Why do I love Asana for small business project management? I’ve got 5 reasons to share that makes Asana my top pick for free project management tools.
What is Asana?
Asana is a free digital project management tool that can be used by businesses of all sizes to keep tasks and projects on track.
Asana can work well as a reference hub. All of the moving pieces of my business live inside Asana. I can quickly find passwords, logins to courses, professional development handouts, and information about team members and contractors that are a part of my business.
Asana is also helpful for tasks that I’m actively taking action on in this season. I can see at a glance what the core projects are that the business is currently working on and leverage recurring tasks to make sure I never forget the ongoing and important Must Dos that come with owning a business.
I use the three main views (all of which are available on the free version of Asana). Asana has a List View, a KanBan style board view that looks a bit like Trello, and a Calendar view (which you can start on either Saturday, Sunday, or Monday (my personal favorite).
5 Reasons to Love Asana as a Small Business Owner
1. Asana shows your game plan for the day clearly
I never start my workday with decision fatigue. My Asana calendar tells me exactly what today’s focus tasks are. I don’t start my day in my email inbox, I start my day in Asana. That ensures that I’m using my freshest CEO brain energy to move my goals forwards (before letting the requests of others inside my email inbox pull me off track).
2. Digital project management tools embrace flexibility
Life happens! If 2020 taught me anything, having plans written on paper in ink is not for me. I need a digital tool that can zig as I zag through Real Life.
My Asana calendar clearly demonstrates my capacity – how much time I have available for work in a given day/week. I know how long tasks take so I can fill up those containers accordingly, loading in tasks that I am 100% confident will bring me closer to my current goals.
If my brain is not feeling ready to tackle the 45 minute task on my desk this morning, I have permission to swap it with a different 45 minute task on my virtual desk later this week. That’s allowed! It doesn’t break the rules or ruin my planner spread. It honors my mental capacity and keeps my overall game plan for the week on track.
If a task takes longer than I anticipated, I can slide it to a new day in the following week, looking first at what available time blocks I have. I can compare the tasks that are already on my desk on each given day and re-prioritize which ones need to happen first. Tasks can slide while still keeping my capacity honest.
If your schedule is overdue for a reset and your current planning tool isn’t supporting your need for flexibility, dive into the Scheduling module in my Asana course! I’ll hold your hand as we set up a schedule that sets you up for success.
3. Bringing team communication into Asana will change your life
At the start of your journey as a business owner, it might be doable to talk to some people via email and others in DMs and still others in Slack but as your business grows this will become a time suck that you likely will regret.
I start my day inside my Asana inbox, reading bottom to top, catching up on anything team members have been working on since I was last at my desk. I’m starting my day in the loop about the projects that matter most inside my business. If team members have questions, need resources, or want feedback I can support them quickly because I have context.
If someone emails me a file and asks for feedback, it’s hard for me to remember where that file fits into the larger scope of a project/goal. I might not be clear on who else has touched that document and what we’re trying to accomplish overall in the big picture pipeline.
But if there is a single Asana task where all the stakeholders can see the full lifespan of that file from beginning to end as well as all the collaborative chatter that has taken place – wow – the quality of the feedback will be so much better and the response time will likely be shorter as well.
After I catch up to speed on the Asana inbox, I move to my own calendar to start making progress on my big needle moving tasks. I do that work knowing everyone has what they need and I am not the bottleneck in my business. I also start my work with a full picture of what others are working on and how tasks are progressing. It’s such an empowering feeling!
Whether you have one team member or many team members, Asana makes it easy to grant access for the right eyeballs that will help the project move smoothly to the finish line.
4. DO dates versus DUE dates
One mindset shift I learned from Louise Henry was to focus on the next day I would DO a task rather than the finish line for the project being DUE. I might write the target completion date for a task at the end of the title, but really I’m just focused on the next day I’m actually taking action, and moving it to the finish line as soon as possible so I can check it off.
As a side note, checking tasks off in Asana sends magical creatures flying across the screen in celebration of your hard work. If your current planning tool isn’t making you smile, maybe it’s time to try Asana.
5. Task management versus project management
Many small business owners have a place they keep a running to-do list of tasks. But moving into Asana really helped me see the role those tasks had as they connected (or didn’t) to my big picture goals.
I saw projects as something with several smaller steps leading to a finish line. I learned how to archive projects when the finish line was finally achieved and celebrated.
I also got better at identifying tasks that were keeping me busy versus tasks that were truly related to making progress on projects that were part of my big picture goals.
It’s a simple mindset shift, but an impactful one that came as a benefit to using Asana as the project management tool for my small business.
Get Started with Asana for FREE
If you’d like to see a visual peek inside my Asana workspace, take a look at the video preview for my DIY Asana Course. Asana is an incredible free project management tool but the blank slate can feel overwhelming so my course helps teacher business owners set up Asana in a way that works for the specific needs of their unique brain and season of business.
My Asana course uses teacher businesses as an example but would be helpful for solopreneurs and teams of all sizes who are curious about the power of a project management tool and ready to roll up their sleeves to try one.
Take a look at a list of My Favorite Things here
📌 Pin These Tips for Small Business Organization with Asana
