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Welcome to Productivity Month 2021! This past year many of us had to put our lives and businesses on hold due to the global pandemic, but now it’s time to put 2020 behind us. Each week this month we will be featuring a new productivity tool that can help you build your business back stronger than ever. All of the tools are affordable, cloud-based, and built to scale with your business.
If you have questions about any of the tools featured, feel free to contact us at Contact@BlueSparkSolution.com.
At this point, we are halfway through productivity month, and hopefully you have begun to see how productivity tools can power growth for your business this year. However, with so many tools available, how do you keep track of what you need to work on and when? This is where Asana comes into play. Asana is a work management software that helps teams collaborate better and move faster.
What does it do?
Asana helps teams coordinate work by making it clear who is doing what by when. In Asana, you can create projects for specific jobs, clients, or ongoing processes. In each project, you can create a list of tasks, and then assign those tasks to a team member and set a due date. Each team member can then see a customized view of their daily to-do list. They can also see how their individual work and deadlines affect their teammates and team goals. Asana makes it easy to communicate around work tasks and to attach relevant documents and information. Instead of going back and forth in multiple emails to figure out what they need to do each day, your team can have a one-stop-shop in Asana for all of their tasks and responsibilities.
Why does it matter?
According to Asana, the biggest thing slowing teams down today is the fact that they now spend more time coordinating work than actually doing work.
The McKinsey Global Institute did a study that showed that the average knowledge worker spends:
28% of their time answering email
19% of their time searching for and hunting down information
14% of their time communicating and collaborating internally
This means that they only spend 39% on true role-specific work.
Asana’s mission is to increase that number and to therefore boost overall team productivity.
Why We Recommend Asana
Intuitive
Asana is ultimately a shared to-do list, and the user interface recognizes this. Creating tasks is just like typing in a Word document. Even a user with no training can get started creating tasks in no-time.
Customizable
Asana’s views, fields, and workflows can be fully customized to meet your business’ needs. All projects come with a list, board, timeline, and calendar view, so that you can view your tasks in the way that is most meaningful to you.
Easy-to-Integrate
Asana integrates seamlessly with other common workplace tools such as Microsoft Teams, Gmail, Outlook, Google Docs, Dropbox, Slack, Zoom, and more. The ability to add Google Docs and Dropbox files right to a task cuts down so much time spent searching for the relevant files.
Top Productivity Features
My Tasks View
The “My Tasks” view is a personalized to-do list for each team member. Any new work assigned to them shows up there. They can prioritize their list and mark tasks as “complete” as they move throughout their day. As they update tasks, the tasks are also automatically updated in their home project, allowing other team members and managers to stay up-to-date without wasting time on status meetings.
Dependent Tasks
Tasks that can only be completed once other tasks are finished can be marked as “dependent.” This is a game changer because it allows team members to see how their work affects the work of others. It also prevents downstream tasks from eating up too much time before all of the necessary inputs are ready for them to be completed.
Timeline View
The project Timeline view is essentially a Gantt chart that allows you to see how the assigned dates on different tasks overlap. This can be crucial for capacity planning as well as for setting realistic expectations for when tasks should be completed.
In addition to these features, Asana also has in-app messaging, forms, project overviews, automated status reports, dashboards, and much more. If you’re interested in learning more about Asana, set up a free consultation today.
We’re Asana Solutions Partners
Asana Solutions Partners are certified to help implement and maintain Asana accounts on behalf of their clients.
As a certified Solutions Partner, we have direct access to Asana, which allows us to provide prioritized support and offer discounts. We work with companies of all sizes to maximize their use of Asana and to make sure that the implementation process is seamless.
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