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May 15, 2025 17 mins

Episode #135: How to Turn Your Asana Project Management System onto Autopilot

You’ve got your Asana projects set up. Tasks are organized. Deadlines are in place.

But now it’s time for the fun part — making it run itself.

This is Part 3 of our Automated Systems That Scale mini-series, where I walk you through the real tools and workflows I recommend to take work off your plate — not add more to it.

In this episode of Tech Savvy 101: AI & Automation Made Simple, we’re diving into the next level of Asana: multi-trigger rules, cross-project workflows, and automations that handle the busywork behind the scenes.


✨ NOTE: This episode is part of the Automated Systems That Scale mini-series, where we're exploring how the right project management system can transform your business from manual and chaotic to automated and streamlined. Throughout this series, I'll show you exactly how to leverage Asana's powerful automation and AI capabilities to create systems that run your business for you.


IN THIS EPISODE, I COVER:

➔ How to use multi-trigger and multi-action rules to automate complex workflows
➔ How to trigger automation using custom fields (perfect for client tracking and content workflows)
➔ How to streamline your cross-project operations, assign work based on capacity, and automate client updates


RESOURCES:

📌 Make (for no-code Asana API automation)
📌 Asana – Free and paid plans available
📌 Join the AI Evergreen Content Machine Waitlist
📌 Done-For-You Custom GPT Builds


RELATED EPISODES OF TECH SAVVY 101:

🎙️ Episode #133: How to Automate 24 Hours of Work Each Week Using Asana
🎙️ Episode #134: Setting Up Asana for Small Business: Automation Rules That Save Time

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS:

01:10 – Exploring Multi-Trigger Rules
04:23 – Multi-Action Rules for Streamlined Processes
06:08 – Custom Fields as Automation Triggers
07:46 – Leveraging Developer Tools and APIs
09:32 – Cross-Project Workflows for Seamless Operations
12:14 – AI-Powered Resource Management
14:08 – Automating Client Communications
16:02 – Conclusion and Next Steps

📲 Send us a text! Let us know what AI + Automation Topics you want to learn about next!

LET'S CONNECT

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Sarah Baker (00:01):
Hey there.

Welcome back to Tech Savvy 101: AI Automation Made Simple. (00:02):
undefined
I'm your host, Sarah Baker, yourtech savvy bestie, who's here to
help you simplify your business,embrace automation, and save
hours every week.
Today, I'm excited to bring youour third episode in the
Automated Systems That Scaleminiseries, where we are

(00:23):
exploring how the right projectmanagement system can transform
your business from manual andchaotic to automated and
streamlined.
If you haven't checked out thefirst two episodes, I recommend
starting there to get thefoundation in place.
I'll link them in the shownotes.
In today's episode, we're takingthings to the next level with

(00:44):
advanced automation strategiesin Asana.
I'll show you how to createsophisticated workflows that can
truly run your business onautopilot.
By the end of this episode,you'll understand how to
implement cross projectautomations, leverage external
integrations, and build completesystems that will save you hours

(01:06):
every week.
Let's dive in.
In our last episode, we set upsome basic rules in Asana.
Today we're gonna take it to thenext level and explore the full
power of what rules can dowithout having to write a single
line of code.
According to Asana's Anatomy ofWork index, teams that

(01:29):
effectively use automation toolsreport 27% higher on time
completion rates, and 30% lesstime spent on manual
coordination.
That is the power ofsophisticated rules.
So let's explore three advancedrule configurations that can

(01:49):
transform your workflow withreal world examples that you can
start implementing today.
First, we're gonna talk aboutmulti trigger rules and how you
combine those conditions withand slash or logic.
Stick with me.
I know that that was a mouthful.

(02:09):
So here's an example.
Let's say you're a digitalmarketing agency.
Here's how you could use this Inyour design approval process,
you would set up a rule wherewhen a task is ready to be moved
from the"ready for review"section, and the task has at
least one attachment, and thecustom field called"design

(02:34):
version" is marked as final,Then Asana automatically
notifies the creative directorand changes the status to
"awaiting approval." So that isthe logic component.
It has to meet all of thoseconditions.
It has to be ready for review,it has to have an attachment,
and it has to have that customfield called"design version"

(02:58):
marked as final.
If it doesn't meet all of thosecriteria, then the logic won't
allow Asana to notify thecreative director and change the
status to"awaiting approval." Sothis multi trigger rule solves a
huge bottleneck becausepreviously designers were
marking their work as"ready forreview" before they had attached

(03:21):
the final files, causing thecreative director to waste a ton
of time checking for incompletework, and then having to message
those designers and go back andsay,"where's the work?
I don't see it." And that wascausing a lot of that back and
forth, back and forth, wastingtime.
Now the approval notificationonly gets triggered when all the

(03:43):
conditions are met.
That alone could save thecreative director about five
hours per week of unnecessaryback and forth.
No more Slack messages, no moregoing in to check the status of
projects.
Easy breezy.
So if you wanna set up thisrule, you would go into the
rules section of your projectsettings.

(04:03):
You would click on add rule, andthen you would select when all
of these things happen for theand logic or when all of these
things happen for, OR logic, andthen you would add your
conditions.
The next rule configuration ismulti action rules that trigger

(04:29):
multiple actions at once.
This is one of my favorites.
Let me give you an example.
Let's say you're a weddingplanner.
You could use this to streamlineyour client communication.
Let's say you mark a vendorbooking task as complete, like
booking the photographer.

(04:50):
Then as soon as you've markedthat complete, your rule will
automatically do things likemove the task to the confirmed
vendor section, create a newtask for the final payment
schedule, add a note to thebooking details in your client
communications log, and send anemail to both the client and the

(05:11):
vendor confirming the booking.
So in this case, that singleautomation replaces what used to
be a 15 minute process that youmight repeat dozens of times per
week.
Every time you book one vendorit triggers needing to have
multiple actions taken, but nowall you have to do is click a

(05:35):
box, meaning that you've markeda booking task as complete, and
it automatically triggers all ofthe subsequent tasks that need
to be completed once that firsttask is completed.
So if you want to create multiaction rules that trigger
multiple actions, you would whenyou set up your rule, simply

(05:58):
keep the keep clicking, addanother action to chain multiple
consequences together.
The last one is custom fields astriggers.
This is really a powerfulautomation option.
Here's an example of how thiswould work in this case.

(06:19):
Let's say you are a softwaredevelopment team.
You could easily use this forsomething like bug
prioritization.
You would set up a rule wherewhen the bug severity custom
field that you have created ischanged to critical as its
status, Asana wouldautomatically add the task to

(06:42):
the"emergency fixes" project,and also assign it to the lead
developer, change the due dateto today, and send a
notification to the entireengineering team via Slack.
So this would be helpful in thissituation where it would not let
a critical bug fix situnaddressed, even if it's

(07:04):
discovered after hours.
This automation would help youto reduce your critical bug
response time significantly.
So if you wanna set up a customfield trigger, you would create
your rule and then select when acustom field changes as your
trigger and then specify whichfield and which value should

(07:27):
activate the rule.
According to a study byMcKinsey, organizations that use
advanced automation featureslike these save an average of 11
and a half hours per employeeper week.
So that's more than a quarter ofa typical work week that you're
reclaiming.
For those who wanna takeautomation even further, asana

(07:50):
also offers powerful developertools that you can use to enable
custom integrations.
According to a report by IDC,businesses that leverage APIs to
connect all of their toolstogether, see a 28% increase in
operational efficiency comparedto those using standalone

(08:12):
applications.
So I'm not gonna get into thenitty gritty and the technical
details of API implementation inthis episode, but I just wanna
highlight some of thepossibilities.
One of them is customnotifications.
You can use Asana's Webhook APIto send task updates to Slack,
Microsoft teams, or even customtext medications.

(08:36):
You can also do advancedreporting.
This lets you pull data into acustom dashboard or a reporting
tool for more sophisticatedanalysis.
Even then, Asana's built inreports provide or custom
automation logic for workflowswith really complex decision
trees.
You could use the API toimplement business logic that

(08:59):
goes even beyond what rules cando.
So if you're not technical,don't worry.
The API options are somethingyou can implement with the help
of either a developer or usingsome of the no code tools like
Make, which offers visualinterfaces for working with
APIs.
I personally find Make a littleeasier to use than Zapier, and

(09:23):
I'm gonna include links to thisresource in the show notes to
help you explore more about howto set up this integration.
One of the most powerful aspectsof Asana automation is the
ability to create workflows thatspan multiple projects.
This is where you're reallygonna start to see entire

(09:45):
business processes runningautomatically.
A study by Gallup found thatbusinesses with connected
processes across departmentsreport 22% higher profitability
than those with siloedoperations.
Let me describe three gamechanging cross project workflows
that you could set up today.

(10:07):
First is your client journeyautomation.
Imagine this when a task movesto the"client signed" stage of
your sales pipeline, projectAsana could automatically create
a new task in your clientonboarding project and copy all
the relevant client details.

(10:29):
This alone is gonna create aseamless handoff from the sales
to the operations without anymanual coordination.
Even more powerful, if you're asolopreneur, it helps you ditch
the endless piles of to-do listsand post-it notes that are
probably cluttering your deskand keeps everything in one

(10:50):
central hub, always up to dateand available at your fingertips
and allows you to move thatnever ending to-do list out of
your head and into somewherethat you can access at a
moment's notice.
Next is the content promotionworkflow.
When a task is moved topublished in your content

(11:13):
calendar project, Asana canautomatically create promotion
tasks in both your social mediaproject and your email marketing
project.
This is gonna ensure that everypiece of content you create gets
proper promotion across allchannels without falling through
the cracks.

(11:33):
No more realizing, oh shoot, Iforgot to send an email
newsletter this week.
Third is project dependencies.
So when the last task of ProjectA is completed, Asana can
automatically trigger the startof project B.
This is really perfect forsequential processes like

(11:54):
product launches or clientprojects that have very distinct
phases.
According to Project ManagementInstitute, organizations with
automated cross-functionalworkflows complete 27% more
projects on time, and 22% moreprojects within budget.

(12:14):
Asana's AI capabilities go waybeyond just task suggestions.
So let me explain how toleverage them for smarter
resource management.
First off, you can balanceworkload with AI.
Asana's workload view uses AI toanalyze each member of your

(12:35):
team's capacity and makessuggestions for rebalancing
work.
Because you're assigning tasksto each person, the AI is going
to give you notifications if itsees that there's a significant
amount more work assigned to onemember of your team.
To find this, you're gonna go tothe workload tab at the top of

(12:56):
your project, and you'll seecolor coded indicators showing
who's overloaded and who hascapacity to take on more tasks.
This is gonna help preventburnout and ensure that
deadlines are actuallyrealistic.
According to a study by Deloitteteams that are using AI for
resource allocation report 35%fewer missed deadlines and 28%

(13:19):
higher team satisfaction.
Next is deadline predictions.
Asana's AI can analyze yourteam's past performance to
suggest realistic deadlines fornew tasks.
So when you're creating a task,look for the smart date
suggestions that appear belowthe due date field.
And finally, there's also AIpowered task suggestions.

(13:43):
So the more you work in Asana,the AI will actually start to
identify gaps in your projectsand suggest tasks that you may
have forgotten.
So for example, if you arealways creating a social media
announcement after publishing ablog post, Asana might actually
suggest this task if you forgotto add it.

(14:03):
So you'll see those suggestionsappear as you're working on your
projects.
Client communication is also oneof the most time consuming
aspects of running a servicebusiness.
Automating it can save hourswhile actually improving your
client's experience whileworking with you.
According to a study by PwC, 82%of clients value automated

(14:28):
status updates and appreciatethe transparency that they
provide.
This is a really easy way tolook like a total rock star in
the eyes of your clients.
And here's how you're gonna setup automated client
communications.
First milestone notifications.
You can set up a rule where whena task that you've tagged as

(14:50):
"milestone" is completed, Asanawill automatically trigger an
email to your client with aprogress update.
To do this, you'll create a rulewith a trigger.
That's when task is completed,and a condition that checks for
the"milestone" tag.
Then you're just gonna use anemail action or a Make or a

(15:11):
Zapier integration to send thatupdate to your client.
Next is approval requestworkflows.
When a task moves to the"needsapproval" section, Asana can
automatically send the client anemail with the deliverable and a
link for them to providefeedback.
This streamlines the reviewprocess and prevents approval

(15:34):
bottlenecks.
Third is automatic follow ups.
You can set another rule wherewhen a task has been waiting for
client input for x number ofdays.
Maybe you set it for two days orthree days.
Asana will automatically send agentle reminder email.
This ensures projects keepmoving forward without you

(15:58):
having to manually chase downyour clients.
And there you have it.
We have covered a lot ofadvanced automation strategies
in this episode.
From sophisticated rules andcross project workflows, to
integrations with your entiretech stack.
These automations can trulytransform how your business

(16:18):
operates and save you somesignificant time in the process.
That's not just aboutefficiency, it's also about
creating space for the highvalue creative work that only
you can do.
In our final episode of thismini series, we'll explore how
to integrate AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude within your Asana

(16:42):
workflows, creating an even morepowerful business ecosystem.
We'll also look at measuring andoptimizing your automation ROI
to ensure you're getting themaximum benefit from these
systems.
If you're finding value in thisseries, I'd love it if you could
subscribe and leave a review.
It helps other tech curiousentrepreneurs find the show.

(17:04):
For detailed instructions onimplementing any of the
automations we discussed todaymake sure to check out the
resources I've linked for you inthe show notes.
Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode of Tech Savvy
101.
I'll see you really soon.
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