I never in a million years thought I would leave Trello for Asana… but I did!! 🤯
For 5+ years, Trello was my right-hand when it came to organizing, planning, and keeping track of all the moving (and non-moving) parts of my business.
I used it. I loved it. I recommended it. I said I would never leave it.
But little by little, things about Trello REALLY started to annoy me. Like having to add a power-up every time I wanted access to a calendar on a different board. 🙄
It was actually Louise Henry and her course (Uplevel with Asana) that finally made me see HOW MUCH BETTER my life and business could be if I switched from Trello to Asana!!
I devoured her course in a couple of days and then spent several weeks moving over ALL of the systems I’d spent YEARS creating in Trello… and making them 100x better in Asana!!
I now manage, maintain, and run my ENTIRE business from my Asana dashboard!! (It practically acts like my virtual, personal assistant!! 🤩)
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TRELLO VS. ASANA: WHY I FINALLY SWITCHED FROM TRELLO TO ASANA
All of the years I was using Trello, I thought everything was fine, just fine.
My business was organized. I knew what my goals were and what I had to work on each day. I could manage and keep track of all the moving (and non-moving) parts of my business as a one-woman show.
Little did I know, there was a better way.
I’ve been using Asana for more than 3 years now and it is literally a night and day difference. Everything in Asana is rainbows and unicorns, literally!! 😉
WHEN I SWITCHED FROM TRELLO TO ASANA, I DISCOVERED:
1. How EASY it was to create recurring tasks and events. In Trello, you have to add a power-up or use Butler and I did NOT like it. Something so simple was FAR too complicated in Trello. But with ONE CLICK of a button, you can make ANY task or event in Asana recurring with loads of options for how often. (Some of my Fresh Start Systems are set up as recurring events and I LOVE how streamlined it is!!)
2. How INCREDIBLE it was to assign due dates to subtasks. You can’t do this in Trello unless you pay for Trello Premium. But in Asana, you can assign due dates to ALL of your tasks AND subtasks on the FREE plan!! (I like to think of the due dates on subtasks as “DO” dates aka the day I actually DO the work to complete the subtask and the DUE date of the original task as the due date overall.)
Read More: My Favorite Planning Hack: Using DUE Dates and DO Dates in Asana
3. How WONDERFUL it was to move between list, board, and calendar view (no power-ups or upgrades required). Most of the time, I love the board view that I was used to in Trello, but sometimes my brain wants to see things in a list, and other times, I want to see everything laid out in calendar view. Being able to move from one view to the other without having to upgrade or install a power-up is truly a wonderful thing. (You can also save the view you like best on a project-by-project basis and change it whenever you want to!!)
4. How DELIGHTFUL it was to have rainbows and little unicorns, phoenixes, and narwhales (oh my!!) shoot across my screen whenever I completed a task. There is nothing like surprising and delighting your users and this just makes doing the work and checking the tasks off as done… more FUN!! It’s like Asana is applauding me for all the work I’m doing!! As a words of affirmation girl, I LOVE that!!
5. How HELPFUL it was to have completed tasks fade out. In Trello, you either have to archive completed tasks or move them to a completed section on each board. In Asana, completed tasks stay visible, but fade out, which makes the tasks you still have to do really stand out. My very visual brain absolutely loves this!! (I also love that you can CHOOSE to filter and view just the incomplete tasks, only the completed tasks, or ALL of your tasks together at any given time; and then choose the view you like best on a project-by-project basis, and change it up anytime. This comes in super handy when you’re knee-deep in a big project with lots of tasks and moving parts!!)
6. How LIMITLESS the free plan on Asana was. There are A LOT of (somewhat sneaky) limitations on the Trello free plan. While you CAN have unlimited cards, you can ONLY have 10 boards. (In Asana, you can have as many tasks and projects as you need/want on the free plan!!) You can also only install ONE power-up per board, which means you can’t have recurring tasks AND a calendar view on the same board without paying for Trello Premium. (In Asana, you can switch between board, list, and calendar view with the click of a button; and make any task a recurring task in a flash!!) And while Trello says you have unlimited storage on the free plan, the size of each file is limited to 10MB. (In Asana, there is no limit!!) I also noticed that, in Trello, you can only type so much into the card description. As an avid note-taker, I hit that limit many times over and had to resort to adding notes as comments and hated it. (In Asana, the limit does not exist!!)
7. How GAME-CHANGING the Asana My Tasks view was. I live (like actually LIVE) in the monthly calendar view of the My Tasks tab because I can see EVERYTHING that’s happening in all of my projects all at once!! Every single task I’ve given a due date to and assigned to myself shows up in My Tasks in the color I’ve assigned to the project from which that task comes. Trello has NOTHING like this. Nothing. In fact, I had to create a board that laid out my week and manually input all of the things happening every single week. I don’t have to do that in Asana!! #hellotimeback (I love the My Tasks view SO MUCH that I actually have it set as my browser start page!! It’s completely changed my day-to-day planning and productivity!!)
Without a doubt, I am firmly on Team Asana now!! 😍
A NOTE FROM ME TO YOU ABOUT SWITCHING PROJECT MANAGEMENT TOOLS
Under no circumstance do I want you reading this post and thinking you HAVE to switch to Asana because I said it was better than Trello [or insert the name of another project management tool you might be using].
If you already have all of your systems and everything set up somewhere other than Asana and that’s working for you, stick 👏🏻 with 👏🏻 it!! You ain’t got TIME to go around testing this project management tool and that one, trying to figure out if the grass is greener on the other side.
I’ve been working for myself for 13 years now and I’ve only ever LOOKED at other project management tools because I feel like it’s my duty as a productivity coach and systems strategist to at least be familiar with them. But I’ve never really worked with any of them.
Because I don’t have time to try them all or spend days (more like weeks) moving my systems from one project management tool to the next every six months. (It actually makes me CRINGE when I hear that other female entrepreneurs are doing this because it’s NOT a productive use of their time. And it’s NOT a productive use of yours either!!)
Please, please, please hear me when I say this: You should ONLY ever change tools, systems, routines, and schedules when they’re no longer working for you or really frustrating you. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!!
But if you ARE truly unhappy with your current project management tool, it’s not your right-hand in everything you do, I would LOVE to help you get rocking and rolling in Asana!! Because it’s high time you had a project management tool that works for you!! 👇🏻
Related Post: Do You Really Need a Project Management Tool?!
Before you go, make sure you join the waitlist for Asana Assistant Version 3.0!! The Productivity Zone is turning 6 and I’m CELEBRATING 🎉 with a special birthday sale!! Get on the waitlist for an exclusive invite!! Then stay tuned to Instagram (@theproductivityzone) for all of the sneak peeks coming up!! 🤗
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