From my IVAA Resource Recess talk on 10/6/2015, here is a short presentation of how to use the project management tool Asana to keep all your tasks and your clients' tasks organized in your virtual assistant practice.

1. www.oofva.com
How to Keep your Clients' Tasks
Organized with Asana
IVAA Resource Recess Oct-2015
Denise Dukette
Out of the Office Virtual Assistance

2. www.oofva.com
Quick Intro
● Owner: Out of the Office Virtual Assistance
● In business since: March-2006
● Niche: Generalist, with Marketing tendencies
● Corporate life: Marketing Director and Administrative
Assistant
● Mantra: Work with great people, give back, and keep
moving forward

3. www.oofva.com
There are 1440 minutes in a day
Regardless of the title you choose to call yourself, it is our
responsibility to make sure that our clients aren’t spending
their time doing tasks that we should be doing on their behalf.
If your clients are wasting 41% of their time performing
activities that you should be pro-actively attending to, you
won’t be in business long.

4. www.oofva.com
The Basics
You already know that it’s important:
● To be organized
● To manage time effectively
● To be productive, not just busy
● To be accountable in your actions
● To minimize email, yet communicate effectively
● To be transparent in your productivity
So … how do you do all of that?!

5. www.oofva.com
Use a Project Management Tool
OK .. first, let’s talk about “project management” and what
it is. Per Wikipedia:
“Project management is the discipline of carefully
projecting or planning, organizing, motivating and
controlling resources to achieve specific goals & meet
specific success criteria.”
Therefore, a project management tool is something that is
going to help you achieve & manage that planning.

6. www.oofva.com
Ever heard of ..?

7. www.oofva.com
Ever heard of ..?
That’s a lot of choices!!
Which is right for you?

8. www.oofva.com
Well .. That Depends
As a seasoned, or not-so-seasoned, professional, one of the
many skills that we possess is the ability to adapt, pivot and
change.
If your current client has a project management tool that they
use consistently and live by, then .. you’re going to learn how
to use that PM tool, whether it’s Basecamp, TeamworkPM, or
one of the many other PM tools out there.

9. www.oofva.com
If they AREN’T using a PM Tool
Then start the conversation about using a project
management tool that is easy to use, transparent .. and free.
Let’s talk about Asana!

10. www.oofva.com
A Tid Bit of Info
● Asana was founded in 2008 by Facebook co-founder
Dustin Moskovitz and ex-engineer Justin Rosenstein (who
both worked to improve employee productivity at
Facebook)
● A beta release came out in Nov-2011
● Let’s name drop! Big names using Asana: Airbnb, Dropbox,
Disqus, Foursquare, Pinterest, Stripe, United Way & Uber.
● It’s true .. Out of the Office Virtual Assistance uses it too!

11. www.oofva.com
What is Asana? (No, not the yoga pose!)
A multi-platform project management tool that allows the
user manage projects and tasks online without the use of
email.
If you’re looking for the URL: https://asana.com
So let’s go explore, shall we? ...

12. www.oofva.com
The Basics
After signing up, you will be asked a small set of questions to
get started. Don’t worry, these are easy!
Name, business name, upload a photo, etc. All standard stuff.

13. www.oofva.com
Hierarchy of Asana
Back in my corporate days, I loved the org chart. I knew who
to go to for issue resolution. Clear cut; easy to visually see.
Here’s how tasks, sub-tasks, projects, teams all fit together in
Asana:

14. www.oofva.com
Teams
Project A Project CProject B
Task #1
Task #2
Sub-Task #1
Sub-Task #2
Task #1
Task #2
Task #3
Task #1
Task #2

15. www.oofva.com
Let’s put that to practical use
1. First, you need to create a team.
2. Then add members. You can add
people who are outside of your
organization, or within.
Tip: All projects and tasks within a
team can be seen by all members.

16. www.oofva.com
Yay! We’ve got a team!
Once you have created the team, emails will be sent to
each person inviting them to join the team.
If you look to the image on the right, you can see 4
circles for the team members.
Tip: To see what is assigned to a team member, simply
click on their avatar.
But .. we have no projects or tasks yet!

17. www.oofva.com
Workspaces vs. Organizations
For those of you who have used Asana in the past, there was always
some confusion between “workspaces” and “organizations.”
Organizations, which are now the default, when you sign up allow
you to see multiple teams (and the subsequent projects & tasks) on
one screen, whereas with workspaces you can only view one at a
time.
Tip: You cannot delete workspaces, however you can leave them.

18. www.oofva.com
Toggle Between Workspaces & Orgs
If you have multiple workspaces and/or
organizations, you can easily switch between
them from the user icon up in the top right corner.
Tip: You won’t be able to see/access other
workspaces and organizations, until you toggle
back.

19. www.oofva.com
Workspace View

20. www.oofva.com
Organization View

21. www.oofva.com
Adding Projects, Tasks & Sub-Tasks
● Now that we have the team, it’s easy to segment things
down into projects.
● Then you can further establish tasks and, if needed, sub-
tasks
Teams >> Projects >> Tasks/Sub-Tasks

22. www.oofva.com
Tasks vs. Sub-Tasks
Sub-Tasks are the dominoes that need to fall into place
before a task can be completed.
Most of the time, the sub-task is something that we aren’t
even conscious of doing. However, if you suddenly had to
outsource that task, would someone else know all the little
steps that need to get done?

23. www.oofva.com
What a Sub-Task Looks Like
Looking at this template that I use for
the radio show, I have 7 tasks that need
to be completed before the overall task
is done.
How this looks in practical use ...

24. www.oofva.com
What a Sub-Task Looks Like
As you can see, there are dates for the
individual sub-tasks, as well as for the
whole task.
Tip: Sub-tasks are assigned to the task
assignee and cannot be assigned to
someone else. It’s all or nothing!

25. www.oofva.com
Side Digression
Asana can generate a lot of email, if you allow it to do so. Since my goal
was to significantly reduce email, I modified my email settings (each Asana
user can modify for their own preference).
Think about it .. you have the option of having
Asana email you every time a task is updated,
commented on, completed, etc., in addition to
reminders. That can be a huge pain!
How I use it?
I leave Asana open & pinned all day.

26. www.oofva.com
How do you use Asana with your clients?
1. First, create a separate team for each client. This way, Client A won’t see
Client B’s tasks, conversations, etc. Hold off on inviting your client until
you have the framework set up.
2. If you have clearly definable projects, then add them into Asana a
projects. Otherwise, a generic “Client A Tasks” will suffice.
Ex. One of my clients has a radio show. The show is a separate project
from her normal social media project and irregular one-off projects.
3. Next, add in your tasks and sub-tasks. Additionally, include assignees
and due dates.
4. Now .. invite your client to the team.

27. www.oofva.com
Bringing the Client In
Once you get acclimated to Asana, bring your client in. If they aren’t
currently attached to a project management tool, then you will have
a little bit of training to do. However, it’s very easy to pick up.
Teams >> Projects >> Tasks/Sub-Tasks
Once they are in, however, they can go ahead and add tasks for you
to work on, engage in an ongoing dialog to ensure everyone is on
the same page, include mock ups and drafts, etc.

28. www.oofva.com
Collaboration
● Now that you got “stuff” in Asana (projects, tasks, and due
dates .. oh my!), you can actively collaborate using the
comments options, including adding attachments.
● Sharing of files, whether they are documents,
spreadsheets, images, PDFs, etc. is just as easy as adding
an attachment to an email. Look for the paperclip and
attach away :)

29. www.oofva.com
The Views
There are many ways to view your tasks - in a list or on the
calendar. While many opt for the list, there are times when the
calendar view is very handy!
Tip: For those of you who are bloggers, the calendar is a great
way to see what you wrote and posted about!

30. www.oofva.com
Calendar View

31. www.oofva.com
My Inbox
Within Asana, you have your own inbox .. it’s similar to
Notifications over on Facebook. The inbox stores all the
activity changes, completions, comments, etc. for every task.
Whether you allow the inbox to also email you that info is
entirely up to you!

32. www.oofva.com
Personal Projects
The folks at Asana know that there is more to life than work!
Each user account comes with a personal project area.
Tip: If a client, or potential client, wants to test things in Asana,
strongly encourage them to set up a team and NOT use the
personal projects. You’ll be able to see anything they share in
there, even if you don’t want to. [Unverified with the Oct 1st
update, however]

33. www.oofva.com
More Random Tips
● Depending on your view, you may not see all your tasks.
One key example, if you sort your incomplete tasks by due
date, you won’t see any of the tasks assigned to you if
there is no due date.
● Likewise, always assign the tasks .. that way it doesn’t get
lost.
● When attaching files from Google Drive, double check
your permissions!

34. www.oofva.com
More Random Tips (Con’t.)
● When you assign a task to someone, they automatically
‘follow’ the task. However, if you are using Asana within a
larger team (i.e. more than yourself and your client), there
is the possibility of tasks that initially get assigned to you
that you no longer want/need to follow after your part is
done. For these tasks, you can hit the unfollow at the
bottom of the task.

35. www.oofva.com
More Random Tips (Con’t.)
● Yes, you can export Asana tasks, but only at the project
level.
● You can color code your projects. Hint: Match your
Google/Outlook calendar color to the highlight color in
Asana.

36. www.oofva.com
Pricing
I’m not going to lie, I like inexpensive tools if, and only if, they do
what I want them to do. If I have to jump through 5 hoops to avoid
paying a monthly cost, then it isn’t worth it. My time is valuable, and
yours it too!
Asana is very generous with their pricing. Under the free tier pricing,
you are allowed 15 members per team. After that, it’s
$10/member/mo.
Read more: https://asana.com/pricing

37. www.oofva.com
Get Nerdy!
Use Zapier to sync details from
Asana to a myriad of sources.
Combine that syncing with IFTTT
and you earn your Nerd Alert
badge!

38. www.oofva.com
At the End of the Day...
● Just like time management systems, you need to find a
project management tool that works for you and also
potentially works for your client(s).
● Once you find that tool, you need to commit to it.

39. www.oofva.com
Thanks!
I hope you learned a little bit about getting started
with Asana and how to integrate it into your practice for
keeping on task.
I’m online, just like you, so if you have a question, drop
me a line, connect on social media, Skype, smoke signals
.. and I’ll help you out :)