The right way to store notes in Asana
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- Опубликовано: 4 июл 2024
- I often get asked about how to use Asana for note-taking and how Asana should be used alongside other tools like Evernote, OneNote or Notion.
My advice is if the notes you're writing or want to keep are related to a project or task, store them appropriately in Asana. Either on the 'Overview' tab, in the 'Conversations' or the task description. e.g. meetings, task briefs, support tickets etc. TIP: Use the task description for permanent notes and comments for task updates.
But if you just want to 'store information' that's not related to a task or project, this is where I question whether Asana is the right tool? Perhaps Notion, Evernote or OneNote would be better. If you do use Asana, make it clear that the task or project is NOT actionable.
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Great channel, thanks for all the tips. I just watched various videos and love how the plant in the background grew up over the years and the interior got upgraded :D
Haha, thanks! I'm afraid the plant got damaged in a recent move so it's not looking good any more
Great! Thanks so much. I love seeing how other people store their notes. I use a combination of what you described, but hadn't thought to use Messages in that way.
Glad you found this useful!
The problem with using tasks for notes (and I've been there) is that in the meeting you talk about what to do next or even create subtasks within the meeting task (which seems like a good idea), but by doing that the meeting task becomes a thing that needs to be done.
Furthermore if you're linking to other tasks from a "meeting minute task" (which again seems like a good idea) you might end up with having the same yet evolving information within the meeting- and the action-task.
I never thought of using the "messages" tab for that, but will do now.
One question, that I just can't find a solution for: Obviously you refer to the same task in various meetings (say the updates to the concept document of a website being mentioned in every weekly meeting). By writing it into each week's meeting minute plus some calls plus an additional chat or message etc. you loose track of all the places where you might have gathered information/requirements.
One option would be copying them into the main action-task, maybe as subtasks. Another option would be having a separate place (task?) where you document all requirements. A third option would be having a "requirements"-subtask within the main action-task.
Any suggestions about that?
btw stop looking handsome. doesn't help the content of the video. 😉
Haha, thanks Tobi!
This may sound like a bit of a cop-out of an answer but each of the methods you suggest sound good and I can see each of them working. Often it's just a case of trying a few ways of managing the meeting to see what works for you.
Very helpul information, thanks!
You're welcome 😀
Hi Paul! Thanks so much for these videos, super helpful! I have been told that you can create templates on asana for tasks you are going to do over and over again, do you use these for repeating tasks that you want to tick off the subtasks each time? Would love your thoughts/video on how to do this. Thanks :)
Well task templates and recurring tasks are different. A template would be good for a meeting that you can duplicate and use very time you do a meeting. Whereas a recurring task is better for things you do each week on a consistent basis.
@@minor-co great point. Appreciate your reply!
Another great video 👍🏻
Thanks Chris!
Greatest as always. 😊
Thanks 🙏
Hi Paul, how did you make the tasks/list items bold?
You can bold text in a task description using Ctrl + B (or Command + B on a Mac). If you're referring to the task themselves, you can mark a task as a milestone which is why it's bold.
Is there a way to set the task due dates automatically? Or a template to customize with pre-loaded due dates?
Yes, you can create a template with pre-set dates that auto-set based on the start date of the project. You need premium for this. Once you set up your template project, simply choose the 'Convert to template' option from the project menu.
Hi Paul, thank you for the informative video! We just start using Asana and I am unsure which information we will keep in OneNote and which we will store in Asana. We have a lot of project-related notes like meeting notes, client information and so on. What I love about OneNote is the search. I can type any searchterm and I will see any relevant information. I tried the 3 places you mentioned in the video for storing information, but the search in Asana wasnt able to find these places. What do you recommend? Is there any trick that I dont know? If I want to check if we used the word "TAPI" (for example) in any specific clients project, how can I do this in a fast way in ASANA?
Good question. The Asana search will search any task comments, description or title. So as long as you store the notes in either the description or comments, you should be able to find them via search.
@@minor-co Hi Paul, thank you for the fast reply. What am I doing wrong? I left "test789" in the task description and then I searched for the word "test". The search didnt show my task, it only showed tasks with "test" in the task title. I also looked through "Erweiterte Suche" (extended search) but I couldnt find a way to search through task descriptions. How did you manage this? A video about ASANA search would be really great. I think Asana has some real disadvantages while storing notes and client information - at least for more complicated projects. :(
@@datamazing Hi, I may be able to shed some light. You searched on "test" but you don't have "test". You had "test789". Those are 2 different search terms as far as Asana is concerned. You'll need to put a space in between your characters if you want Asana to find just "test". Otherwise you'll need to search on "test789". Think of it like you have a word in your description "powerpoint" and you expect to search "power" (or "point") and find it. It's not going to. It will only find the word " power " (with those spaces on either side, like it's a discrete word). The kind of granular search you're trying to do is too advanced. I believe it's called "Regex" (short for Regular Expressions). Most basic search engines are not going to pull characters out of words for you.
Paul, could you explain how these ";date" or ";lore" shortcuts work?
Oh, that's me using TextExpander to generate blocks of text. Check out this video: ruclips.net/video/8M1ZIEAJbEs/видео.html
I wish the Messages feature had more functionality. It’s so basic, especially if you’re considering using it for meeting notes (IMO).
What sort of functionality did you have in mind?
I have found using a task for meetings is helpful because it allows me and my team to be in the list view with the rest of the tasks (where our agenda is) and, even more functional to me, the subtasks are right there, too. We are able to quickly add a sub task below the description and not have to leave the “note”.
I would like the ability to add images “in line” but it isn’t often enough that it’s a problem for the teams I work with.
I, too would love to hear your thoughts for more functionality of messages.
What tool are you using to get ;lorem and ;date ?
TextExpander
Does Asana work with Notability or GoodNotes?
I don't think so sorry
When your PM tool needs a 7 minute video to explain some messy workarounds to something that should be a basic, intuitive feature of any PM tool - you are using the wrong PM tool :/
🤣
The lack of a true Notes feature in Asana is a dealbreaker. I’ll have to look into Notion, at least for smaller groups it allows for a self-contained repository of everything needed to execute projects.
After book work material whiz link to open
Sorry?
Any chance they’ll add the ability to put a tag on a project?
I'm not sure, but I'm not expecting this any time soon.
Paul Minors rules in a major way.
Haha, thanks!