Staying on Track from Home
Grant coordinator Van Chu keeps organized with help of project management tool
It has been two long years since I’ve been working from home. Who would have guessed that March 13, 2020 would be the last time I would see my work office and my colleagues sitting behind their computers typing away at their keyboards with a cup of hot coffee nearby. I miss the office environment, but I enjoy the flexibility of working from home even though it comes with challenges.
As a Grant Coordinator for our Community Investment team, I am responsible for a plethora of tasks and projects — anything from ensuring that our grantees receive their investment agreements/payments, to managing a number of grant programs, to making sure that our internal records are up to date, to learning a new grant platform. With all this planning and organizing, even the most organized person would require some form of project management tool to help support them through their demanding work schedule.
I came across an online project management tool called Asana which could really help our Community Investment team. With this tool I can create a daily, weekly, or monthly checklist for myself or for my colleagues. I can easily set up a timeline and invite colleagues or departments to collaborate on when certain action items or projects are due. Asana has the ability to track the progress of each task and allows me to see if any of my colleagues have acted on them yet. This tool can send me notifications when tasks are due in advance, and it gives me peace of mind so that I can focus on other job priorities. One of my favourite features of this tool is that it allows me to mark the tasks as I complete them. It is very satisfying to check things off when I’m done, and it gives me a sense of accomplishment when I can see the list of action items being completed.
Asana has benefited my work in a way that allows me to easily keep my projects organized and on track. It is an intuitive and user-friendly application with features that enhance my daily work rituals. I can’t help but think the sector that I’m serving — artists and art organizations — could benefit from this application, especially if they are managing various projects and require a tool to keep them on track. The application offers a one-month free trial for anybody wishing to explore the tool a little further and to get a feel for whether it is the right fit.
If you’re looking for a project management tool to help you break down your projects into tasks and set clear goals for your team, consider giving Asana a try.
Van Chu (she/her/hers) is the grants coordinator at Calgary Arts Development. She is your first point of contact for inquiries to the community investment team and program policies.
Van completed her BA with a major in marketing at SAIT. She has over five years of community investment from a corporate level where she was responsible for evaluating, improving and managing the employee giving program, donations committee budget, and community investment assessment reports.
