Asana create this feature?

[@JudiPiggott]

This is great, Steve. A good overview in such a concise time that I think will help me help others understand the workings of Asana. Would you consider doing a two-person demo (say, a split-screen with April or another of your team) that shows how these tasks look from their point of view? It's a visual thing, takes it from you describing both ends of the transaction to the viewer being able to imagine being the recipient of a task assignment, etc. If people could see what the 'other end' of the communication looks like, I think it would help to reduce the resistance of many people to using Asana. I can have great enthusiasm for using if I am the 'boss' and thus lead/direct my team to use it, but since I am a solo freelancer working on various projects, I don't have that clout. And I work remotely for the most part! I KNOW my clients will love it and benefit from using it long after our work together is done, but getting the voluntary uptake is hard. The 'getting into it' is the barrier I'm running into, because of the perceived learning curve. And because I use Asana to keep my own multiple projects and tasks managed, I can get a little too evangelical with my 'encouragement', which is not always effective! But since I don't have my own regular 'team', I face this challenge repeatedly. 'd really really like to be able to add my client or my client's staff team when working on a project together. And I think if they could see what it does not only from the 'enthusiast's perspective but also from the recipient's, there could be more buy-in. This is what constitutes 'storming the castle' in my daily grind!

[@Jivolt]

Asana is a great tool... and so is Trello... but have you tried Zenkit? I just stumbled across it yesterday and it probably will become my favorite Trello-esque tool that may replace Trello in my workflow Would love to see a Dottotech video about Zenkit and hear your thoughts because no one except Zenkit and Francesco (aka Keep Productive) have done videos about Zenkit.

[@dottotech]

Looks interesting, - Mindmapping built in! Nice

[@AG-jq1qx]

Please do the ClickUp, Zenkit and Proofhub review.

[@Ade2bee]

How does this work now that asunder have giving you the ability to switch between ‘Lists’ and ‘Board’ , or should I say ‘sections’ along with the way they integrate?

[@crystalamrita]

We are a small upstart wellness clinic. We are considering using Asana and Slack to help keep us organized and on track. Thanks for this video. It was a big help. My question for you is what do you use for your video creation and editing? We were thinking of just using iMove (we are Mac based.) We need to, first, create some inexpensive educational videos for our patients (i.e, nutrition, self-care, etc.) but eventually, we will be branching out into the webinar field. Is there a system that we can start out with and then grow with. Someone mentioned Kajabi. What are your thoughts on it?

[@louisjadotte9709]

Excellent

[@carlarieger]

Hi Steve - Is there a way to bring up the calendar view of your tasks and have it ordered in terms of priorities? I tried adding "A Priority" as a tag, but then can't see how to have those ones appear that the top of the list. Any tips?

[@AndreaTSangster]

thank you, very interesting

[@pereavil]

Thank you steve I thing I am moving from trello to asana, I have a question...how can I mirror a task in asana, I mean, to have one task in two boards and those cards have to be syncing.

[@dottotech]

Under "More Actions" when you have the task open you can add a task to another project. Easy Peezy!

[@jameszerafa5373]

Great work again Steve, what does the Outline subtask contain. I am interested in setting similar templates. That was a very good work-around tip.

[@dottotech]

Outline is where I store notes as I write my content for the most part. I hope that is what you are asking about1

[@jameszerafa5373]

I see, thank you for reply Steve, I have one following question but probably it is answered in one of your webinars (do not reply unless you feel like it) Do you see Asana replacing Evernote. I use quite a few task managers (Todoist, Evernote, TickTick and Asana) which kinda creates a sort of unorganized environment. Trying to find a centralized way or organizing stuff. Thank you, sir!

[@dottotech]

I use Evernote as a collection tool, Asana as a Task and project tool.

[@staticklingon2182]

At 3:30 you explain my major frustration with Asana and most project management programs. You actually have a project called Videos and you have a ton of tasks in that project. But you're using the tasks as projects. You're literally using the software wrong (as designed) because it doesn't make sense. This whole hierarchy should be up one level. I like how you use it and I will probably adopt your workflow (many thanks for the wonderful video) but it infuriates me that they don't handle a bunch of projects in a better way. It's been 2 years since your video and nothing has changed.

[@brightonblogger]

Thanks Steve, a Superb run through of the reasons why Asana is the one for Dottotech. Could one use it for a client project and add tasks for them? Liam

[@dottotech]

Yes you can have guests, but you may need to use the full version.

[@brightonblogger]

dottotech many thanks Steve, I also looked back at your last year’s video and saw the advantages of a premium version. Your output is really prolific so I can see how Asana and Slack are working for you and the team! Liam

[@melindanazim]

Do you delete them after they have been completed or archive in some way? If you archive, what is the storage capacity in Asana?

[@dottotech]

Storage does not seem to be an issue. I do have an archive column.

[@billgross3579]

I use Asana because of your recommendation, and love it! Recently I've been hearing a lot about ClickUp. Have you tried it out? I'd love to hear your take. Thanks!!

[@shayraquezada25]

@dottotech - In board view, how can you make it automatically move to the next "column" after you hit "complete" on a task?

[@staticklingon2182]

It's very basic stuff like this that kills me with these project management tools. What's sad is he's in a project and has all of his actual projects as a bunch of tasks. Makes no senses. It's like they don't actually use their own software.

[@nebcfamily1]

Hello! Question, If a member is in the project, can it be setup so they see only what's in that particular project and not the other projects within the team? Example.. Team Name - Website Development , Projects are Hosting & Storyboard. You want the Hosting members to just see Hosting and not Storyboard, but the Storyboard people can see the Hosting Project? How do those permissions look?

[@dottotech]

Yes, but you may need the paid version

[@r2jman]

Have you found a work-around to eliminate the empty tasks that are generated by the pre-assigned tasks in the templates?

[@PauloParreira]

I'm a solo photographer running a studio with open door store, shooting weddings, baptisms, babies, pregnancy, etc but also with a family to run. Tried Todoist, Ora, Trello with Cronofy but i still think its so overwhelming to dedicate what it seems to be a lot of time just to run a productivity app. Can you help me?

[@ElizabethPearch]

How about an updated slack tutorial, please?

[@LDLike]

Could you also use Asana similar to slack as a communication tool and email replacement.

[@dottotech]

You can but the conversations are ask, not person based

[@LDLike]

dottotech forgive me if this is too basic. But can’t you create “projects” in asana based on a team members name or even the whole team and just carry on a conversation there? Perhaps I need to understand what slack actually does. I’ll look to see if you have a video on how your team uses slack. My team does use Asana but we still have way too much emails back and forth and I would like to lessen or eliminate that

[@officialcarstenlange]

@@dottotech That's not completely true. You can also have team discussion. You are free to once setup a dedicated "team" with each individual or group of people in your organization. Maybe you will give it a try. BTW, you have a great and inspiring channel. Thanks.

[@amdenis]

I like Asana a lot- very shallow learning curve for new people. We have used Asana and Monday, but there are too many limitations (granularity of security limits, no templates let alone derived templates, no AI capabilities that are HUGE timesavers, poor research data capture capabilities, very limited customization, etc). Because of those and other reasons we generally opt for Basecamp for dedicated PMS, and use Notion (which has all those other capabilities I noted) for simple Kanban board and simple timelines and related requirements.

[@rowenwilo]

Hi Steve, very very nice video. I'm Roberto and I'm lookinng for something awesome but could find it, neither asking Asana help chat. I want to see a Project like a Goal of our company "Sale USD XXXX this years" that has many tasks and sub-tasks but as a Tree so we can see all that is happening han happened under the Project/Tree like a Mind Mapping such as Visio, Miro or LucidChat. Also I have used Zapier with many Mind Mapping tools but no one works well. If you can help me I appeciate so much!!!! Again, very nice videco, tahnk you so much!!!

[@SussyBacca]

Content starts at @1:40. I thought I might want to subscribe to this guy, then realized he doesn't care or even begin to think about the value of your time, only his 🥺

[@shanenoney]

Hi Steve, love your video content and the really awesome information that you provide. Had a quick question how do you get all of the images on your screen like logos, follow me on facebook and twitter etc, is that through your screencasting software?

[@dottotech]

Yep, here is how we make our videos kzbin.info/www/bejne/on_QhYOZnt6ihs0

[@derekkelly485]

Can I still manage what each member of my team will be working on “today”, “upcoming” or “later” or is that up to them? I’d like to set this priority for them.

[@pakistaniwarriors9123]

yes, you can manage the priorities by setting the deadlines of the tasks also you can set the priority statuses for them i-e High, Medium, Low

[@businesswealthstory]

How did you get your main screen in Asana to be laid out in different rows like this? I don't have a tab with boards on it or all of the other tabs you have. I have the Premium account...do I need the business account?

[@dottotech]

You need to set it up when you start a new project, you create the project as a "board" instead of a "list"

[@businesswealthstory]

@@dottotech ok...can I change it back or do I have start all over?

[@danielmarkadsit2130]

@@businesswealthstory You have to start with a new project with type "board", but there's a quick way to copy everything over by selecting everything and changing the old project to the new one. Let me know if you need more info and we can connect with a screenshot or something.

[@paleboatworld9688]

Steve ... how do you use Asana with clients

[@Kovaelin]

Doesn't Trello use boards too? Also, would it be possible to make your picture-in-picture smaller, so we can see more of your screen please?

[@dottotech]

Yep Trello has a similar layout.

[@TonyBiancoOfficial]

Yes it does and Trello does boards better. You can filter boards by users and labels. If you're looking for a better solution look at TeamWork

[@jonhrndz]

Why doesn't my page look like this. I am just starting to use Asana but I notice that my page doesn't allow me to see boards among other things. is this because I am working on the free version?

[@dagwould]

A few features that are essential for serious project management are missing from the free Asana (I hope they are in the premium): setting activity durations (as soon as the word 'task' is used I know its not serious project management), assigning resources/people to the activity via an availability calendar, and setting dependencies. That's a minumum. If the package was really serious it would accommodate duration probability ranges (ideally using PDFs...probability distribution functions), and similarly for cost estimates. As it is Asana lets me overload people, lose visibility of connections between activities, people's existing assignments and assignment roles (using an RACI matrix) and the implications of activity duration and cost uncertainty. I've got to manage all these somewhere else.

[@dottotech]

I am not sure about the first few, but I do know dependancies are in the premium version. You are far better versed in project management than I, what are you using?

[@trudyelins2485]

How the heck could you expect all that from a free version? Ridiculous!