8 Ways Small Business Owners Can Use Asana to Boost Productivity
The first post I wrote about all the wonderful features of Asana was published in 2020. As you can imagine, a lot has changed since then. So I’m refreshing the original post, which you can read here.
What’s changed since then?
I’ve set up Asana for about 10 businesses, all high multi-six and seven-figure creative online businesses. (BTW — that number stays small because I work with people long-term.) While each one has unique needs, I’ve learned they all rely on the same core Asana projects for small business operations: a team resource hub, an SOP library, requests and intake, recurring operations, a content calendar, current projects, a launch and event template, and team meetings.
Here’s that core framework, ready for you to modify for your own business. Keep reading to see 8 ways, updated for 2026, you can use Asana to boost productivity.
Why Your Small Business Needs a Project Management Tool (Not Just a Planner)
Your business needs a project management tool. It doesn’t matter which one (except Trello. Just kidding…kind of). Asana, ClickUp, Monday, whatever works for your brain. But you have to have one.
You can’t plan a launch three months out, delegate every step with specific due dates, and hold it all in your head. No one can. Inevitably, and despite your best efforts, something will get missed.
Instead, a project management tool keeps it all organized in one place, ensuring the ball doesn’t get dropped, even when you’re out of the office.
It also makes team management infinitely easier. Who’s doing what, and when, is three clicks away, and when someone’s late, you follow up on a real due date.
I truly believe you cannot run a stable, healthy, seven-figure business without a project management system. Full stop. Not if you want ease and flexibility in your day-to-day, and not if you want to keep your sanity.
It’s a simple rule, but it’s the glue for your business.
How Asana Can Help You Boost Productivity
Besides keeping every thought, project, and task from living rent-free in your head, here’s how Asana can make you and your team more productive.
#1: Team Resource Hub
This is your home base for everything your team references over and over:
- Brand assets, headshots, branding photos, and your bio
- Mission and values
- Copywriting and messaging guides
- Your ideal client avatar (ICA) guide
- Templates, key links, and a platform list
- Team members, their roles, and key responsibilities
One big update from the original post I mentioned in the intro: Don’t store passwords in Asana. I recommend LastPass for safely storing and sharing passwords with your team, or Chrome’s free built-in password manager.
#2: SOP Library
Setting up SOPs looks a lot different than it did in 2020. Now, I add a custom field labeled “SOP” to your team’s assigned tasks and put the SOP link right in it.
When a team member opens a task due today, they don’t just see their name and a due date. They see the SOP, plus any templates they need, right on the task. Loom, Google Docs, and Tango all link into a custom field, so store your SOPs wherever you like.
Psst…need help writing them? Start with my guide to business standard operating procedures.
The SOP library projects I create for my teams hold two recurring weekly tasks for each person:
- Create a new SOP for a task on your list this week
- Update one SOP you’ve already created
Each person picks which SOPs to tackle based on what’s on their plate, so your library stays fresh. Because as you know, a lot can change in even just six months. If the habit slips, you have a place to assign specific SOPs manually (though your team, in theory, should be doing this proactively).
#3: Requests and Intake
This replaces the old “one-off tasks” project many teams are used to having. Its job is to catch every request before it gets lost in Slack or DMs.
Asana has native forms and rules for this, but honestly, I’d skip them. Forms are restrictive without upgrading your plan, and they’re not very flexible. If you use Claude in your business, Claude’s Asana connector works better.
With it, you can:
- Tag Claude in Slack when a team member requests something, and have it create the task
- Ask Claude to turn meeting notes, emails, or messages into tasks in your requests project
It’s a pretty seamless process, and one worth taking advantage of if you’re already familiar with or using Claude for other things.
#4: Recurring Operations
Don’t skip this. The daily, weekly, and monthly tasks that run like clockwork are what keep the business moving.
This includes (but of course, isn’t limited to, and is definitely dependent on your business):
- Invoicing
- Performance metrics (ads, content, sales, etc.)
- Payroll prep
- Inbox cleanup
- Scrubbing your email list
- Annual planning
Set them up as recurring tasks with assignees and due dates, and you’ll pretty much never have to worry about it again.
#5: Content Calendar
Content calendars can be set up in so many ways, not just in Asana. However, I’ve learned that with most people who run seven-figure-plus businesses, who have multiple team members involved in the content production process, Asana is the most seamless way to do it.
And that calendar really should be two calendars:
- Editorial calendar: Custom fields for each platform, and status to show what each piece of content is, where it’s published, and when. The calendar view makes dates easy to scan.
- Content production: A content template that auto-generates subtasks for every piece (drafting, editing, graphics, scheduling), each with an owner. For example, you have November Week 1 content, then the subtasks for the copy, the design, podcast editing, any accompanying content that goes with it (like the show notes), etc.
#6: Current Projects
For my clients, we keep a “Current Projects” area outlining each upcoming 90-day project. These can be internal maintenance or bigger-picture work, like:
- Setting up your Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale (emails, social posts, and the sale itself)
- Migrating your sales pages from WordPress to Kajabi
- Planning next year’s live event (room block, swag, promo emails)
This work runs in the background every day, and its action items need a home. Because that home is what will keep you from dropping the ball on important projects like this.
#7: Launch and Live Event Template
A launch or live event has dozens of moving pieces. Sales page updates, email sequences, social posts, registration, and follow-up. Instead of rebuilding that list every time, I create one template project that holds every task, who owns it, and when it’s due relative to the launch or event date.
For example, “draft sales emails” might be due 21 days before the actual cart open period.
When it’s time to launch, you create a new project from the template in Asana, enter the new launch date, and every due date recalculates automatically. Your team sees their assignments right away, and nothing gets forgotten because it already lives in the template.
After each launch, update the template with anything you’d add or cut, so the next one runs even smoother.
#8: Team Meetings and 1:1s
Create one project for each meeting, like your weekly team meeting and each 1:1. That project holds a running agenda. Throughout the week, your team can add topics, questions, and updates as they come up, instead of keeping them in their heads or burying them in a Slack thread.
When the meeting starts, everyone is already looking at the same list. Notes and decisions go in the task comments, and any action items become their own tasks with an owner and a due date. Because the task recurs, next week’s meeting gets a fresh agenda, and last week’s notes stay easy to find.
Need more tips to run team meetings you won’t dread? I’ve got you covered here.
The 2026 Asana Features Worth Using (and What to Skip)
Honestly, the best Asana feature isn’t an Asana feature at all. It’s the Claude connector. It can build projects from your templates and assign due dates for you, which removes a lot of the admin side of project management. (But you still have to build your system and document your processes first 😉)
Two more essentials:
- Teams in Asana (not to be confused with your team members!) to separate the core areas of your business: team hub, operations, marketing, current projects, and so on.
- An assignee and a due date on every single task. I know it seems basic, but even CEOs running seven-figure businesses skip them. Is it a 2026 feature? No. Should you be doing it? Absolutely. Consider this your reminder *hint hint*
What to skip for now: Goals, Portfolios, and many of the optional extras. Focus on the essentials first. That’s where the biggest impact is.
Should You Set This Up Yourself or Hire Help?
You can absolutely DIY this. Start with your resource hub and recurring operations, then build out. Creating projects is the easy part.
Building templates that save time, connecting SOPs to tasks, and getting your team to actually use the system? That’s where most businesses stall. And it’s where an Asana expert online business manager comes in, turning a pile of projects into real business systems for creative entrepreneurs.
If you’d rather skip the trial and error, I’d love to help. I build Asana systems for creative business owners that their teams actually use. Learn more about working with me, and let’s get your backend organized.