We are jumping into a brand new series on Think Like An Integrator called “This or That?” and the purpose of this series is to help you beat overwhelm. 

When it comes to all of the decisions around tech and tools needed in the digital space, there are so many incredible options out there. So we want to use this fun new “This or That?” series to help you figure out which one is going to be the best one for you. 

Of course, we also have strong opinions, too and you will definitely hear our opinions on the ones that we love the most. But overall, we’re just excited to be able to start digging into this!!

So up first, we’re comparing two project management tools, Trello vs. Asana, and I had to compare these two with my project manager, Samantha Haycraft. 

On the KS Team, Samantha is the Asana Queen. But if you’ve been following me for any time at all, you already know by now that I am Team Trello for lifeeee. I’d wear the hat + tee proudly, y’all! I LOVE this tool & have been a fan since 2015!! 

Asana  is also very popular – and for good reason!! I’m not too proud to admit that there are some Asana features I do love and have enjoyed using when I’m working inside of Asana! (I know… how dare I?! Trello is probably going to glitch out at me for saying that haha!)

Today we’re going to cover:

• • What Trello and Asana are and why you might need to use one for your biz
  • How we use Trello & Asana for ourselves and for our clients
  • Which ones WE prefer 
  • And… of course, which one YOU should start with if you have never used a project management tool in your biz before!!

Before we dive, here’s a little background & context for you:

A LITTLE BACKGROUND

It’s perfect that I’m sharing some of Samantha’s thoughts on Asana with you today because she actually first found the KS brand by downloading one of my freebies, the My Week Trello Template, to use in her business and from there she was hooked!! She works with Asana with some of our clients and is loving it as well!

If you are new to task management and you’re looking for a way to digitally organize your to do’s, you’ll love those free templates and the cheat sheet of all the pros and cons of both Trello & Asana that we’re sharing today.

I’ve personally been using Trello since 2015, which is kind of bananas. That’s a really long time that I’ve been using Trello and I definitely have a strong brand love for anything and everything Trello. I’ll just be honest… I see another task management tool and immediately I think No, it can’t be quite as good as Trello!!

At the same time, Asana has become very, very popular, and we do have quite a few clients in the KS Agency who use Asana. So from a team perspective, I needed to not just be biased about Trello. There are other great tools out there and I needed to do a little bit more research on Asana. 

WHAT ARE TRELLO & ASANA?

Before we get too far into the weeds, I want to zoom out and make sure we’re all on the same page with what project management tools are, what they do, and why it’s helpful for Visionaries and business owners (especially those in the digital online space!). 

Trello and Asana are both project management tools, and they help you stay organized and streamline all of the moving pieces. You can organize to-do’s, you can assign deadlines, you can have conversations, you can color code… there are a lot of different things that you can do inside of a task management system. 

Again, this can be in Trello or Asana because there is a lot of overlap in the things that they can do for you and for your brand. 

WHAT CAN I USE TRELLO OR ASANA FOR?

It is so important for business owners to have a tool to organize all the tasks you have on your plate or that you are communicating to your team, especially when it comes to having deadlines. You can also store all the links, random notes, and extra ideas that inevitably are running through your mind so that nothing gets missed. It’s so helpful to have it all in one spot so that you aren’t saving things on your notes app or email or random sticky notes!!

Plus with a tool like Trello or Asana, you can access it from your phone or you computer which allows you to really streamline everything and get organized even when an idea hits you on the go.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TRELLO & ASANA?

I really want to encourage you to get a tool like Asana or Trello… but how do you know which is going to make sense for your personality and all the moving pieces in your own brand? 

Here are some of the basic differences.

Trello is a very visual management tool! It’s like having a bunch of sticky notes on a visual board. If you like a more visual approach to task management and those who like a very visual pipeline to be able to see.

For some, Trello won’t be organized enough. You may want to see every detailed task, and that’s where Asana can be helpful.

Asana is very type A! You can be very detail-oriented with all the different tasks. If you love structure, organization checklists, deadlines, Asana helps you be the most detailed in that way. 

For some, Asana can be too detailed so Trello allows you to organize the moving pieces differently without a super micro-detailed checklist.

Both tools allow you to set due dates and assign team members to tasks. The bottom line is that you want to use the one that you will actually use.

Even more than which tool is best, we feel most passionate that you use a tool that works for you. At the end of the day, we want you to stay organized, or we want to help you get more organized. 

If you’re using a mixture of Slack messages and Google docs and wherever else you’re storing all of your business details, we encourage you to choose one tool to streamline your biz – we promise that once you get it up and running, it’ll help!!

HOW CAN YOU SET UP & ORGANIZE EACH TOOL?

So if you’re here and you’re the sticky note queen, you have sticky notes everywhere and notes on their phone, and things are all over the place, it doesn’t matter if it’s Trello or Asana, here’s how we recommend starting to set things up.

An Admin Board/Project, like my Weekly Board in my free Trello template, is a great starting point to get in the rhythm of using Trello. 

Once you’re comfortable in there with your overall admin tasks, I would definitely recommend creating a Content Board/Project. So think podcasts, emails, YouTube, all the marketing things – that can live on one board or project. So when you have on your marketing hat, you sit down, you open that board, and you’re ready to roll.

Then, as projects come up, you’ll want an overall Projects Board/Project. We do this for all of our clients because some projects don’t need their own board or project to go really in depth on and they can live together on the same board. There needs to be a place to have your “parking lot” list to brainstorm ideas or get your checklist together and start to put due dates in order. 

Then of course, for live launches, we are all about a good live Launch Board/Project. That’s where you’ll put all the details that you need, with all the moving pieces on the marketing side, on the operation side, and everything else you may need.

OUR FAVORITE FEATURES OF TRELLO & ASANA

Samantha likes Trello, because it is simpler – the features and checklists are very straightforward. Asana does have more robust subtasks, and all the different features where you can truly build out a full project inside just one task. However, with Trello, you would have to use a whole card, column, or even a whole board to do that. So it really depends on how detailed and deep you want to go into a certain task or project.

Pro tip for Asana: You can actually sync your projects together! So if you have multiple areas where you’re producing content with many moving pieces, you can sync them all up in a Quarterly Marketing Calendar project, for example!

WHICH ONE SHOULD YOU START WITH?

It comes down to your preference and your work style, and just how overall detailed you want your tasks to be. We do recommend starting with Trello, because I feel like if you are already comfortable with Trello, once you make the move to Asana, you will already have your task management skill set to use it without getting overwhelmed.

While there are other tools out there, at the KS Agency, we focus on Trello and Asana. Overall, we know that it is helpful to just make sure that whichever one you use, you need to use!! Be really diligent and disciplined with implementing everything you do while using that tool. 

If you’re just starting out, we definitely recommend using a template, whether that is in Trello or Asana, because they’re out there!! That’s a really good place to build on vs. just staring at a blank screen and trying to set it up for yourself.

That way, once you have something set up, you can change it and you can adapt it. That is the beauty of both Trello and Asana – everything can be changed. 

You can work on your workflows, you can change the calendars, change due dates and it’s an ever-evolving process. Starting with a template will give you the bones you need to build it all out for your biz.

CONCLUSION

Overall, whether it’s Trello or Asana, use what you will use!! Get something set up, get comfortable with it, keep changing it and adapting it. Then overall, you’ll see that it will change and grow into a system that you can use over and over again and really be proud of.

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel or start from scratch every time you’re doing something new. You can jump in and keep going and checking off those tasks!

Here are a few things we love about Trello & Asana:

• Trello and Asana are both project management tools, and they help you stay organized and streamline all of the moving pieces.
• Trello is very visual. It’s like having a bunch of sticky notes on a visual board. If you like a more visual approach to task management and those who like a very visual pipeline to be able to see.
• Asana is very type A. You can be very detail-oriented with all the different tasks. If you love structure, organization checklists, deadlines, Asana helps you be the most detailed in that way. 
• Both tools allow you to set due dates and assign team members to tasks. 
• If you’re just starting out, be sure to find some templates so you can continue to build out as you grow!

We’d love to hear if you’re Team Trello or Team Asana – because we love both of those tools and want to cheer for them with you!! 

But remember, the bottom line is that you want to use the one that you will actually use. We can’t wait to hear how they help you grow your biz!!