4 Asana Workflow Examples and Templates for Better Work Efficiency

Asana workflow examples are a dime a dozen. I could list hundreds of ways in which Asana can streamline your workflows, but I won’t keep you here that long.

Instead, I’ve narrowed it down to four examples. You’re welcome.

But Asana is such a great tool that this article won’t stop at the examples. We will also be taking a look at five of its most-used templates so you can see its immense versatility.

Let’s dive into it!

What is a workflow?

To start, let’s get back to basics and break down what a workflow actually is.

A workflow is a sequence of interconnected steps or tasks necessary to complete a specific process or achieve a particular goal. It represents the flow of activities, information, and resources within an organization or individual’s work environment.

Workflows are designed to streamline and automate repetitive or complex tasks, ensuring that work progresses efficiently and consistently. They provide a structured framework that defines the order, dependencies, and interactions between different activities involved in a process.

Workflows can be manual or automated, depending on the complexity and the availability of tools or software to support the process. Automation tools, including software applications or workflow management systems, can help automate and streamline tasks, reducing manual effort and human error.

How Asana works

Asana provides a powerful solution to help individuals and teams manage their tasks effectively. It offers a wide range of workflow possibilities that can revolutionize the way you work. Here are a few of them:

Task organization

Asana allows you to create tasks and organize them into projects, making it easy to keep track of your work. You can assign due dates, set priorities, and add relevant details to each task. By structuring your tasks in Asana, you can visualize your workflow, identify dependencies, and ensure nothing falls through the cracks.

Collaboration and communication

One of the standout features of Asana is its ability to foster collaboration among team members. You can assign tasks to specific individuals, create subtasks, and set up dependencies to ensure a smooth workflow. Asana’s comment section allows for seamless communication, enabling team members to discuss task details, provide updates, and ask questions, all in one centralized location.

Project planning and tracking

With Asana’s timeline and calendar views, you can plan and manage projects with ease. The timeline view provides a visual representation of your project schedule, allowing you to see how tasks and milestones are interconnected. By tracking progress, you can identify bottlenecks, adjust deadlines, and allocate resources more effectively.

Automation and integration

Asana offers a range of automation features that can save you time and effort. You can create rules to automate repetitive tasks, such as assigning specific team members to tasks based on project criteria or triggering notifications for upcoming deadlines. 

Furthermore, Asana integrates seamlessly with other popular tools, such as Slack, Google Drive, and Jira, allowing for a more streamlined workflow across your entire tech stack.

Agile project management

For teams practicing agile methodologies, Asana provides dedicated features to support agile project management. You can create custom boards, implement agile frameworks like Scrum or Kanban, and track user stories and sprints. Asana’s agile capabilities empower teams to work collaboratively, iterate quickly, and adapt to changing priorities.

Asana workflow examples

By leveraging Asana’s features and functionalities, you can design customized workflows tailored to your specific needs. Here are a few practical examples of Asana workflows that can help you optimize your tasks and boost collaboration:

Content creation workflow

Whether you’re managing a blog, creating marketing materials, or developing content for social media, Asana can assist you in streamlining your content creation process. 

Start by creating a project for each content piece or campaign. Within the project, you can create tasks for different stages, such as: 

• Ideation
• Research 
• Writing
• Editing
• Publishing

Assign team members responsible for each task, set deadlines, and use comments to provide feedback and collaborate effectively. By visualizing the workflow, you can ensure smooth progress and track the status of each content piece until it’s ready for distribution.

Event planning workflow

Organizing events can be a complex task involving multiple stakeholders, deadlines, and dependencies. Asana can simplify the event planning process and improve coordination. Create a project for the event and break it down into tasks such as: 

• Venue selection
• Vendor management
• Marketing
• Registration
• Logistics

Assign responsible team members, set due dates, and attach relevant files or contacts. Utilize Asana’s subtasks to further divide complex tasks into manageable steps. 

With clear task assignments and communication within Asana, event planners can ensure that everyone is on the same page and that deadlines are met.

Project approval workflow

When working on projects that require approval from multiple stakeholders, it’s essential to have a well-defined workflow. Asana can help streamline this process and avoid delays. Create a project for the specific project approval process and create tasks for each stage, such as drafting, review, revision, and final approval. 

Assign the tasks to the relevant individuals or teams, set deadlines for each stage, and establish dependencies to ensure a sequential flow. Use comments to provide feedback and facilitate discussions. By visualizing the approval workflow in Asana, you can track progress, identify bottlenecks, and keep all stakeholders informed.

Personal task management workflow

Asana is not just for team collaboration; it can also serve as a powerful personal task management tool. Create a project for personal tasks and organize them by categories or priority levels. 

Set due dates, create subtasks, and attach relevant files or notes. Leverage Asana’s My Tasks feature to get a comprehensive overview of all your pending tasks, including those assigned by others. With reminders and notifications, Asana helps you stay on top of deadlines and manage your workload effectively.

Asana workflow templates

Asana offers tons of excellent free templates for all manner of project and process management. Here are five of the most commonly used templates:

Operational plan template

The operational plan template can be used for any operational planning process, such as quarterly business reviews or annual planning. The template organizes every step of the process, making it easy for collaborators to know which step of the process they need to work on. 

For example, if you use a template for annual planning, you don’t have to start over completely at the beginning of every planning cycle. Instead, all you have to do is copy the template you already build and follow the predefined workflow.

IT program management template

The IT program management template helps teams organize, prioritize, and carry out IT projects. It’s great because it helps teams standardize processes such as software offboarding, IT requests or incident management. It creates consistent systems for the IT team, so it’s always clear how cross-functional collaborators should work with IT, and how IT should work with them.

Employee onboarding template

The employee onboarding template is a very similar process to the one Asana uses for its own new hires. Each one is sent an employee onboarding checklist, which is which is loaded with all the information they need to get started, such as info about projects, meetings, onboarding tasks, and check-ins. 

It creates a central source of actionable knowledge and gives the new hire a clear idea of what they should be doing from the start. It explains where employees need to go to find certain information. That makes it simple for them to find important job information and company documents like their job description, the employee handbook, company policies, and new hire paperwork.

Incident management template

The incident management template allows you build an incident management tracker for all your projects. The template gives your team a single source of truth. When an incident occurs, you have the ability to update the tracker with new information and show the team in real time what happened, what changed, who’s working on it, and what’s been done so far. 

Building out the incident management template requires some effort up-front, but it will save you lots of time throughout all future projects. 

Resource management template

The resource management template shows you all the projects and tasks your team is currently working on. It gives you a sense of how full the team’s plate is, if they have the capacity to take on any additional work, or if they require assistance to help finish tasks by a project deadline. 

More workflows, less problems

Asana is such a great workflow solution with tons of ways you can streamline your business operations.

But, if you try Asana for your processes and it isn’t your thing, there are a ton of other easy-to-use workflow tools out there that you can give a try. 

There’s really no excuse for not using some kind of workflow builder/tool/software/whatever to improve your organization’s efficiency!