5 ways to use Asana better than Dustin Moskovitz.
You’re a master of productivity. You can Slack, Trello, Asana and HipChat all in one breath. You’ve nailed every shortcut and integration to make sure your team is firing on all cylinders and responding quickly. After all, as Dustin Moskovitz the founder of Asana says: “Work is about managing tasks and responding to things quickly.”
This might sound crazy but stop working so quickly…
The secret to being a better teammate and a better person on Asana is about being mindful not fast.
Text-based communication is a blessing and a curse. It lets us communicate with millions in milliseconds but we need to be mindful of how we use it to make sure we’re conveying our thoughts and feelings to the human on the other side. Follow these 5 tips to be a better teammate on Asana.
1. Slow Down
Slow Down and avoid productivity traps. Anyone can feel productive when they’re busy creating, deleting and editing tasks. Ask yourself: “Do we really need this task or does it just make me feel good?” Communication is overhead and every unnecessary task makes someone else’s day tougher.
2. Be Detailed
Your teammates cannot read your mind. Here’s a thought experiment to see how well you’ve documented the task: Imagine you’re the teammate assigned to the task. How many different windows, documents, or tabs would you have to open to understand this task? (Zero is ideal but aim for two or less). Add pictures, screenshots, code snippets, and longer descriptions wherever possible. You want your teammates to understand what they need to do and why they need to do it.
3. Be Responsive
Turn on the Asana inbox counter, turn on relevant e-mail notifications. Do whatever it takes to make sure you can get your teammates the information they need without having to wait for you.
4. Have Conversations
No one likes to be told what to do. Your teammates should always be part of task creation and prioritization process. Your Asana should document what you’ve already discussed with them. Just assigning tasks feels passive aggressive and doesn’t honor the input of your colleagues. (My team uses a Sunsama group to easily schedule conversations with one another)
5. Be Friendly
Unless you put in some extra effort your text based conversations end up feeling sterile and passive-aggressive. Remember you are communicating with a colleague, friend and teammate. Treat them like that and maybe even start using that heart button! Your tone and mannerisms on Asana, chat, e-mail all influence the picture your teammates paint of you in their minds.
Asana is about communicating with people not just listing tasks. On the other side of the software there’s a human reading what you’ve written. So make an effort and write to them with the same warmness and empathy you would when talking to them.
“I believe someone who is empathetic, passionate, and has good social skills is more likely to be a great leader.” — Dustin Moskovitz, Co-Founder at Asana.
Great teams talk to each other face to face! Get your team on Sunsama and spend more time together.
