What TODO list did I dream about, and how Asana became this dream

Yesterday I was going through my 2009 OneNote notebooks. When I was five years younger, I had a different system of note-taking, differently formulated ideas. One of those notebooks revealed a list of requirements for a potential project called "Online Todo List for Collaboration." The idea was great, but I never realized this project. And I will not. "Why?" - you ask. Because three years after writing this list, I started using Asana.com. Even before that, we had a small review of this service on our website. At the moment, Asane already has all the features I wanted five years ago. What are these chips and how they are implemented - this will be discussed in this article.

"Why?" - you ask. Because three years after writing this list, I started using Asana.com. Even before that, we had a small review of this service on our website. At the moment, Asana already has all the features that I wanted five years ago. What are these chips and how they are implemented - this will be discussed in this article.

The list itself, written five years ago, looked like this:

Online service with simple registration.
Availability of a mobile version.
Hotkeys.
Convenient visual interface.
Collaboration by invitation.
Planning in the style of Now / Tomorrow / Later.
Hierarchy: nesting tasks, projects, contexts, labels.
Ability to take notes to cases with formatting.

Online service with simple registration

In 2014, it seems natural to be an online service, not a desktop program. This is especially obvious when we talk about a service that was originally designed for collaboration. At Asana.com, your to-do list will be accessible through any modern browser. The creators of this service attributed to them:

Chrome;
Safari;
Firefox;
Internet Explorer 10 & 11;
Fluid for Mac.

Unfortunately for my friend, an Opera lover, the browser was not included in this list. I feel sorry for him, which I can't say about people still using older versions of IE. It is also worth noting that, like any complex web application, Asana may have conflicts with the extensions already installed in your browser. A complete list is provided here.

As for registration, it has the standard ability to link a Google or Facebook account.

Availability of a mobile version

Now every high-quality site has a version for mobile phones and tablets. Somewhere this is achieved with the help of a responsive layout, somewhere the interface is initially optimized for a small screen. Asana developers took the second route. Add to this the iOS and Android apps, and you will understand my pleasure in working with this system.

Hotkeys

It annoys me insanely when a routine takes a long time. The tools should be comfortable, so I can sit for two hours figuring out the intricacies of a new program. But then, when after pressing two keys I hear: “What did you do?” - you feel like a magician. There are hotkeys in Asana, there are many of them. Moreover, they are intuitive and indicated right at the bottom of the screen. To tell you the truth, I really miss them in the app on the iPhone.

Convenient visual interface

Unfortunately, in Asana, the interface is not 100% made the way I would like. First, there is no way to choose the interface language. Some people I work with through this service find it difficult to speak English. They can be advised of a plugin for translating the interface for Chrome. Secondly … yes no, secondly. You get used to the interface really quickly. Then other planners annoy with unnecessary clicks and inconvenient filter systems. Try it yourself. I am sure that you will like the ability to focus on the task, various task filters and sections.

Collaboration by invitation

It is very easy to invite someone to work with you on a project. It is enough to send him an invitation by email. Without waiting for him to agree, you can already set tasks for him or mention him in the text of the task or in the comment, using the @ icon, favorite on Twitter.

Now / Tomorrow / Someday planning

One of my rules: first, do everything that you cannot postpone until tomorrow. Therefore, I prefer to do the principle of prioritizing affairs in the form: Today / Tomorrow / Someday. In Asana, when viewing your tasks, you can either set exact deadlines, or set them one of three: Today / Upcoming / Later. This should be done so that your colleagues can see when you start a project. And, of course, there are hotkeys for these actions.

Hierarchy: nesting tasks, projects, contexts, labels

The task hierarchy in Asana is implemented in several ways. Firstly, in the list of tasks, you can put two dots at the end of the task - this will be a section. It is very convenient to make a list of tasks with them. Moreover, later, tasks can be simply dragged from section to section.

Secondly, you can create subtasks for any task. For example, I do not need the client to delve into the essence of how exactly I optimize the speed of the site. It's just one of the tasks on the to-do list of the project. Having made subtasks, I can use my usual tool to plan optimization up to three-minute tasks.

Thirdly, these are projects. Each case can relate to several projects at once. So these are both labels and folders for your tasks.

Fourth, it is workspace and organizations. They differ little in terms of hierarchy. By the way, I do not specifically translate the term wokrspace into Russian. Agree, "workspace" sounds strange in the context of to-do lists. So, wokrspace is an association of people and projects that have nothing to do with each other. You cannot transfer tasks from one wokrspace to another. If you really need it, then you can use this service here. First, add all the participants who will be in the transferred project to the required workspace. I needed to do this when I transferred freelance projects from personal affairs to a new workspace.

Ability to take notes to cases with formatting

You will hardly surprise anyone with the presence of notes to the task. But what I just adore Asana is the comments. Instead of writing an email for each task or generating chains of dialogues in email, you can discuss the questions for each task separately. It turns out such a kind of forum. Add the Like button to that, and it's really great for collaboration. It should be noted that Asana is actively developing. So, just the other day, the ability to use formatting directly for comments and task notes was added.

What was not on my list

My list of requirements did not include many of the things that you find in Asana. This and the binding of cloud storage of your choice: Dropbox, Box, Google Drive. And convenient filters, and printing of the selected to-do list, and task templates following the example of an existing project, and work with duplicate tasks. There are many services that integrate with Asana. A full list of them is here. A well-done reference should definitely be mentioned. For a tool as powerful as Asana, this is a must.

The Asana tool is really handy. In it we planned the wedding of my friends last year. It was in it that I planned and made more than one freelance project. In any of these projects, I collaborated conveniently and quickly with other people. When it comes to my personal projects, for some reason I use a different program. Only this is a completely different story.