Is Your Asana Account A Little Messy?

I can honestly say that of the many, many MANY Asana consultations I've done over the past five years, 99% started with the client saying something along the lines of...

"It's a bit of a mess..."

... before they showed me their setup.

Here's the thing...

If you're fully leaning into Asana (which I recommend doing with whatever system you use for tasks and projects), it's bound to get messy now and then.

Your house gets messy sometimes, doesn't it?

It's where you live.

And Asana is where you work.

Sometimes you don't have time to do the maintenance required to keep it nice and clean AND THAT'S OK.

Sometimes you'll do a light tidy up so you can get back to what's important.

And sometimes you'll do a deep clean, declutter and reorganize.

This is all very normal.

HOWEVER... what some of my clients were ACTUALLY saying when they say "it's a bit messy" is:

"I don't feel organized or on top of things in my business."

That, my friend, is a different issue.

An important one that I want to help with today.

If this is you, please know that feeling a bit scattered in your business is PERFECTLY normal.

(You are, after all, in charge of every department AND all the work.)

When Asana feels messy, I've found this usually points to one of two things:

Your goals and strategies aren't clearly defined which shows up as too many projects on the go, a lack of cohesion in the work to be done, and often unrealistic expectations about what is going to get done when. (I talked about this in my last post.)

OR

The way you're using Asana isn't working for you which shows up as confusing project timelines, missed tasks, and general chaos in how the work gets done (despite feeling clear about priorities).

In either case, there two hacks that I always try first with my clients:

Customize your task list.

The beautiful thing about systems is that you get to design them to suit YOU.

Your brain, your preferences, your way.

If the way someone taught you to manage your tasks doesn't help you feel more relaxed and in control - it's not working.

In Asana, you can view your tasks in a list, on a board or in a calendar (and the calendar can be in week view or month view) and there are multiple ways to sort tasks to work with what works for you best.

This is the same task list in two different views:

As long as the things you want to take action on are assigned to you, you can customize the view and flow of your tasks to work for you.

I teach a way to manage your tasks that has completely changed my life but I've also helped hundreds of online business owners adapt it to suit them because we're all different.

(You can get started with the free Asana Mini Training to make sure your Asana account is set up to work for YOU.)

Don't be afraid to do what works for you even if it's unconventional or goes against some productivity law.

Put a "project queue" in place.

Lots of people want to organize all their tasks in projects but then they end up with loads of projects and that gets overwhelming.

New plan: organize the projects you need for the next 1-3 months and then keep a list of the projects you'll want / need in the future in a single project and consider it your "project queue".

You can loosely schedule them for upcoming quarters and even have a “someday” queue for things you’d like to do at some point but aren’t a priority yet.

Whenever you go to do your planning, you can pop into the board and rearrange your project ideas and goals and then when you want to prioritize a project, you set it up in its own board or list.

If you're clear on your top projects, you can get them set up and not worry about setting up future projects and tasks (but having a place for them to live for when you're ready).

Long story, short:

Regular tidy up of Asana is necessary as you work and things shift and change, your account will need to be updated to reflect your changing goals and priorities.

If you find yourself always behind the eight ball and overwhelmed with too many tasks and projects then likely there's some room for the systems behind the tool to work better for you.

I’m always here if you have questions!

Amy x