Using project templates to streamline project creation

Project templates in Asana are pre-designed frameworks that you can use as starting points for new projects, saving time and ensuring consistent task structures.

For example, if you frequently run similar marketing campaigns, you can create a project template with standard tasks, deadlines, and instructions, allowing you to easily replicate the campaign structure for each new project without starting from scratch. This ensures a streamlined and consistent workflow.

In this article, you’ll learn about the different types of templates and how to use them. 

What are project templates?

Project templates are pre-designed projects that you can use as a starting point for common workflows or processes. Instead of creating projects from scratch each time, you can save time by using templates to replicate a set structure with predefined tasks, due dates, and other details.

You can create templates for recurring workflows or standard processes within your team.

Templates can be based on various project types, such as marketing campaigns, product launches, or onboarding processes.

There are different types of templates you can use:

1. Template created from existing projects 
2. Custom templates
3. Asana-curated templates

Template components

Project templates can be customizable to include any of the following relevant details:

• Tasks
• Milestones
• Subtasks
• Task descriptions
• Due dates
• Assignees
• Sections
• Custom fields
• Forms
• Rules
• Bundles
• Attachments

Finding existing templates your team uses

Your team might have already created templates for specific types of projects. To browse your team’s templates, click on your team from the sidebar, and from the Overview tab, scroll down to the bottom. There, you’ll find a list of existing templates. 

Templates created from existing projects

If you have a workflow that you want to replicate for other projects, you can save an existing project as a template. 

For example, you can create a project template for onboarding new hires. This template will allow you to quickly replicate the predefined structure without manually re-creating each task. 

To save an existing project as a template, click the drop-down menu next to the project name and click Save as template.

Custom templates

A custom template is a project template that you create from scratch. You can determine what the structure of your template will look like, and you can always modify and adapt templates based on the specific needs of a particular project.

To create a custom template, navigate to your team’s Overview tab, scroll down to Templates, and click New template.

Asana-curated templates

Asana-curated templates are pre-made templates that can help you set up various workflows that you can further customize to meet your team’s needs.

To find Asana-curated templates when creating a project, select Use a template, and in types, select Asana-curated. You can choose a specific type of use case and layout from here. Scroll down to see all the available templates. 

You can click on the different types of project templates to see what the structure looks like. To use the template, click Use template in the top-right corner.

Examples of when to use templates

A product launch roadmap is a clear example of when to use project templates. It’s likely the project where you track product launches looks the same every year. Instead of creating a project from scratch, you can use a project template with predefined components to create your yearly product roadmap. 

Another example is editorial calendars. Every time you create a new piece of content, it follows the same stages and goes through the same process. You can use project templates to simplify the process of creating an editorial calendar.