We wrote last week about Fetchnotes, a new reminder service. Today a slightly different take on task management can be found from Asana, and while not new it is now free. It might take you two minutes to get started, it is that simple.
The idea is to have a common repository for your tasks but to make it easy, so easy that people won’t mind firing up their browsers and entering information to track what they need to do. If you are the type that likes to go into a meeting with a pre-set agenda, then this is for you. You can assemble simple to-do lists to more complex group project lists, and have up to 30 team members in the same workspace. And did I mention that it is free?
(click to enlarge to see a sample screen)
The service has been in beta for a year and gotten some advocates, especially from small businesses that run distributed work teams across the globe. Says Brian Frezza, CEO of research company Emerald Therapeutics, “I can’t express enough how huge the shift to Asana was personally for myself and my co-founder in particular. We found ourselves becoming full time managers as the team scaled from 3-4 people to 10+, and Asana allowed us to eliminate the endless meetings. I’d estimate conservatively that our management time has dropped down to about 25% of our expenditure thanks to Asana.”
My one beef with Asana is that the reminders can’t be customized, like Outlook’s tasks: they come via email in pre-set intervals. But otherwise, if you are looking for a way to focus your team and streamline your meetings, take a closer look.
