Rules integrations for productivity

Rules and integrations work together to automate routine tasks and establish workflows across your team's favorite tools. This article details the best rules and integrations for productivity in your organization.

See How to create a rule for tips on getting started with rules.

Gmail

Leverage rules to send an email from your Gmail account to your chosen recipient when certain parameters are met—all decided by you in advance. Choose from many triggers such as when a task is no longer blocked or a due date is approaching, and let rules automatically send an email with a custom message.

Steps to configure rules integration

1. In your project, click Customize in the top-right corner and select Add rule from the list
2. From Add rule, select a trigger such as Approval complete.
3. From the Actions tab, select Send email.
4. Enter the recipient’s email address in the To field
5. Enter a Reply to email address
6. Enter the email's subject line in the Subject field
7. Write the body of the email in the Write a message field

In this example, when the task is approved the rule is triggered and the action is taken; an email will be sent from your email address and will automatically Bcc you on the email. The task link will also be included in the email.

Google Calendar

With Asana Rules, teams can go from manually scheduling meetings to automatically creating a meeting with project collaborators when a task reaches a certain stage. For example, teams can use this rule to trigger creating an event in a team calendar when a task is moved to a "Scheduled" section. Teams can also use this for recurring task scenarios: you can have a recurring "Send agenda for meeting" task which sends out an event invite when the task is completed.

Steps to configure rules integration

1. Navigate to the specific Asana project where you’d like to add a rules integration
2. Click Customize in the top-right corner, navigate to Rules, and select + Add rule
3. Select Google Calendar from the left column
4. Either select a preset rule or click Create custom rule
5. If creating a custom rule, add a name, and choose a trigger and action to get started
6. Authenticate by clicking Connect to Google Calendar Rules
7. Sign in with your Google account and click Allow
8. Fill out the fields for the Google Calendar event
9. Optionally, invite task collaborators as event guests

Outlook Calendar

With Asana Rules, teams can go from manually scheduling meetings to automatically creating a meeting with project collaborators when a task reaches a certain stage. For example, teams can use this rule to trigger creating an event in a team calendar when a task is moved to a "Scheduled" section. Teams can also use this for recurring task scenarios: you can have a recurring "Send agenda for meeting" task which sends out an event invite when the task is completed.

Steps to configure rules integration

1. Navigate to the specific Asana project where you’d like to add a rules integration
2. Click Customize in the top-right corner, navigate to Rules, and select + Add rule
3. Select Outlook Calendar from the left column
4. Either select a preset rule or click Create custom rule
5. If creating a custom rule, add a name, and choose a trigger and action to get started
6. Authenticate by clicking Connect to Outlook Calendar Rules
7. Sign in with your Microsoft account* and click Allow
8. Fill out the fields for the Microsoft Calendar event
9. Optionally, invite assignees and task collaborators as event guests, include task attachments, or automatically generate a Teams meeting link

* When signing in with your Microsoft account, we ask you to grant consent to relevant Outlook Calendar permission. If you are disallowed from granting this consent yourself, please reach out to your Microsoft Admin and ask them to consent to Calendars.ReadWrite in Microsoft Entra (fka Microsoft Azure).

Notion

The Notion + Asana integration allows teams to streamline work by automatically creating Notion pages in Asana and adding Notion pages to Asana tasks. Rather than manually creating Notion pages and linking those to relevant Asana tasks, you can use automation to create a Notion page when certain actions take place in Asana, such as when a task is moved to a section.

For example, teams that are conducting research interviews in Asana tasks can automatically create a Notion page to take notes when the task moves to the "Interview scheduled" section. You can also link existing Notion pages to an Asana task so that collaborators can see relevant context from the page, streamlining collaboration across multiple apps. Notion’s integration with Asana also allows you to view the status of Asana projects and tasks as link previews in Notion.

Steps to configure rules integration

1. Navigate to the specific Asana project where you’d like to add a rules integration
2. Click Customize in the top-right corner, navigate to Rules, and select + Add rule
3. Select Notion from the left column
4. You can select a preset rule or click Create custom rule
5. If creating a custom rule, add a name, and choose a trigger and action to get started
6. Authenticate by clicking Connect to Notion and following the steps
7. Click Select pages to allow Asana access
8. Select the pages you want Asana to access and click Allow access.
9. Paste the URL of the parent page or database
10. Click Create Rule

Notion

Here’s how to attach an existing Notion page as a widget to an Asana task:

1. Log into Asana, and find the project where you want to enable the Notion widget
2. Click on Customize in the upper right-hand corner
3. Scroll down to the Apps section, then select +Add app
4. Select Notion widget
5. Navigate to an Asana task
6. Link an existing Notion page to a task by clicking the Add Notion page button under the Notion field at the top of the task details pane
7. Insert the URL for your relevant Notion page
8. Attached Notion details will appear as a widget in the task pane, including owner, comments, and last modified date

Note: This integration is already built into Asana, but you need to sign up for a Notion account to get started.

The Notion widget is available without a paid Asana subscription.

DocuSign

The DocuSign + Asana integration allows teams to keep track of DocuSign envelopes by adding them to Asana tasks. Instead of having to check separate tools to see the status of an envelope, teams can view accurate envelope details in Asana.

For example, teams using Asana for their contract approval process can add a DocuSign envelope to an Asana task to monitor status, sender, recipients, and date delivered.

Here’s how to attach a DocuSign envelope to an Asana task:

1. Log into Asana, and find the project where you want to enable the DocuSign widget
2. Click on Customize in the upper right-hand corner
3. Scroll down to the Apps section, then select + Add app
4. Select DocuSign 
5. Click Add to project and follow the steps to connect DocuSign to Asana
6. Navigate to an Asana task
7. Link an envelope to a task by clicking the Add DocuSign envelope button on the DocuSign field at the top of the task details pane
8. Insert the URL for your relevant DocuSign envelope
9. Attached DocuSign envelope details will appear as a widget in the task pane

Note: This integration is already built into Asana, but you need to sign up for a DocuSign account to get started.