Asana

Your assistant can read your own My Tasks list and pull the full detail on anything in it, including due dates, the project it belongs to, and any subtasks hanging off it. Ask for it grouped the way you think, by due date or by client, rather than the way Asana displays it. It only reads, so you can ask this every morning without anything moving.

What you end up with. A short written list of what is due, what is late, and what has subtasks you have not looked at, ordered how you asked for it.

Start with it bringing you the information and you deciding.

Never without. Never treat this as a complete picture of your commitments. It reads Asana, and the things people asked you for in email or chat are not in Asana yet.

Built on: Get current user / Get User Task List / Get tasks for user task list / Get a task / Get Task Subtasks

There is a workspace-wide task search with real filters, so you can ask for incomplete tasks past their due date across every project you can see, optionally narrowed by assignee or a custom field. That is the query people build a dashboard for and then never maintain. It reads only.

What you end up with. One list of overdue work across projects, with owner and due date, that you can act on or forward.

Start with it bringing you the information and you deciding.

Never without. Never send this list to a team without reading it. Search results include work you can see but do not own, and an overdue task is sometimes overdue on purpose.

Built on: Search Tasks in Workspace / Get multiple tasks / Retrieve tasks for project

Asana portfolios are readable through the connection: the portfolios in a workspace, the projects inside each one, who is on them, and the status updates posted against each project. So the quarterly rollup can be assembled by reading rather than by chasing eight project leads for the same paragraph. Nothing is written to any project.

What you end up with. A written rollup by portfolio, naming each project, its latest posted status, and the ones that have not posted one at all.

Start with it bringing you the information and you deciding.

Never without. A portfolio rolls up only the projects somebody added to it. A project nobody attached is invisible here, so a clean rollup is not evidence that everything is accounted for.

Built on: Get Portfolios / Get Portfolio / Get Portfolio Items / Get Portfolio Memberships / Get Project Status Updates / Get Project Status

It can read the tasks in a project, get the completed and incomplete counts, read the previous status updates so the tone matches, and then post a new status update. The draft-then-post split matters here: ask for the draft first, read it, and only then have it post. A status update notifies everyone following the project.

What you end up with. A posted project status update that reflects what actually moved, written in the same voice as the last few.

Start with it doing the work and checking with you.

Never without. Never let it post a status update you have not read. It is writing in your name to everyone following the project, and it cannot tell that a task marked done is not actually finished.

Built on: Retrieve tasks for project / Get Task Counts For Project / Get Project Status Updates / Create Project Status Update

It can create tasks with an assignee, a due date, a project, and a description, add subtasks under them, and mark one task as blocking another. Followers, projects, and tags are settable only at creation, so tell it those up front rather than fixing them after.

What you end up with. The commitments from a meeting sitting in the right project as real tasks with owners and dates, instead of in a document nobody reopens.

Start with it doing the work and checking with you.

Never without. Never let it assign tasks to other people without you seeing the assignee and due date for each one. Assigning work to a colleague notifies them and sets an expectation you have to stand behind.

Built on: Create task in asana with specific details / Create subtask / Add Task Dependencies / Add Project to Task / Get Users in Workspace

It can read the full activity history on a task, including every comment and status change, work out how long it has been quiet, and post a comment asking for an update. It can also add the person who needs to see it as a follower so they get notified. The reading half is free and safe; the comment is the part to review.

What you end up with. A comment on the stalled task asking a specific question, with the right person following it, and a note back to you of which tasks it left alone.

Start with it doing the work and checking with you.

Never without. Never let it post nudges unattended in the first weeks. A comment goes to a real colleague under your name, and a nudge on something already handled offline costs you more than the reminder was worth.

Built on: Get Stories for Task / Get a task / Create task comment / Add Followers to Task

It can update a task's fields, move it into a different section of a board, and add or remove a tag. Adding and removing tags are separate actions from the ordinary update, and the connector flags tag removal as one to be careful with. The useful pattern is a stated rule you can check, such as moving anything marked complete out of the in-progress section.

What you end up with. A board that matches reality, plus a list of what it moved and what it left because the rule was ambiguous.

Start with it doing the work and checking with you.

Never without. Never let it strip tags in bulk before you check what depends on them. Saved searches, reports, and Asana rules key off tags, removing a tag is flagged in the connector as a step to take deliberately, and nothing tells you afterward which report changed.

Built on: Get tasks from a section / Update a task / Add task to section / Add Tag to Task / Remove Tag from Task

It can list the project templates available to your team and instantiate one, setting the dates and the role assignments as it goes. If you have no template it can create the project, add the sections, and add the members. Template instantiation runs as a background job in Asana, so it returns a job record rather than a finished project.

What you end up with. A new project already sectioned, dated, and staffed, ready for work rather than ready for setup.

Start with it doing the work and checking with you.

Never without. Never let it add members to a project without you naming who belongs on it. Project membership decides who can see the client information in every task inside it.

Built on: Get Multiple Project Templates / Get Project Templates for Team / Instantiate Project Template / Create project for team / Create a section in a project / Add Members to Project