Personal Asana Board — Structure Template¶
Every project coordinator stands up a personal Asana project called Onboarding - <Your Name> on Day 6 (start of Week 2). This is the board you use to track yourself through the curriculum, not the board for your engagement work.
There are two reasons to make you do this:
- It's the best Asana practice you'll get — you'll touch every feature (sections, tasks, subtasks, due dates, custom fields, dependencies, Updates with 4 Blockers, board view, list view, calendar view).
- It's the proof of self-direction the onboarding mentor will point at in your Day 30 review.
If your personal board is a mess at Day 30, that's the single strongest negative signal we look at.
Project setup¶
- Name:
Onboarding - <Your Name> - Privacy: Public to the workspace (Your onboarding mentor and David should be able to see it)
- Default view: Board (you can switch later)
- Color: Your choice
Sections (columns in Board view)¶
Use exactly these section names:
- 📥 Backlog — Anything you might do but haven't committed to
- 📚 This Week — Committed for the current week
- 🚧 In Progress — Actively working on it right now (max 3 items — enforce WIP limit)
- ⏸️ Blocked — Waiting on someone or something; must have a named blocker
- ✅ Done — Completed this week (clear out each Friday)
- 📦 Archive — Old completed items (Fridays, move from Done to Archive)
Custom fields to add¶
| Field | Type | Values |
|---|---|---|
| Tier | Single-select | Curriculum / Tier 1 backlog / Tier 2 backlog / Tier 3 backlog / Engagement work |
| Energy | Single-select | Deep / Shallow (use to batch tasks; do Deep before lunch) |
| Module | Single-select | Week 1 / Week 2 / Week 3 / Week 4 / 30+ |
Tasks to seed on Day 6¶
Import these as tasks (one per line of the checklist in first_30_days_checklist.md). Use the curriculum content from onboarding_plan.md to set sections, due dates, and the Module custom field. Examples:
| Task | Section | Module | Due |
|---|---|---|---|
| Read "Our Philosophy" deck | Done (already done in W1) | Week 1 | Day 2 |
| Watch all 12 Asana tutorial videos | In Progress | Week 2 | Day 7 |
| Stand up personal Asana board | In Progress | Week 2 | Day 6 |
| Compare SocialClimb vs. Aqfer RevOps boards | This Week | Week 2 | Day 8 |
| Write Cortado-in-my-own-words paragraph | Done | Week 1 | Day 3 |
| Draft 1099 onboarding checklist | Backlog | Week 3 | Day 15 |
| ... | ... | ... | ... |
Continue through Day 30.
Weekly rhythm¶
| When | What |
|---|---|
| Monday morning | Pull from Backlog into This Week. Set due dates. Aim for 5-8 tasks. |
| Daily (start of day) | Move 1-3 tasks into In Progress. Update yesterday's. |
| Daily (Slack standup) | Post a 4-Blockers update referencing the In Progress tasks |
| Thursday | Asana Update written; this becomes the prep doc for the GROW with your onboarding mentor |
| Friday EOD | Clear Done → Archive. Anything left in This Week with no progress moves to Backlog or Blocked with a reason. |
Thursday Asana Update — what goes in it¶
This is your weekly Update on the Asana project (different from the engagement weekly status — this one is about you). the onboarding mentor reads it before GROW.
On Track / At Risk / Off Track for the curriculum
Wins this week:
- <2-3 items you actually shipped>
Stuck on:
- <Where you're spinning>
GROW topic I'd like to bring Thursday:
- <The one thing — the onboarding mentor will use this as the session goal seed>
Asks of your onboarding mentor:
- <Anything you need from him this week>
What "good Asana hygiene" looks like at Day 30¶
Your onboarding mentor and David will spot-check. The bar:
- WIP limit respected (no more than 3 In Progress at any time)
- No tasks Blocked without a named blocker and date
- No tasks overdue without an updated due date
- Done column cleared weekly
- Every task has the Module field filled
If your board looks like that at Day 30, you have already passed the Asana portion of the review.
What we DON'T want¶
- A Backlog with 200 items. If you're not going to do it in 30 days, it doesn't belong here.
- Tasks named "Misc" or "Stuff". Specific actions only.
- Daily journaling masquerading as tasks. Tasks have outcomes; journals go elsewhere.
- Mirroring your engagement work here. That lives on the engagement's Asana project, not this one.