5/11/23, 10:20 AM How to use Asana tutorial for new users | Product guide • Asana Product Guide
How to start using Asana
SKIP AHEAD TO
Quick start demo
Tips for tasks
Create your first project
Organize your project
Managing your work
How Asana's organized
More resources
Welcome to Asana!
There's a lot our customers (https://asana.com/customers) can achieve with
Asana, and here's a quick rundown of the most important things to know when
you're just getting started. If you would like a trainer to walk you through the
content and answer your questions in real time you can sign up for a training
webinar (https://asana.com/guide/trainings/all)
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Looking for a better way to manage your work? Get started with a free 30
day Asana Business trial.
Try for free
Quick Asana demo walkthrough
Asana's look and features are ever-evolving. Your screen probably looks
different than this video, but the key concepts remain the same.
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1. How to create a task
Everything starts with a task
(https://asana.com/guide/help/tasks/understanding-tasks). Tasks are
actionable to-do’s and the most important building block of Asana.
To create a task, start in a project, type a task name, then press enter to
keep adding more.
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Task best practices
Make task names specific and action-based so it's clear what you need to do. Add
a task description so the assignee knows what they need to do.
Assign the task (https://asana.com/guide/help/tasks/understanding-tasks#gl-
assignee) to a teammate and set a due date (even if it's just a guess). That way it's
clear who is responsible for what.
Attach files with any relevant context, information, or working documents. Also,
make sure to attach completed files when you're marking the task complete so
teammates can find your work and know it's done.
Add teammates as task collaborators
(https://asana.com/guide/help/tasks/understanding-tasks#gl-collaborators) so they
can stay up to date on task progress. You can ping them by @mentioning them
when you comment on a task.
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2. How to create your first project
Projects (https://asana.com/guide/get-started/begin/quick-start#lessons) are how
you organize and plan all of the tasks related to a specific initiative, goal, or big
piece of work. You can visualize projects on list
(https://asana.com/guide/help/views/list), board
(https://asana.com/guide/help/views/boards), calendar
(https://asana.com/guide/team/onboard/asana-calendar), or timeline
(https://asana.com/guide/team/onboard/timeline) view and toggle between these
views at anytime.
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Looking for a better way to manage your work? Get started with a free 30
day Asana Business trial. Try for free (https://asana.com/create-account)
Types of projects you can manage in Asana
You can plan and manage almost any project or process in Asana, but here are
the most common examples:
(http://asana.com/templates)
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See more examples in our ways to use Asana
(https://asana.com/guide/examples) section or get started with a pre-made
project in our templates library (https://asana.com/templates).
3. Organize your project
Group related tasks together with sections
Sections (https://asana.com/guide/help/projects/basics#gl-sections) group your
tasks, making it easier to parse the project. They’re most helpful for categories
that won’t change as work moves forward. For example, you could create
sections by timeframe (like quarters or month), project phase, or a Kanban style
“to do,” “doing,” and “done.”
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Sort and filter tasks in projects with custom fields
Custom fields (https://asana.com/guide/team/advanced/connect-your-work#gl-
custom-fields) are like spreadsheet column headers to help you filter and sort
tasks in your project by things like priority, task status, cost, or approval. Group
your project by clicking any header and using the filter and sort buttons
(https://asana.com/guide/help/views/list#gl-recommended).
4. How to find work that is assigned to you and
updates on your work
As projects move forward, and new work comes your way, Asana gives you lots
of options to stay on top of it. Tasks assigned to you will appear in your My
Tasks. Your Asana Inbox contains notifications which include updates on projects
you're a member of, and tasks that you collaborate on or that are assigned to
you. Open the sidebar (https://asana.com/guide/help/fundamentals/navigating-
asana#gl-sidebar) to access your My Tasks or Inbox:
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My Tasks
My tasks (https://asana.com/guide/get-started/begin/quick-start#lessons) shows
only the tasks assigned to you and when they’re due. Come back to My tasks
throughout the day to check off tasks you’ve completed, see any new work
that’s come in, and get started on your next task.
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Inbox
Inbox (https://asana.com/guide/get-started/begin/quick-start#lessons) is a filtered
news feed of updates, but only for the work you’re following. You can also
respond to things right from Inbox and quickly navigate to your work.
From the sidebar (https://asana.com/guide/help/fundamentals/navigating-
asana#gl-sidebar) you can also access the home page, reporting
(https://asana.com/guide/help/premium/reporting), portfolios
(https://asana.com/guide/help/premium/portfolios) and goals
(https://asana.com/guide/help/premium/goals), however, My Tasks and Inbox are
where you will find tasks assigned to you personally and updates about your
work.
5. How Asana's organized
Projects and tasks are the most fundamental building blocks of Asana.
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1. Organizations are based on your company’s shared email domain, and connect
everybody within your company that uses Asana.
2. Teams are functional groups in an Organization that likely correspond to general
teams, like marketing or sales, or functional groups like "NYC Office."
3. Projects are stored in teams (and Portfolios) to track all the actionable steps,
information, and communications towards achieving a goal, initiative, or objective.
4. Tasks (https://asana.com/guide/help/tasks/understanding-tasks) are stored in
projects and make it clear who’s responsible for what by when. Tasks store all the
files, messages, and instructions related to it so they're easy to find in one place.
5. Portfolios store groups of projects. You can use them to see all the projects and
status updates towards an initiative or objective in one place.
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More resources to help you learn how to use
Asana
Once you master the basics, you can keep building on them, and the Asana
team will too. We have all different kinds of getting started resources so anyone
can learn how they like.
I want to... Resources
Watch quick Watch How to Asana (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?
videos list=PLJFG93oi0wJDMccrrEbbZha0v64Jo63K8) or click through
Asana Lessons
Get training Register for a live training or live feature demo
(https://events.asana.com); enroll in Asana Academy
(https://academy.asana.com)
Skim tips Asana Guide or Asana Blog (https://blog.asana.com)
articles
Talk to Sign up for Asana Community Forum (https://forum.asana.com)
someone or hire an Asana trainer
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I want to... Resources
(https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EK72tsila1gasWfIAjc-
zFxFUotEvFJQ/view)
Search for help on specific topics
I'm just getting started with Asana
I'm helping my team learn Asana
We're expanding our use of Asana
Resources
Asana trainings
Ways to use Asana
Help
Visit Asana.com (https://asana.com)
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