Asana today unveiled a bunch of new features because of its work management platform , looking to eliminate distractions and boost worker focus – having an focus on asynchronous video communication.

“The rapid shift to distributed work has fueled distraction and destruction for a billion and 25 % information workers, with meetings and messaging at an all-time high,” said Alex Hood, chief product officer at Asana, stressing that the brand new features better align worker attention with intention.

Asana’s Video Messaging, for example, was created to help users scale back on meetings and minimize video fatigue; with intelligent My Tasks, workers can better prioritize tasks; sufficient reason for a good Calendar assistant, users can better concentrate on what they’re doing.

“Focused work has fallen by the wayside and inside our own surveys of UK information workers, 80% of folks reveal that they actually work out of these inbox and also have their communication apps open on a regular basis, while 75% feel pressured to multitask,” Hood said. “Seven out of 10, and I’m surprised it isn’t more frankly, have observed burnout in 2020.”

Wayne Kurtzman, research director for social and collaboration at IDC, said that by targeting  workflows and communications, Asana might help customers get yourself a better sense of who’s doing what so when, while bolstering the platform’s simplicity.

“These features enhance the work experience for each and every user and that helps the hybrid workforce. In line with the feature velocity of Asana, there’s a lot more ahead,” he said.

The promise of asynchronous communication

With today’s announcement, Asana is pushing the advantages of asynchronous communication. Hood argued that the majority of lost work time originates from things such as Zoom calls, that may turn what is a five-minute conversation at work kitchen right into a half-hour video chat.

“That is the way software works, it generates these calendar slots,” he said. “So we’ve created a fresh undertake video communication in this ” new world “, that is async video communication.”

Asana

Asana Video Messaging provides async video communications.

The Video Messaging feature supplies the engagement of live video while undercutting the necessity for more meetings. Dealing with Vimeo, Video Messaging “converts communication into action and accountability, having the ability to share updates and show work to teammates – anytime and anywhere,” the business said.

Video Messaging lets users record short videos of themselves and/or their screen directly in Asana to greatly help document important initiatives across teams and time zones. Automated video transcripts are housed in Asana’s proprietary Work Graph data model, allowing users to find and share audio transcripts, better convey contex,exchange and t ideas.

Hood acknowledged that video fatigue is a real issue before year – as reflected in a study from Stanford University  – that is what Video Messaging important. “In ways, that [burnout] is among the problems we’re solving here,” he said.

introducing async video to Asana customers “By, we will decrease the overall level of video consumption necessary to do their job,” Hood explains. “In 3 minutes, folks can explain themselves and the entire conveyance of what they seek to communicate, and never have to call a 30-minute meeting.”

It will allow visitors to better understand what the program is and who’s doing what by when, meaning users need not write down notes or have a follow-up meeting.

Kurtzman said Asana is early to advertise with the asynchronous communications effort, and while it could be a love-it-or-hate it feature for a lot of, he expects its use to cultivate as time passes – with rival platforms rushing to accomplish the same.

“The sync and async communications will need getting used to for a few, but long term, it enables the proper tool for as soon as and potentially saves meetings and emails. Also it feeds the Asana Work Graph as each is area of the team record,” Kurtzman said. “Performative Exhaustion (a.k.a. video fatigue) is real. But, whenever we have control of our very own camera, like in selfies, it isn’t as bad. There’s something to be said for that.”

Asana’s other productivity tools

Hood said My Tasks is really a personal prioritization system that combines users’ to-do lists making use of their broader team’s work. Asama customers can organize their work in Kanban, list, and calendar versions of these personal tasks to target their attention when using automation to stay on the right track. For instance, automation rules can organize users’ tasks predicated on a deadline or alert them whenever a teammate has completed work that unblocks a dependent task.

Asana

The brand new Smart Calendar Assistant Integration aims to lessen clashes between focused work time and demanding activities such as for example meetings and video calls. Asana integrates with Clockwise now, a respected smart calendar assistant, to schedule tasks into focus time without leaving Asana easily.

By entering a period of day and the quantity of time had a need to complete a task, Will automatically reserve focus time clockwise. Once which has been scheduled, customers will dsicover the calendar event directly within their Google Calendar.

Are you aware that introduction of an Asana desktop app, that came after strong customer interest.

Hood called it “the No. 1 requested customer feature” and said it will help users filter distractions from other programs and prevent needing to switch between multiple tabs.

Asana also rolled out a fresh Dark Mode feature on desktop, mobile, and web in reducing eye strain, rendering it easier to concentrate on work.