Hey Asana enthusiasts! Asana April 2024 Update is here. This April 2024 update brings a wave of helpful features designed to streamline your workflow and boost your team’s productivity. Get ready to write smarter status updates with AI assistance, duplicate project sections with ease, and leverage new integrations with Google Docs. Let’s dive into the details and see how Asana can take your project management to the next level!

• Smart Status Update

Asana’s Smart Status Updates is a recent innovation that elevates artificial intelligence to transform status updates from a chore into a breeze. This exciting feature analyzes your goals and project data, including tasks, deadlines,  and custom fields. It then crafts a draft update that highlights completed milestones, identifies potential roadblocks, and even suggests the next steps.

Project managers can leverage the draft as a springboard, while team members gain a clear view of project health and goals progress. Executives, meanwhile, receive data-driven insights without wading through details

• Duplicate Sections of tasks in projects

Asana’s April 2024 update brings a game-changer for project managers, team leaders, and anyone who juggles multiple tasks. You can duplicate entire sections within your projects, including all the tasks they hold. This eliminates the tedious process of rebuilding similar workflows from scratch.

Need a new project with the same “Development,” “Testing,” and “Deployment” phases you used before? Simply duplicate the section! Project leads can ensure consistent team processes by replicating pre-defined task sections across projects. Content Creators can breeze through similar projects by duplicating research or editing checklists.

• “Today” input in formula custom fields

Asana introduces a new feature which is to use the “Today” function within formula custom fields. This might seem like minor details, but it unlocks a powerful way to streamline your workflows and boost efficiency. This feature automatically calculates how long a task has been open, how much time remains until a deadline, or generates reports that reflect the current project status. Project managers can gain real-time insights, team leads can track performance with ease, and everyone can prioritize tasks effectively. The “Today” feature empowers users across all roles to work smarter and achieve more!

• Smart Summaries in Slack

Great news for Asana and Slack users! The latest Asana update brings AI-powered “Smart Summaries” directly into your Slack workspace. This exciting feature helps you stay on top of tasks without ever leaving Slack.

This feature gives you concise summaries with key details and action items for your Asana tasks, popping up right in your relevant Slack channels. No more switching between apps or missing crucial information. Smart Summaries boost team visibility, streamline communication, and empower everyone to contribute effectively. It’s a win-win for project managers, team leads, and individual contributors alike.

• Google Smart Chips for Portfolio

Are you an Asana users who leverage Google Docs? We have exciting news for you! The April 2024 update brings Google Smart Chips for Portfolios. You can now seamlessly connect your Asana portfolios directly to your Google Docs. Simply use the @ symbol and mention your portfolio by name.

This integration streamlines your workflow by providing a live view of key portfolio data, like progress updates and milestones, right within your Google Doc. No more switching between apps! Smart Chips improves collaboration by ensuring everyone has access to the latest information and fostering transparency with real-time data updates. So, project managers can share updates with ease, team leads can provide insights within collaborative documents, and executives can gain quick access to portfolio health directly in Google Docs.

• ID Custom Fields in bundles and templates

This feature brings increased organization and efficiency with ID custom fields in Bundles and Project Templates. Imagine unique task identifiers like order numbers or project codes automatically populating when you create tasks from templates. This means less time spent typing IDs and fewer errors –  a win for everyone! Project managers can establish consistent ID formats across projects, while team members benefit from clear task categorization and reduced manual data entry.

• Rule Builder Limit Increase

Asana’s April update brings a welcome improvement for automation lovers: increase rule builder limits. This means you can create a more complex and powerful workflow, saving you time and effort. With this, you can automatically assign tasks based on priority or send reminders for deadlines – all without lifting a finger.

The update increases the limits on three key areas: branches, actions, and components. This translates to more intricate logic with condition paths, the ability to chain multiple actions together, and the freedom to build more elaborate rules.  Whether you are a project manager, content creator, or part of the sales team, this update empowers you to automate repetitive tasks and focus on what matters most.

• Group by due dates and projects in the list view

With this new feature, you now group tasks in your project list view by booth due dates and projects. This means no more jumping around to see what’s due when and for which project. It will help you see all your upcoming deadlines laid out, with tasks for each project neatly grouped underneath. This makes prioritizing tasks a breeze if you’re a project manager overseeing multiple initiatives.

Project managers can see the health of each project at a glance, while team members can focus on the tasks that matter most without getting overwhelmed. Ultimately, this update helps everyone stay on top of their deadlines, leading to a more productive and collaborative work experience.

• Automatic Guest Removal

Asana’s latest update introduces automatic guest removal where active collaborators can be automatically removed from projects after a period of no activity. No more wading through lengthy member lists – you’ll have a clear picture of who’s actively working on what.  This benefits everyone: project managers save time by not having to manually remove guests, team members can easily see who to collaborate with, and admins enjoy streamlined project administration. Automatic guest removal fosters a more organized and collaborative workspace, keeping your projects on track!

• Bundles dashboard search and sort

Asana’s April 2024 update brings a much-requested improvement to the Bundles dashboard – search and sort functionality. This means you can finally ditch the days of endlessly scrolling through a long list of bundles. Now, you can easily find the specific bundle you need using a search bar, whether it’s by name, project within the bundle, or any other relevant keywords.  Additionally, you can sort your bundles based on different criteria like due dates, creation dates, or even custom fields (if you’ve created them for your bundles). This powerful combination of search and sort will save you time and keep your bundle dashboard organized, making it easier than ever to find and manage the information you need.

• Capacity plan allocation duplication

Duplicating projects with capacity planning is now even easier. Previously, copying a project meant recreating the workload assignments for each team member, which could be a chore. But fear not! Now, when you duplicate a project, Asana automatically carries over the capacity plan allocations for everyone involved. This saves you time, ensures consistency across projects, and minimizes errors from manual re-entry. This is particularly helpful for project managers who use templates, teams with recurring projects, and large organizations managing workload across departments. So, say goodbye to tedious workload assignments and hello to smoother project duplication in Asana!