Asana tips: Four ways to master My Tasks

Update: My Tasks has evolved!

– See Asana’s current Guide for how to use My Tasks.

– Learn how to customize My Tasks.

Below is our original story:

Do you use your My Tasks in Asana? If not, you might be missing out on one of the easiest ways to reduce work about work.

Think of My Tasks as your home base. In this view, you can see all of the tasks that are assigned to you, no matter what Team or project the tasks live in. In conjunction with your Inbox, My Tasks is designed to help you focus on and complete all of your high-impact work.

To get the most out of it, here are four ways to master My Tasks, and a few examples of how to best organize My Tasks to get your best work done.

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1. Organize My Tasks with sections

My Tasks has four built-in priority sections to help you organize and execute your tasks: Recently Assigned, Today, Upcoming, and Later. You can move tasks between sections by dragging and dropping, or by using keyboard shortcuts.

Asana will auto-promote tasks to your Upcoming and Today sections one week and one day out, respectively. See a detailed walkthrough of these My Tasks sections in our guide.

💡 Tip: You can create additional sections within Today, Upcoming, and Later, similar to the way you’d create sections within List View. To create a section in My Tasks, use Tab + N. Don’t worry about this section auto-promoting—it’ll live within Today, Upcoming, or Later, depending on where you created it.

2. Triage new tasks every morning

The Recently Assigned section exists to notify you of any new tasks that have been assigned to you. These could be tasks you created or tasks created by others—and they could be due at any time.

Aim to check your My Tasks daily, and move any tasks in the Recently Assigned section to the proper section. If the task isn’t due soon, move it to Upcoming or Later so you don’t get distracted by work that doesn’t immediately require your attention.

💡 Tip: Make sure every task title starts with a verb. By making the title action-oriented, you can focus on the work you’ll need to do to accomplish that task—and feel great when you check it off.

3. Give every task a due date

Tasks that land in your Recently Assigned section will have an assignee (you) and a task title—but they might not have a due date. Tasks without due dates could be work your coworkers assigned to you without knowing what a reasonable time frame is, or a task you quickly created for yourself without remembering to add a deadline.

Before moving tasks out of Recently Assigned, make sure to add a due date to every task. Tasks won’t automatically move from Later to Upcoming or Today unless they have a due date.

4. Use start dates to clarify how much time a task will take

Sometimes, a particular task will span multiple days. With start dates, you can identify the length of time a task will take to complete. Start dates inform team members and collaborators when you’re beginning to work on tasks—as well as when you expect to be finished.

In My Tasks, tasks will get moved up to Upcoming and Today based on their start date. By setting a start date, you can ensure work surfaces with enough time for you to complete it.

Tips for organizing My Tasks

There’s no “right” or “wrong” way to organize My Tasks, but creating sections within Today, Upcoming, and Later can help you sort work and know what to prioritize. Whether you’re getting started with My Tasks or looking for new organizational ideas, try these three ways to organize My Tasks.

If you work on a wide variety of projects, organizing My Tasks by task type can help you sort and bundle like tasks together. That way, instead of context switching from project to project, you can tackle all of the work within one project bucket, before moving on to the next.

On days when you can’t get to all of your tasks, organizing My Tasks by priority allows you to identify which tasks you should prioritize today versus what can wait until later. That way, you can ensure you complete all of your High and Medium priority tasks, and maybe move your Low priority tasks to another day.

Get your best work done with My Tasks + Inbox

My Tasks is best used in partnership with Inbox. While My Tasks has all of the work assigned to you, Inbox is your one-stop-shop for coordinating work, commenting on tasks, and responding to requests. Learn more about how to mange your Asana Inbox.

Do you have a system for organizing My Tasks that you love? Share it in the comments, or join the conversation on the Asana Community forum.

For more tips and best practices, check out the Asana Academy.