Task management is a cornerstone of a successful team/organization/your own work load. Here I put together a brief overview of things to consider when working with a team of people, using Asana as an example of how to create a workflow.

1. Managing groups
an introduction via Asana, a task management software

2. What is this about
A closer look at what running groups on campus involves, things to keep in
mind, and an introduction to a possible tool to add to your arsenal

3. why Asana?
Asana is there to help keep an overview of what your goals are in the long
run/big picture, allowing you to break down larger projects into smaller
chunks, and managing those chunks so that as a group you are accountable
to each other; asana also makes it easy for you guys to step in to help each
other out when timelines go crazy.
At its most basic, it ties together multiple platforms (email, dropbox, google
docs, calendar), which helps prevent doubling up or information getting lost.
At its most successful, task management includes physical elements as well.

4. management phases:
what management does:
project creation
project planning
project execution
member coordination
task management
What that includes:
project definition
member recruitment
(incl. members)
task compilation
task delegation
bug listing

5. management steps:
what management does:
lead vision
manage the logistics
overview action points
fulfill tasks
show up
what members do:
attend meetings

6. management steps: what goes wrong
project creation
project planning
project execution
you decide on a list of projects to
tackle this year -- or don’t
you distribute tasks -- or don’t,
and do it all yourself
continue having meetings -- or
don’t, and do it all yourself
lead vision
manage logistics
overview action points
you set an initial meeting - by
email, various websites, write
agenda in doc
you handle issues/communications
-- or don’t, and find out day of
disappointed in result
attend meetings
fulfill tasks
show up
management:
members:

7. management steps: what goes wrong
project creation
project planning
project execution
lead vision
manage the logistics
overview action points
miss meetings and feel lost
not sure how to do
too busy to
attend mtgs
fulfill tasks
show up
overcommitted
not actually what was interested
in/have capacity for
disappointed in result
management:
members:

8. management steps: what goes wrong
project creation
project planning
project execution
you decide on a list of projects to
tackle this year -- or don’t
you distribute tasks -- or don’t,
and do it all yourself
continue having meetings -- or
don’t, and do it all yourself
lead vision
manage logistics
overview action points
you set an initial meeting - by
email, various websites, write
agenda in doc
you handle issues/communications
-- or don’t, and find out day of
disappointed in result
miss meetings and feel lost
not sure how to do
too busy to
attend mtgs
fulfill tasks
show up
overcommitted
not actually what was interested
in/have capacity for
disappointed in result
management:
members:

9. management: mapped to Asana
project creation
project planning
project execution
lead vision
manage logistics
overview action points
project template
agenda
agenda
inbox
inbox
management:
project template
members:
members’ panel
document integration
people panel
attend mtgs
fulfill tasks
show up
inbox/agenda
inbox/agenda
task panel
task panel
mail/calendar integration
tags
tags

10. overview: asana
it’s best to go to asana.com to see the intro yourself. but in broad strokes:
5
6
2
1
1
2
projects
tasks to be sorted
3
ideally headers are all preset and give structure to
the tasks in projects in general
4
5
projects associated with a particular task
task notes: specifics, links to documents, etc
4
3
6
followers are people that see updates in
their inbox
7
comments can be emailed in, and will all
appear here, and will be sent to all followers if
they have it set to do so
7

11. Let’s look at this again: how Asana helps
project creation
you decide on a list of projects to
tackle this year -- or don’t
management:
lead vision
you set an initial meeting - by
email, various websites, write
agenda in doc
project template
creates a transparent
look at what is ahead
and the panel allows for
changes as you see
people more/less
involved in any one
project

12. Let’s look at this again: how Asana helps
project creation
you decide on a list of projects to
tackle this year -- or don’t
management:
lead vision
you set an initial meeting - by
email, various websites, write
agenda in doc
project template
creates a transparent
look at what is ahead
and the panel allows for
changes as you see
people more/less
involved in any one
project

13. Let’s look at this again: how Asana helps
project planning
you distribute tasks -- or don’t,
and do it all yourself
management:
manage logistics
you handle issues/communications
-- or don’t, and find out day of
add the meeting time and place as a
task and add everyone as followers
agenda
allows for you to be
identifying topics of
discussion as they show up,
and makes meetings
something everyone is
invested in; links to action
points of specific projects
you can assign
add tasks to agenda that ought
to be covered in the next mtg

14. Let’s look at this again: how Asana helps
project planning
you distribute tasks -- or don’t,
and do it all yourself
management:
manage logistics
you handle issues/communications
-- or don’t, and find out day of
task delegation
project planning includes the
entire team, and tasks are
best discussed as a group
as the project takes shape.
But it helps to have
someone to make sure each
task is associated with
someone specific.
people, and expected task duration,
help create dependencies minus
gargantuan gantt charts.

15. Let’s look at this again: how Asana helps
project planning
you distribute tasks -- or don’t,
and do it all yourself
management:
manage logistics
you handle issues/communications
-- or don’t, and find out day of
members’ panel
is your way to keep a finger
on the pulse on your group
-- what tasks are people
sitting on? Gives you the
opportunity to hone in on
your members’ capacities
and real interests within
your group

16. Let’s look at this again: how Asana helps
project planning
you distribute tasks -- or don’t,
and do it all yourself
management:
manage logistics
you handle issues/communications
-- or don’t, and find out day of
doc. integration
attach files straight from
dropbox, or link to google
docs, to preserve changes
across different members
and after updates

17. Let’s look at this again: how Asana helps
project execution
continue having meetings -- or
don’t, and do it all yourself
management:
overview action points
disappointed in result
inbox
is your way to see what
others are accomplishing,
what they are stuck on, and
let’s you communicate with
the urgent tasks more
directly, rather than sifting
through each project

18. Let’s look at this again: how Asana helps
project execution
continue having meetings -- or
don’t, and do it all yourself
management:
overview action points
disappointed in result
tags
there are things that fall
through the cracks because
they don’t seem to be
associated with anyone in
particular -- tags allows you
to collect those across
projects to address at mtgs

19. Let’s look at this again: how Asana helps
project creation
inbox/agenda
you see when and where
your next meeting is, and
can communicate directly to
contribute; should you miss
meetings you can see what
tasks were assigned to you
miss meetings and feel lost
members:
attend mtgs
overcommitted

20. Let’s look at this again: how Asana helps
project creation
inbox/agenda
you see when and where
your next meeting is, and
can communicate directly to
contribute; should you miss
meetings you can see what
tasks were assigned to you
miss meetings and feel lost
members:
attend mtgs
overcommitted
having a central place to catch projects that are lagging (tasks aren’t
being created/checked off) is a good way to catch things before it gets
too late. And it helps to act as a reminder to celebrate projects that
are moving along.

21. Let’s look at this again: how Asana helps
project planning
task panel
you have an overview of all
the documents associated
with a project, or at least a
starting point to find them, a
direct link to ask questions
and receive answers and
can re-assign as needed
not sure how to do
members:
fulfill tasks
not actually what was interested
in/have capacity for

22. Let’s look at this again: how Asana helps
project planning
task panel
you have an overview of all
the documents associated
with a project, or at least a
starting point to find them, a
direct link to ask questions
and receive answers and
can re-assign as needed
not sure how to do
members:
fulfill tasks
not actually what was interested
in/have capacity for
tasks can be cross-referenced,
creating task-dependencies (eg: task
lives both in agenda & in a specific
project

23. Let’s look at this again: how Asana helps
project execution
email/calendar
integration
alongside the PR efforts your
group makes, there is a
central platform that allows
for different users to use
what they are already most
comfortable with
too busy to
members:
show up
disappointed in result

24. So, what now? How do you integrate Asana?
take a moment at the beginning of the year in a meeting to have everyone sign up and access the
agenda project, for instance. have someplace central where students can easily stumble upon links
to the projects
• paste discussions from emails into comments of specific tasks
• use asana as a template
• USE in meetings to assign tasks
◦ if someone is absent, send them a screenshot of their tasks, and link it to that project (when
that person goes to the link, they’ll be prompted to sign in and voila, be right there)
•
show the Action Steps document at meetings routinely and ask “any Qs?”
• share the belief that this is in fact better than email chains & documents