If you work with various clients and wear many different hats it helps having a tool where you can manage all your processes, tasks and deadlines. In today’s blog I’m going to share how I manage my business with Asana, it really is a god send.
When you’re really busy it can be so easy to miss or forget something. This is not good as it will not only upset your client it could ultimately end up damaging your business. Virtual Assistants are hired for their organisational skills so having the right tools for the job and being organised is very important.
I started using Asana when I first set up my business as i knew I needed somewhere to keep track of everything i was doing.
Asana is structured into Teams > Projects > Tasks (including sections) > subtasks.
You can create as many teams and projects as you want but it’s always advisable at the start to sit down and work out how you’re going to plan everything out. My Kellie Simpson Virtual Assistant workspace is always evolving and changing but is currently set out as follows:
(TEAM) EXECUTIVE
Projects:
- Business Plan (the foundations of my business)
- Operations (sets out the processes for my business / how to’s)
- 2021 Goals
- 2021 Lead Tracker and Clients
(TEAM) MARKETING
Projects:
- Content (this is a brain dumping project) and where i keep my hash tag bundles.
- Kellie Planner (this is my main project and the core to all my business activities and the main project I’m going to talk more about in this blog).
(TEAM) CLIENT
Projects:
- I have separate projects for my busiest clients
(TEAM) PERSONAL
Projects:
- Meal Planner
- House Renovation
- New House Vision Board
- Birthdays
I think the key to Asana is NOT having too many projects as it can get overwhelming.
KELLIE PLANNER
The project I work from the most is my Kellie Planner. This is a birds eye view of my business for the next 2 weeks and the place I go to every morning to see what’s coming up.
This project is set out as follows using Sections to keep each heading separate:
- Tasks to Action
I list all current tasks under here that need actioning. Any client related tasks are tagged with the client name (purple tag) and also linked to the relevant client project.
I like having the client task linked between my Kellie Planner (for upcoming tasks in next 5 days) and the client project (for a overview of client tasks currently ongoing).
- Recurring Tasks
I’ve found it really useful having all my recurring tasks listed in one place that need doing on a regular basis. As above, any recurring client tasks are linked between my planner and the client project. Having them in 2 places also means there is no way of missing anything.
- Calls/Meetings/Webinars
As a virtual assistant I work with a number of different clients. This means I have a number of different inboxes and calendars. I am often invited to meetings using my kellie@clientname.co.uk email address and I was finding that I was really conscious of missing appointments as they were not in my main calendar, they were going into various different client calendars.
I decided to have a section for calls and webinars so that every time a client call was set up or I was attending an event or webinar i would also put them under here (with a blue tag). Yes, it is a little bit of duplication as they are already in my other calendars but having them ALL under here means having them ALL in one place.
I like using the calendar view in Asana so that I can look at my week ahead and know what calls/meetings I have coming up for the week. The tag feature works great for this.
- Membership
I’m in two memberships now and there are often masterminds, Q&A calls, coaching calls and other ‘events’ that I need to keep an eye on. Yes they go in my calendar but I also like to have them in here too.
- Leads/Enquiries to contact
I do have a 2021 leads and clients project under my executive team which I look at every now and then. If i’ve not heard from a lead or enquiry after the first contact I’ll usually set a reminder to follow up in 6 weeks and it’s at this point I link the task through to my kellie planner so it’s visible and I know i need to follow up soon.
- Blog/Newsletter (for the current quarter)
This section is always set out per quarter. I blog twice a month so will always start with 6 tasks (APR A, APR B, MAY A, MAY B, JUN A, JUN B) and so on. Each task will have the blog title on it and I usually base my newsletter around this blog too.
Having this on my planner helps to remind me when my next blog is due and what content I need to write around that blog.
- Templates
I’ve got a few tasks here with templates. E.g. BLOG – this has all the subtasks that come with writing a blog:
Working with Associates
I’ve recently hired associates to help me with the volume of work. One associate in particular has been helping me with my busiest client. I shared the client project with her so that we both had an overview of what was happening in the business. I can assign tasks to her and we can both comment on the task too which saves on emails. Without this collaboration via Asana we wouldn’t know where we were on each task.
I’ve found having a central project where all the other projects feed into works really well. Yes you can view your upcoming tasks on the home page but having them ALL on one project is really effective and really helps me to run my business efficiently.
What tool or system do you use to manage your business?
