Site icon Megan Horn

How One Freelancer Uses Asana to Manage Projects

Megan Horn
Freelancer Asana Setup

I work for myself and by myself. Managing my work takes a lot of, well, work. I’ve talked to plenty of other freelancers who struggle to organize their work as well. It’s not like we need some massive project management system, but trying to track everything in our head or an email inbox isn’t feasible.

So here’s how I organize my work. I’ve been using this system for about three years now, with tweaks along the way, of course. It has worked well for me, my brain, and the type of work I do.

I’m going to go into a bit of background about what I do and how my brain works. If you want to skip that part and jump to the details about Asana, here’s a handy link to do so.

My Work: B2B Content Marketing

As a solo marketing consultant* with a handful of clients at any given time. I structure most of my contracts so I’m doing the same deliverables each month for a client. For example, many clients get two blogs, one email newsletter, LinkedIn content, and PR pitches each month. I set up my contracts this way for many reasons:

  1. I like long-term client relationships so I can learn the industry over time
  2. I like working based on deliverables, not hours
  3. I can be flexible on scope and swap deliverables at any time (for example, add a case study and remove a blog post)
  4. The content system I use works for small and medium B2B companies

My goal is to take the content marketing chunk of work off of the marketing director, owner, or whoever would be doing it (or, frankly, not doing it) if I weren’t involved. I want my clients to put out high-quality content consistently with as little time required from them as possible. I try to take on as much as I can within this vertical slice of work.

The work deliverables are a mix of brain-heavy writing, client meetings, coordination with publications, social media work, light graphic design (emphasis on the light…I’m talking blog banners), SME interviews, research, email automation, and whatever else comes my way. I like the variety, and I need to be able to track the different tasks that go along with what I do.

*I always struggle with what to call myself. I’m a small business owner, entrepreneur, freelancer, contractor, marketer, jack of all trades, writer, and many other things. My business feels established enough that “freelancer” feels too flimsy at this point, but “contractor” makes it seem like I do construction…I don’t even do my own house projects. So I waffle around and end up somewhere in the “B2B marketing consultant” or “B2B content writer” area.

My Brain: ADHD

I got diagnosed with ADHD in 2021 or 2022 (one of my symptoms is that I’m completely time blind, but I know it was in the last year or two). It has been life changing, and you can read more about that in my latest mental health blog post.

Learning I have ADHD and how it impacts my work has been very helpful. I work best on due dates, but my work doesn’t really have due dates—I just have deliverables to complete each month with a few deadline-based items mixed in. I’m also prone to procrastination, especially if I’m bored by or anxious about a project.

Even before I knew I had ADHD, I knew I needed a structure (and yet flexibility) for my work. I worked on choosing a project management software and setting up a system to help me keep track of everything. For me to be most successful, I need a place to put all those random “oh, I should do that” ideas that pop up, a way to manage what’s highest priority, a view that shows me the few tasks I should focus on today, and overall, a system (the system being the software and my rules for using it) that I trust.

This is that system.

*Law & Order noise*

Project Management System of Choice: Asana

People often ask me which project management system they should use. I’ve used Asana, Trello, ClickUp, Monday, Jira, TargetProcess, and all kinds of other platforms. In the end, especially for one person, the actual platform doesn’t matter. I know people successfully using spreadsheets and Airtable to manage their work.

The best way to pick one is to pick one. Start, set some things up, see if you like it, note what doesn’t work, find dealbreakers, decide if you can live with the system or want to switch. When you’re one person, switching PM systems is easy. We don’t have to be as thorough as a team-based organization where migrating is tedious.

I used to change PM softwares every few months. I enjoyed the process of setting them up, would use them for a while, and then I’d get bored. (Hello, ADHD.) That approach didn’t work for me. I blamed the software I was using instead of my inconsistent use of it. Turns out, it was me all along.

After a couple of years of struggling and switching systems, I decided to build something sustainable. I evaluated several project management tools and ended up going with Asana. There’s a free version, and the small business plan is reasonable so if I needed to upgrade, I could.

How I Organize My Asana

I’ll reiterate that this system works for me. It’s not something others can 100% copy and be successful, but you might get some ideas for how to structure your own project management system (be it Asana for something else).

Projects

Every client is set up as a project in Asana. That’s pretty easy. Everything for that client lives within their project.

Each project gets the following columns by default:

Custom projects and clients that aren’t on my standard content plan get set up as close to the above as possible, with adjustments as needed. And if an existing client has a project that falls outside of our monthly scope, or might extend over several months, I sometimes create a column for that work.

I don’t spend a lot of time looking in the “Project” view for each client. I go in there to:

  1. Add new tasks
  2. Input monthly recurring work
  3. Clean up

Tasks Within Projects

Every client project has many, many tasks. Most times, I use Asana’s subtask feature to organize my tasks. For example, each blog post I do has an Asana task (I may refer to them as cards) that holds all of the individual subtasks related to that post.

Breaking down each task into smaller tasks helps me make sure I’m completing every step of my process and lets me focus on small chunks of work at any given time. The work often happens across about two weeks, so this system helps me feel confident that I’m not forgetting any small part of the process. These subtasks are included in the clients’ templates so I can copy/paste the template cards and be on my way.

The “parent” tasks in my Asana generally only hold basic information like hard due dates, links to reference documents, notes to self, etc. And then of course that card is tied to the client project.

Each subtask has much more information tied to it:

Let’s dig into each item a bit more.

Due Date

Everything I do in Asana, I do by due date. Every task I add has a due date, even if I’m guessing. The due date serves as the date I plan to work on the task, not when it’s actually due. If an article is due on the 15th of the month, my information gathering task will be planned for the first few days of the month. Later in this post, I’ll show how these due dates play a significant role in managing my work.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE:  My Client Philosophy

If there’s a task I’ll do often (like scheduling social media posts), I create a recurring task in Asana. When I complete the task, Asana automatically creates the same task based on my recurring work schedule (e.g., weekly).

Project/Client

When you add a subtask in Asana, it doesn’t automatically tie that subtask to the project/client of the parent task. Not sure why, but it doesn’t. So I go through each week and make sure all of my subtasks are assigned to the appropriate project. This is the point where they go in that first “Backlog” column in the project and why it gets so messy.

Time Estimate

I put time estimates on every task. This helps me make sure I’m planning my workload appropriately each week. I don’t want to plan 17 hours of stuff on a day where I’m working for 2 hours. It also helps me quantify my work productivity. I try not to focus too much on this metric, but sometimes I like to look. I estimate every task from .25 up to 3. If something is bigger than a 3, I break it down into smaller tasks. These estimates somewhat correlate to hours, but I more so use the scrum “pointing” system where it’s based on effort, not time.

Person Assigned

Work is assigned to me only if it’s coming up in this sprint (I run my work weeks Monday to Sunday, so those are my sprints). Otherwise, it’s unassigned.

Tags

Tags in Asana are nice for seeing more information about a task at a glance. I use the following tags:

My Asana Workflow

The most important part of a project management system is using it consistently. To do so, I have reminders to set aside time to update and organize my work. Here are the different touchpoints I use to keep things running:

In addition to these monthly and weekly checkpoints, I am constantly updating tasks in Asana. If I get an email about something to do, I follow James Clear’s advice from Atomic Habits: If it takes less than two minutes, do it. If it would take longer, I put it in Asana. How many times have we all had emails drop in our inbox and forget something? It still happens to me, but I try to prevent it best I can. And my inbox is not a reliable task management portal for me…I’ve learned that the hard way.

I don’t keep Asana on my phone—I don’t need work staring at me all the time. So if I think of a task I need to do while I’m away from my desk, I pop a note in my personal task management system, Todoist. Then the next time I’m at my desk, I can check Asana and add that task if it’s not already there. I used to email myself these reminders, but again, that was not successful.

Oftentimes after meetings, I’m wiped and need a break. I take copious notes during meetings, and as with most meetings, end up with tasks to do and notes to file away. If I have tasks that arise from a meeting, I either put them into Asana right away, or, if my brain isn’t up for it, I make myself a task to get my tasks into Asana. Yes, I know, that seems redundant, but otherwise I’d forget. It has been very helpful to take notes from each meeting and shortly after add tasks, put the appropriate information right in those tasks, and file information where I can find it later. Saves a lot of time for Future Megan.

Meetings

I want to be sure to account for meetings in my weekly plan. I don’t want to schedule 8 points of work on a day when I have 4 meetings. I’d be setting myself up to fail.

So meetings get added to Asana, and this process is also automated. I have a Zapier automation to add events from my work calendar to Asana, with a “Meeting” tag, the appropriate date, and assigned to me. This helps me a lot to see meeting-heavy days, and it means I get to check off a task after meetings! Meetings are also added to a client’s project and have an estimate tied to them (usually .5 or 1, depending on the length of the meeting).

Asana’s “My Tasks” View

I know a lot of people who are, let’s say, underwhelmed with Asana’s “My Task” view. I’m not impressed with it either, but I’ve made it work for me. This is where due dates and assigning tasks to myself comes into play.

Each week when I assign the upcoming week’s tasks to myself, they show up in my “My Tasks” view. So every Monday when I sit down to work, my “My Tasks” view holds my entire week. That can be overwhelming, so I divided the view up into sections.

I don’t actually use the “Today” category, but Asana makes me have it there. Same for the “Recently assigned” area; that’s an Asana default. But here’s how I do use these categories:

The little lightning bolts by Ready and Upcoming mean there are automations for those sections. Each day, the tasks in My Tasks move around magically. The automations are set to move anything with a due date of “tomorrow” to move into the Upcoming section, and any tasks with a due date of “today” to move into Ready. This automation further helps me focus on the top priority work on my list—I don’t have to go into “Later” each day to dig out work and get distracted by shiny things. My work moves for me.

This system of using the “My Tasks” view has worked really well for me. I know this view isn’t as great for larger teams, but I’ve made it work really well for my brain.

Clients and Asana

Asana has functionality where I could add clients into Asana and they could see work as I have it in there. However, I haven’t seen much benefit in doing this. I think it would just give clients an extra place to log in. I don’t “assign” work to clients in Asana—I use email or their in-house PM system to pass work back and forth, so I’ve decided to keep clients out of Asana.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE:  Tools I Use

But thanks to Asana, I can answer client questions like “Did you complete your contracted work?” and “When do you expect to have this ready?”

Since I work based on deliverables and not time, I provide each client with a monthly report of work completed. I use Asana to complete these reports. I can filter tasks by client, completed status, and completed date to outline exactly what was done each month. I send these reports to clients, but they’re mostly for me to make sure I’m fulfilling my contracts.

I can also give clients decently accurate estimates of when I plan to complete certain tasks. I can say, “I have that blog post on for next week.” Or if a new request comes in, I can choose whether to put it in this existing sprint or whether to tell the client that I’ll put it in next sprint. Again, my sprints run Monday to Sunday, and I’m open with clients about that.

I’m also open about my procrastination, and they’re very understanding. If there’s a hard deadline, I’ll get it done. If there’s not, I have to be kind to my brain and work on projects as I’m able. I can’t write for 8 hours per day…I learned that early in my career! This is a big reason I don’t want clients to see inside my Asana—the listed due dates flex. A lot.

I’m thankful that I have trusting clients with no desire to micromanage. I do my contracted work (and sometimes more) and provide a report to prove it each month. Clients are too busy with their roles that they like handing content marketing off to me, and they trust me to do it. That’s pretty awesome.

Keeping Work and Personal Separate

I know you can’t always keep your personal life out of work and vice versa. I believe you shouldn’t try to do that anyway—I like to know what’s going on in my clients’ lives, and I’m open about what’s going on in mine. It works.

But what I do keep separate is my task management. Work and personal tasks don’t cross streams.

Work stays in Asana.

Personal stuff lives in Todoist.

Sometimes, I put a work reminder in Todoist (often, it’s a reminder to put something into Asana). But I would never put a personal task in Asana. I’d miss it.

My personal Todoist would be a whole ‘nother novel-length blog post, so I won’t get into the details here, but let’s just say my whole life is in there. Everything from daily habits to monthly bills lives in Todoist. I have a Todoist widget on my phone’s second screen so I can see it constantly and can add tasks quickly.

Keeping the two separate helps me stay organized. I used to try to use one platform for both, and that fell apart quickly. Now, with the separation, I can look at my work list when I’m sitting down to work, and I can use my personal list the rest of the time. I’m not tempted to “do a quick work thing” when I’m looking at my personal list, and I can mostly put off personal tasks (bills, scheduling appointments, etc.) until I’m on a break from a work session.

I use similar frameworks for both—recurring tasks, breaking tasks down as small as possible, and tags—so they’re neighborly but not living together.

How I Get Work Done—ADHD Edition

I’ve walked through how I organize my work, which is great, but once that work is organized, how do I go about getting it done when my brain has trouble focusing?

The short answer: meds and Focusmate sessions.

The long answer: These systems I’ve talked about help me segment planning time and working time. I spend a few hours per month planning and organizing my work so I can make the most of the few hours my brain has each day to work. When I sit down at my desk, I know exactly what I should do and how much flexibility I have within that work. I only have that because I spend time making it so.

Virtual Assistant

I have used a virtual assistant (VA) in the past. Right now, the person I’ve worked with is on leave, so I’m doing the work myself. But having a VA help manage the Asana work, reporting, and some other admin has helped me focus on doing work instead of managing work.

When she’s working, my VA:

My VA also has marketing skills, so she can help me make banner images, write social posts, schedule social media content, and more. I don’t rely heavily on her for these tasks, but it’s nice to have the option.

A Day in the Life

Each week, I try to work 4-5 hour days, 6-7 days per week.

“You don’t take weekends off!?”

Nope. I like when my morning routine is the same each day. I can get more done in my 4-5 hours than most people can do in full days. I can work 9 a.m. to 1 or 2 p.m., with a few emails and such later in the day, and get everything done. I don’t need weekends because I have free time every day! After 2 most days, I can workout, walk the dog, read, nap, hike, bike, go to appointments, get massages—whatever I want. This approach works much better for me than 8-hour days 5 days per week.

I even took a part-time job at Barnes & Noble that started out seasonal but has become an ongoing gig. I work there a few shifts per week, which gets me out of the house, engages a different part of my brain, and sets me up with a sweet, sweet discount.

My schedule also helps me be kind to myself. Because of my mental illness, I have bad days. Some days, I sit down at my desk and just can’t. Can’t focus, can’t work, can’t write, can’t keep my eyes open. I’ve set up my schedule so it’s OK to walk away. On bad days like this, I still take my meds and try one Focusmate session. If that doesn’t jumpstart me, I can walk away and do whatever might help my brain—sleep, walk, read, talk to friends, watch TV. I can do this guilt free because I know I have the systems in place to get the work done—it’ll be there tomorrow.

I’m also strategic about meetings. I try to keep meetings on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and mostly in the afternoon. I have a few meetings that fall outside those boundaries, but I’ve made the choice to say yes to those. Clients have been flexible in moving recurring meetings to afternoon time slots so I can use my best brain time to complete their work.

Because I try to keep my work time short, I’m motivated to prioritize and focus on the right work. All of the things I talked about in this post are to help me make the most of the hours I work each day.

I know 8 hours became the standard work day long ago, early in the industrial revolution, but it just doesn’t work for me. I can’t focus after I hit my afternoon wall, and it’s fruitless to sit at my desk and force myself to try. I’m more successful optimizing my best times and leaving it at that.

And I know the world runs on weekdays and weekends, but that just doesn’t work for me. I like every day to look similar, especially my mornings. I feel more structured when I know every morning I’m going to do a Focusmate session at 9. My worst days are when my morning routine gets thrown off by an appointment, bad news, or a bat (long story). I don’t like flipping back and forth between weekday routines and weekend routines. I do still look forward to weekends, though, because it means no meetings and way fewer emails. But I’m honored to say I’ve built a career where I don’t live for weekends.

Keeping It All Afloat

All of the systems I have in place, both in work and my personal life, are to keep my life afloat and stay healthy. I’m very diligent about my routines and trying to keep the habits that I know work for me. I slip up, I falter, I fall, I get behind, I procrastinate (a lot), I have good days and bad. But managing my work this way has helped me build a good life where I can do work I enjoy, make a stable (for a freelancer) income, and have enough downtime to keep myself (mostly) sane.