Asana Training for SAIS Staff | June 2025

Goal: Enable staff to use Asana confidently for task/project and workflow management.

1. Introduction to Asana (5 min)

  • Asana and Monday.com are very similar, so learning Asana will be easier than you think.
  • Asana Overview YouTube video (3 min)
  • Benefits for association work: collaboration, transparency, deadlines

2. Asana Structure & Basic Terminology (15 min)

Monday.com TerminologyAsana Equivalent
BoardProject
Items (in a board)Tasks (in a project)
SubitemSubtask
Columns (custom columns)Custom Fields (e.g., date, text, single-select, multi-select, number)
Assigned toAssignee (task owner)
Group (to group like items)Section (to group like tasks)
Folder (to organize boards)Portfolio (to organize projects)

The following Asana video (2 min) gives an overview of information hierarchy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-W98BI0zQ0

Compelling difference between Asana & Monday that reduces duplicates:

  • a task can live in multiple projects
  • a project can live in multiple portfolios
  • a project can be connected to multiple goals

3. Navigating Asana (2 min)

4. Reviewing Daily Tasks / Planning your Day (2 min)

Visit Asana’s Help Center for additional information.

Asana desktop apps for download (link to article, desktop vs. browser version)