The trip is planned. The family is ready. And you are dreaming of a fun-filled week (or two) of uninterrupted time with the people you love most. But you really aren’t ready because there are long lists of work tasks to manage before you go. You long for a little peace of mind during your vacation.
Never fear! This simple video tip for using Asana’s My Tasks, the favorite tool that you already use every day, will make leaving for a week or two a breeze!
Transcript
I want to take just a minute today to share with you a way to use your Asana and My Tasks list when you know you’re going to be going on vacation. For me, I’ll be gone for two full weeks.
This pre-trip routine alleviates some of the fears that I will forget to do something in my business before my return.
My Tasks Section Headings
If you’re using your Asana My Tasks, you know that I also use this feature daily. I also include sections in My Tasks. I triage the Recently Assigned section every morning, and the today section holds things that are due today. And in my case, a few things that are overdue that I’ve got to reevaluate.
I also use a section called Upcoming, which for me means they are due in the next seven days. I also use the Later section, which is anything due over seven days away. Then Recurring Tasks section holds the new tasks that are automatically created after a recurring task is marked complete. The tasks will automatically move to the correct section based on Asana rules. (Want to use Rules in My Tasks? Here’s how.)
Check ALL sections of My Tasks
To prep for my vacation, I need to open up my Upcoming list that I usually leave closed. I usually just let it auto-populate to today as needed. I also need to open my Later section. So I’ve got my sections all opened – Today, Upcoming and Later, as well as Recurring.
You’ll notice that I have my sort filter set to “sort by the due date within the section.” So everything’s going to stay in its correct section, but they’re going to sorted be by the due date. Since my return is going to be on June 6th, I need to look at everything that is going to be due between now and that date. Then I’ll decide if I can change due dates for those tasks.
Do now or push due date forward?
Since they’re sorted by due date, it’s a pretty easy process. Obviously my Today tasks are things I’ll need to work through today. In Upcoming you see the things that are due tomorrow. Since I will be in the office tomorrow, I will take care of those then. You can see in my Upcoming section, I have some things that are actually due on June 6th, so I don’t need to worry about them.
I’m just looking at these things that are due between now and June 6th. At that point I will go in and say, okay, do I need to reevaluate? Do I need to do anything about this task before I leave? Or can I just bump this to a June 6th date for when I return? Then I’ll go down to the Later section and do the same thing.
These Recurring tasks I definitely need to do before I leave. I’ll create my email sequence so I can send that to my assistant and she can get those ready to go out for early June. These things I’ll need to go ahead and do before I leave, even though they’re showing not due until next week. I won’t be here to do them, so I will be working on those before I leave.
Asana gives peace of mind
Learning how you can have peace of mind during vacation from work is valuable. You know that the things that are coming due soon have been taken care. Or at least pushed to complete when you get back.
Want more tips on making it easier to be gone from your work?
Consider making sure you have written processes in place for your business. Knowing that your team has everything they need to get the work done will give you more peace of mind during vacation. Now you can relax and enjoy!
Want more help? Peruse the Process Improvement library at Tessera.
