5 Ways I Use Asana in my Business

I am an unashamed superfan of Asana. Not the yoga, the project management system. I use it in all my businesses, recommend it to every client and in general sing its praises from the rooftops on a regular basis.

A question I am often asked is “but if I am a solopreneur do I really need asana, how would it benefit me? I don’t have a team to assign tasks to, it’s just me”

My short answer is “absolutely YES, you need a project management system and I cannot imagine running my business without asana.”

However, I understand that doing something just because I tell you to, isn’t necessarily the most compelling argument. So without further ado I would like to introduce you to the five main ways that I use asana in my one-person business and why I think you should too.

As an Editorial Calendar

I keep my editorial calendar fairly simple. Ideas > In Progress > Published. Just three sections. The busiest section is “Ideas”. I don’t get to write as much as I want to right now, so while I am busy carving out time to write more, I collect all the ideas I have into the ideas section.  When I find the time or inspiration I move the topic from Idea to In progress. That allows me to outline it, attach any research to the task and when it is drafted add a link to the Google Doc to the task. Once I get it up on my site the task moves to published where it is tagged with the category it was published in so that I can see at a glance where I need to focus my next efforts.

As a Simple Client Relationship Management System

I have a CRM, I use insightly. But really that is just a glorified address book for me. Asana is where the action happens for my clients. Every client has their own task in asana. In that task I use sub-tasks to structure how I am working with them and the steps each of them moves through during our consulting process. I keep copies of their intake information there for quick reference, links to session notes and reports as well as any other documentation we may be working on or tasks I need to take care of between sessions. It gives me an at a glance history of the client and a one click link to all the information I may need.

As a Business Hub

For my non-profit (Amsterdam Mamas) building a business hub in asana was  the single biggest step forward that we had taken in years. Finally, all the information I had previously stored in my brain, in e-mails and in random folders suddenly had a home. More importantly, the information had a home where other people could access it. I would be lying if I didn’t tell you that building that kind of hub didn’t take some work. By the time we instigated it we had years of information to collate and input. But it has been undeniably worth it.

When it came to setting up my own consultancy I learnt from my mistakes and started the Hub on day one. I have categories according the functions in my business and then link everything up from there. That way, when I need to find something, the first and only place I need to look is the hub. Also, should anyone ever need to know how to run anything in my business, the information is all there waiting for them. The hub is a living repository, it is grows and changes on a daily basis. I couldn’t do without it.

As a System link

The only thing I love more than a good process is a good automated process. Asana is integrated with a number of the tools I use such as toggl (for tracking how much time I am spending on client tasks), typeform (for collecting client data), Gmail (a zap from Zapier enables me to star an e-mail and have it generate that e-mail as a task for me to follow up on in asana). Making asana a part of my workflow means a much smoother experience for me and for my clients.

As a To-Do list

An entry level way to use asana is as a to-do list. You’re really only scratching the surface of its capabilities but as a to-do list, it works great. Checking those little boxes as complete is very satisfying. You simply enter your tasks, give them a deadline and tick them off as you go. My preferred layout is the Upcoming Task view as it allows me to see what I have to get done each day and what is coming up in my deadline list.

Try It, You Might Like It...

There’s no denying, as with any application, asana comes with a learning curve. I find it fairly intuitive but to really get the most out of it, you will need to invest some time in learning how it works. Fortunately, asana has an extensive knowledge base of articles and video training freely available on their website and if you get stuck, the helpdesk team are just an email away. My advice would be work through it slowly and implement pieces into your business. Don’t try to do it all at once. Identify the ways in which it can be most useful to you then make those work before adding more functions on.

Have I convinced you yet?

Do you need more detail? 

Then you are in luck, because I have put together a free, six-part video training where I take you behind the scenes of my own Asana account and show you exactly how I have set it up in my business.

To access the training, just fill out the form below. You will receive and email with your log-in details so that you can get started straight away.

How to Give an Ignite Talk

Have you heard of Ignite Talks?

No?

Neither had I until somehow I had applied to do one… and been accepted… and only then did I realise that ignite was not just a cute name for a talk. It was an actual type of talk.

Oh dear.

As a reformed non-public speaker, I will now happily say yes to any interesting speaking opportunity that comes my way.

So, what is an Ignite talk?

In its original format, an Ignite Talk is a presentation containing 20 slides which are auto-forwarding every 15 seconds.

I’ll pause while you let that sink in.

20 slides.

15 seconds.

Over which the presenter has no control.

Yup.

The format of the talk I was giving had been tweaked slightly from the standard to 20 slides, auto-forwarding every 20 seconds. But still….

But that sounds easy I can hear you say, that’s a talk of only 6 minutes and 40 seconds with 20 slides.

E-A-S-Y.

Yes, I thought that too, until I tried it. What it actually means is that you have your one topic with one message. You need to break that down into 20 bite size pieces of information lasting no longer than 20 seconds each. What starts out as easy suddenly turns into 20 x 20 mini talks which stand alone with their accompanying slide but can all be linked together to create one message.

And you cannot stop, no matter what happens, your slides are moving and you have to keep pace with them.

Not so easy now, is it?

Where do you start preparing a talk like that?

What follows is my method, it may not work for everyone but it was successful for me and I would use it again.

1. Choose your message - this is a short, fast-paced presentation. You only have time for one message, make it count.
2. Choose your pillars - In Talk like TED, Carmine Gallo explains the power of three. 1 message, 3 main points, 3 sub points, 1 concluding call to action. I use this format as a starting point for any presentation I do.
3. Don’t get fancy with your slides. This is not the time for animation, music or embeded video. Keep it simple. I create nearly all my presentations using HaikuDeck (you need a paid account if you want to export them to PowerPoint). I created 20 slides, each of which were a single image which represented that part of my talk.

Would you like to use my Talk Planner to prepare for your own talk. You can download a copy here, no email required, just click and it will open in a new window:

MY TALK PLANNER

Let the writing commence

I grabbed my Talk Planner and started brainstorming. I knew that I would be talking about Building a Global Village so my main message was done, then I needed my three pillars, three main points and a call to action.

A quick Google search told me that I should be aiming for between 750 to 800 words for a speech lasting just under 7 minutes.

800 words? Fine, it’s a topic I love and can talk at length about. I formatted my pillars and my main points and got typing.

It wasn’t long before I had cruised way past 800 words.

Time to edit.

I tightened up the language. I got other people to read it. I was really happy with it. And then, it was time for the slides.

Which is where things got a little tricky.

I had a great speech. It had natural break points. Those natural break points did not occur consistently at 20 seconds. They did not fit the slides.

I found this out when I read it out loud and had someone mark off where each 20 seconds fell on a printed copy of the text.

After a small pause to beat the pages of the talk against my desk, I got back to work. I started to chop the talk into 20 core pieces. Some of the pieces ran to 19 seconds (that’s ok, I can add an extra deep breath). Some ran to 40 (that’s ok, I can break them into 2 slides and decide which one to cut later). Some ran to 32 seconds or 14 seconds or some other random number.

“I hated those slides.”

 

 

What happened next?

Once I had forced my slides into some sort of order and practiced daily to keep my pace and breathing in time to the slides, it was time to take it live.

Luckily I was able to rehearse the day before with the other ignite speakers so we could swap tips and make last minute adjustments. This was invaluable.

On the day, I calmed my nerves. I was practiced, I was rehearsed, I was ready. Then it was my turn. I stepped up to the lectern, I got one slide in, and right there is where I got the call that all speakers hate. A voice from the back of the room, “We can’t hear you!”

“My microphone had failed.”

And breathe.

I ripped the mic pack off. Took a deep breath, matched my notecards to the slide on the screen, skipped ahead and just kept going.

The slides are moving, they’ll keep going without you, so you better just go with them.

And I can assure you, that while stressful in the moment, the mic pack died, I didn’t. It is perfectly possible to survive public tech failure.

“By the time I got to my end slide, my call to action, my “are you with me?” I could hear whooping and shouts of “YES!”. Audience engagement, the holy grail for speakers.”

Would I do another Ignite talk? Yes. Despite their easy breezy performance Ignites force you to be disciplined, to really hone what you are going to say and how you are going to say it. I think all speakers should do them.

Which is why I now offer you,

My Golden Tips for Giving an Ignite Talk

• Prepare like you have never prepared for any talk ever before. You cannot wing an Ignite talk. Do not try.
• Make it fun. Ignite’s are fast paced and energy driven. The audience wants to get useful/interesting/amusing information fed to them at high speed. Give ‘em what they came for.
• Use note cards, 20 of them, put each section of the speech on a card and keep it close to you at all times.
• Practice. If you can’t practice in front of people then use an app such as Screenflow to capture your presentation and audio. Then refine and perfect.
• Enjoy it. You may miss a phrase, your mic may break down, your slides might get stuck, you can’t plan for these things and the audience knows it. Just get up there and have a good time.

Don't forget, you can grab a copy of My Talk Planner by clicking this link: MY TALK PLANNER

If you'd like to read through my Ignite talk on Building A Global Village, you can find it HERE.

10 Lessons from "A Year of Yes"

There are books that linger long after you've read them. For me, this was one of them. I took so much from this book that it was hard to narrow it down to just ten lessons. But I did. If you want a concise, viewable version of the book then make sure you watch Shonda Rhimes TED talk "My Year of Saying Yes to Everything".

YES! Yes, it absolutely should. Yes should feel like being bathed in warm sunlight. If yes makes you feel cold or alone, you've said the wrong thing. 

Say YES to: Making every yes you say feel like the sun, especially when it involves other people.

To put this in context, it refers to the brilliant Amy Cuddy TED Talk "Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are". If you haven't watched it yet, you should. I am not ashamed to say that I power pose in the bathroom before every talk I give. Yes, I do.

Say YES to: Power Posing in the bathroom whenever you need a boost of confidence. 

Running a volunteer organisation, this one hit home. I see far too much "social helping" and only a fractional amount of actual hands on deck help. Fortunately, those who do put actual time into supporting causes they believe in are some of the best people you will ever, ever meet.

Say YES to: Picking a cause, and genuinely donating your time. 

My so called Facebook life. The curse of the social media generation. Everyone's life looks better on the internet. It's rare that we are posting about the whole, unvarnished truth of our multi-faceted lives. 

Say YES to: Holding out a hand to a friend who is struggling with any part of their life and saying "me too".

And if we're lucky, we never will. Parenthood. It is a fabulous leveller. No matter what you think you know. You don't know. But that's ok, because none of us do. So let's work it out together.

Say YES to: Recognising that you are no better and no worse than any other parent. We are all doing the best we can.

Oof. So true. And really this is the stuff that even if you are told before parenthood hits you, you can never truly understand what it means until you are living it on a daily basis. 

Say YES to: Setting your heart free.

I found this quote powerful and painful in equal parts, because this is exactly how it happens. The shift from a place of vibrancy in the world is a slow, imperceptible retreat. One day you realise, you're lost and have no idea how to get back. 

Say YES to: Remembering how easy it is to lose yourself and keep saying yes when you are able to. 

All too often we dismiss hard work and tenacity as "luck". It's true that some of us come from a more privileged starting point than others but that doesn't mean that our hard work should be written off as luck.

Say YES to: Being a badass, and acknowledging the hard work of other badasses.

At points during this book, the words were so striking that I had to remind myself to breathe in and out. This was one of those points. 

Say YES to: Watching for those who are disappearing and help them find their way back. Make it easier from them to say yes again, instead of no. 

As a parent, somehow it is so much easier to say yes to everything except stopping and being in the moment with our children. Even if you don't have children, with all the pressures of life often we forget that playing is a valid and necessary way to spend our time. 

Say YES to: Playing and having FUN! Whenever the opportunity arises, say YES!

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A Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand In the Sun and Be Your Own Person by Shonda Rhimes is available from your preferred bookseller.

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