8 time-saving Asana tips to get more done, faster

Who couldn’t use a little extra time? 

It’s hard to carve out calendar space for your daily priorities—let alone time to actually think and plan. But if you’re feeling crunched, Asana can help. These time-saving tips can help you intelligently eliminate busywork and make a greater impact, faster. Spend just a few minutes reading and practicing, and you can save your future self hours of work.

Let’s get started.

1. Summarize information instantly

Asana Intelligence has joined the team, and it’s built to help you work smarter and faster. Our smart summaries feature functions like a personal assistant—automatically pulling out highlights and key action items from task descriptions and comments. Instead of spending time sifting through long conversation threads, use AI to instantly summarize important points, document next steps, and make sure nothing falls through the cracks. 

To use smart summaries, click the three dots menu on the upper-right corner of a task. Then select “summarize task” or “create subtasks.” 

2. Enlist an AI editor

Ever spend too much time trying to draft the perfect response? AI can help you save time here, too. Asana’s smart editor can adjust your writing the way you want it to, enabling you to specify the level of detail to include, and the tone you want to strike.

All you need to do is type out a rough version of your comment. Then click the button to automatically generate an edited response, and adjust the sliders for detail and tone. 

3. Automatically organize work

When organizing projects, it can be hard to know how to start. How should you label work? What details do you need to document about each task? What key information should be visible at a glance? 

Asana’s smart fields solves this problem by suggesting the best custom fields—labels that help you sort, filter, and automatically report on work—to add to your project. Then if you want to implement a suggestion, Asana can instantly apply and populate those fields across your entire project. 

4. Convert tasks into projects

If you've ever created a task that resulted in an endless list of subtasks—we've been there, and we can help. 

With a few clicks, you can convert tasks into projects. Just select the three dots menu in the upper right corner of a task, click “convert to,”  and then “project.” This creates a project with the same title, description, and deadline as your task—and turns subtasks into tasks within that project. That way you have a larger space to organize work, communicate with stakeholders, and report on progress. 

5. Assign copies of a task

Do you ever need to assign the same type of task to multiple people at once? Maybe you want to make sure your entire company completes a security training, or you need multiple people to review a blog post. Instead of manually copying and pasting each task, you can assign copies to multiple teammates—or even to a whole team—with just a couple clicks from the task assignee field. 

To assign copies of a task, click the assignee field in any task and then select the “assign copies” icon. Next, type the names of the teammates or teams you want to assign the copies to. 

6. Bulk edit tasks with multi-select

You’ve probably used a multi-select function in other programs, and it’s just as useful in Asana. This feature is helpful when you need to make changes to many tasks at once, and don’t want to go in and manually update each one. 

Here’s how it works: 

1. Toggle to list view

2. Click a task

3. Hold down shift

4. Click another task, or press the up or down arrows

Once you multi-select tasks, you can take bulk actions on them like: 

• Assigning them all to one person

• Giving them all the same due date

• Dragging and dropping them somewhere

• Updating a custom field on all of them

• Adding all of them to a project

• Marking them all complete or incomplete

• Adding a collaborator

7. Create follow-up tasks from your inbox

There’s nothing more satisfying than inbox zero—and this tip can help you get there. Instead of bookmarking a notification in your inbox (which you may or may not remember to follow up on), create a follow-up task with a few clicks to give yourself a concrete reminder to revisit that notification. This approach lets you clear out your inbox, without worrying about missing important updates. 

To create a follow-up task, open a notification in your inbox and click the three dots menu in the upper right corner. Then, select “create follow-up task.” This will assign a task to you, with a link to the original notification.

8. Move quickly with keyboard shortcuts

One of the keys to saving time in Asana is learning keyboard shortcuts, so you can perform actions instantly by pressing a few buttons. You can see all keyboard shortcuts here or by typing Cmd+/ or Ctrl/ in Asana. 

Here are some time-saving favorites: 

• Tab+Q: Quick add task

• Tab+M: Assign to me

• Tab+X: Focus mode (this zooms in on a single task and blocks out everything else)

• Tab+S: Add a subtask

• Tab+N: Create a section

• Tab+P: Add to a project

• Tab+↵: Jump to task list/main pane

Reclaim your time

With these time-saving tips, you can take back your day and focus on your most important work. From AI-powered summaries and smart editing tools to keyboard shortcuts, Asana offers many different ways to streamline your workflow. Visit our pricing page to learn more and sign up for a free trial. 

Don't let the chaos of endless tasks and messages bog you down. Take a few minutes to explore these strategies—your future self with thank you.