Don’t just track your weekly to-dos. Organize and schedule your tasks so you can always get your highest-impact work done. Learn how to create a weekly schedule template in Asana.
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When it comes to creating a weekly schedule, it’s important to track what you need to do. But without assigning those tasks a priority, due date, and description, they might never get done.
That’s where a weekly schedule template comes in.
At its most basic, a weekly schedule is a way to plan out time to complete your to-dos for the week. But effective weekly schedules also help you clarify each task’s priority, due date, difficulty and what stage the work is at. That way, no matter what day of the week it is, you always know exactly what’s on your to-do list and which items to tackle first.
Read: 4 tips to create the best weekly work plan
A weekly schedule template (sometimes called a weekly planner template or weekly calendar template) is a templatized way to create and organize your weekly schedule. By using a template to create a new weekly schedule every week, you can kickstart your to-dos and get right to work on Monday morning.
A quick Google search of “weekly schedule template” will show you dozens of printable Excel templates or blank weekly schedule PDFs. The problem is, those types of weekly calendars only allow you to capture the bare minimum information about each task.
More often than not, to-dos are more complicated than a sentence. You need to track more than the week’s work—you also need to know when each task is due, how important it is, and what collaborators or context are involved. If you use a printable weekly schedule, you lose out on all of these details.
By creating a simple weekly schedule in a project management tool, rather than a printable weekly calendar, you can:
See all of your to-dos in one place
Toggle between a daily planner and a weekly calendar
Track the priority of each deliverable
Rearrange due dates if and when priorities change
Share context with stakeholders
Attach relevant documents like Google Docs or Google Sheets to your to-dos
Collaborate with your team members
Track progress right where work happens
Review completed tasks and task lists
Improve your time management
View your weekly agenda in real time
Create your template
In order to get your most important work done, you need to know what work is most important. Sounds obvious, right? But without the right tools, this can be hard to do.
Make sure your digital weekly schedule template allows you to tag to-dos with different information—like the priority of the work, or how long it will take. That way, when you log in on any given morning, you reduce the time you spend scanning through your work schedule and focus on getting things done.
Custom fields. Custom fields are the best way to tag, sort, and filter work. Create unique custom fields for any information you need to track—from priority and status to email or phone number. Use custom fields to sort and schedule your to-dos so you know what to work on first. Plus, share custom fields across tasks and projects to ensure consistency across your organization.
Dependencies. Mark a task as waiting on another task with task dependencies. Know when your work is blocking someone else’s work, so you can prioritize accordingly. Teams with collaborative workflows can easily see what tasks they’re waiting on from others, and know when to get started on their portion of work. When the first task is completed, the assignee will be notified that they can get started on their dependent task. Or, if the task your work is dependent on is rescheduled, Asana will notify you—letting you know if you need to adjust your dependent due date as well.
Start dates. Sometimes you don’t just need to track when a to-do is due—you also need to know when you should start working on it. Start times and dates give your team members a clear sense of how long each task should take to complete. Use start dates to set, track, and manage work to align your team's objectives and prevent dependencies from falling through the cracks.
Board View. Board View is a Kanban board-style view that displays your project’s information in columns. Columns are typically organized by work status (like To Do, Doing, and Done) but you can adjust column titles depending on your project needs. Within each column, tasks are displayed as cards, with a variety of associated information including task title, due date, and custom fields. Track work as it moves through stages and get at-a-glance insight into where your project stands.
Gmail. With the Asana for Gmail integration, you can create Asana tasks directly from your Gmail inbox. Any tasks you create from Gmail will automatically include the context from your email, so you never miss a beat. Need to refer to an Asana task while composing an email? Instead of opening Asana, use the Asana for Gmail add-on to simply search for that task directly from your Gmail inbox.
Outlook. As action items come in via email, like reviewing work from your agency or a request for design assets from a partner, you can now create tasks for them in Asana right from Outlook. You can then assign the new task to yourself or a teammate, set a due date, and add it to a project so it’s connected to other relevant work.
Google Workplace. Attach files directly to tasks in Asana with the Google Workplace file chooser, which is built into the Asana task pane. Easily attach any My Drive file with just a few clicks.
Box. Attach files directly to tasks in Asana with the Box file picker, which is built into the Asana task pane.
Learn how to create a customizable template in Asana. Get started today.