Asana Content Calendar: Free Template & Step-By-Step Setup

Content creation without a system leads to missed deadlines, confused teams, and inconsistent publishing. You scramble to remember what content is due next week. Your writers wait for briefs that never arrive. Your editors lose track of which articles need review. Publishing dates slip and you end up with content pileups followed by awkward gaps that hurt your momentum and credibility.

Asana turns this chaos into a smooth, predictable system. You can see every piece of content from initial idea to final publish on one organized board. Tasks move through stages automatically as work progresses. Due dates keep everyone aligned and on track. Your team knows exactly what to work on and when it's due. No more guessing, no more last minute fire drills.

This guide shows you how to build a content calendar in Asana from scratch. You'll learn how to structure your workflow stages, create reusable templates that save hours of setup time, automate handoffs between team members, and track publishing performance with built-in reports. We've included a free template you can download and customize for your team starting today.

Why use Asana for your content calendar

Asana gives you everything you need to manage content in one place without forcing you to learn complex software or pay for multiple tools. You get built-in task management, calendar views, team collaboration features, and automation rules that work together seamlessly. Your team can access the same information, update tasks in real time, and see exactly what content is moving through your pipeline at any given moment.

Built-in collaboration tools

Asana makes it simple for your team to communicate directly on each content piece. You can @mention teammates in task comments to request feedback or ask questions without switching to email or Slack. File attachments live right on each task, so your writer's draft, your designer's images, and your editor's revisions all stay in one place. When someone updates a task or leaves a comment, Asana notifies the right people automatically so nothing falls through the cracks.

Multiple views for different needs

Your asana content calendar adapts to how different team members work best. Calendar view shows you publishing dates across the month so you can spot gaps or content clusters at a glance. List view gives you a detailed breakdown of every task with custom fields, due dates, and assignees for granular planning. Board view displays content moving through workflow stages like a Kanban system, making bottlenecks visible immediately. You switch between views instantly without losing any information or needing to duplicate work.

The ability to see your content pipeline from multiple angles helps you plan better and catch problems before they become urgent.

Free tier with room to grow

Asana's free plan supports up to 15 team members and includes unlimited tasks, projects, and activity logs. You get basic automation rules, timeline view, and custom fields without paying anything. When your content operation scales, paid plans add approval workflows, advanced reporting, and priority support. This progression means you start free and only pay when you need enterprise features.

Step 1. Plan your content workflow and fields

Before you create anything in Asana, you need to map out how content moves through your team and what information you need to track. This planning step prevents you from rebuilding your calendar later when you realize your workflow doesn't match reality. Spend 15 minutes now sketching out your content stages and required fields, and you'll save hours of reorganization work down the road.

Map your content stages

Your content stages define how work flows from initial idea to published piece. Most teams need 5 to 8 stages that represent distinct phases in their content creation process. Each stage should answer the question: what happens to this content right now?

Common content workflow stages include:

• Ideas/Backlog: Unscheduled content concepts waiting for assignment
• Briefing: Content assigned to a writer, brief being prepared
• Drafting: Writer actively creating the first draft
• Review/Editing: Editor providing feedback and revisions
• Design: Visual assets being created or added
• Scheduled: Content queued for automatic publishing
• Published: Content live and available to readers
• Promoting: Active distribution across channels

Your stages might differ based on your team size and content type. A small team might combine briefing and drafting into one stage, while a larger operation might split review into multiple approval levels.

Define custom fields for tracking

Custom fields let you categorize content and track important metadata without cluttering task titles or descriptions. Your asana content calendar becomes more powerful when you can filter and report on these fields. Choose fields that answer questions you ask regularly about your content pipeline.

Essential custom fields to add:

Field Name	Type	Purpose	Example Values
Content Type	Dropdown	Classify format	Blog post, Video, Infographic, Case study
Channel	Dropdown	Track distribution	Blog, LinkedIn, Newsletter, YouTube
Priority	Dropdown	Sequence work	High, Medium, Low
Funnel Stage	Dropdown	Audience targeting	Awareness, Consideration, Decision
Word Count	Number	Track scope	800, 1500, 2500
Author	Person	Assign writer	Team member names
Editor	Person	Assign reviewer	Team member names

Start with 3 to 5 fields that match your immediate reporting needs. You can always add more fields later as your process matures, but too many fields at the start creates unnecessary friction.

The clearer your workflow stages and custom fields, the easier it becomes to automate handoffs and generate useful reports later.

Step 2. Create your Asana calendar project

Now you're ready to build the actual project that will house your asana content calendar. This step takes about 10 minutes and transforms your workflow plan from the previous step into a functional system. You'll create the project, add your workflow sections, and configure the views your team will use daily.

Create a new project

Log into Asana and click the orange plus (+) button in the top navigation bar. Select "Project" from the dropdown menu. Asana will ask you to choose a project view, so select "Board" as your starting layout. You can switch between views later, but board view makes it easiest to set up your workflow sections initially.

Name your project something clear and specific like "Content Calendar 2025" or "Marketing Content Pipeline". Avoid vague names like "Content" or "Marketing" that don't immediately tell your team what the project contains. Choose whether to make the project public to your workspace (recommended if your entire team should see content plans) or private to specific members (useful if you handle sensitive product launches or competitive content).

Set up board sections

Board sections in Asana represent the workflow stages you mapped in Step 1. Click "Add section" at the top of your board to create your first stage. Name it exactly as you planned: "Ideas/Backlog", "Briefing", "Drafting", or whatever makes sense for your team.

Add each remaining workflow stage as a separate section by clicking the plus icon or typing tab+N. Your sections should appear as vertical columns across your board from left to right, showing content progression. Most teams arrange sections in chronological order, so content moves left to right as it advances through creation stages.

Here's a typical section structure:

1. Ideas/Backlog
2. Briefing
3. Drafting
4. Review/Editing
5. Scheduled
6. Published

Keep section names short and action-oriented. Use "Drafting" instead of "Currently Being Drafted" and "Review" instead of "Waiting for Editorial Review". Short names keep your board clean and scannable.

Configure calendar as default view

Switch to calendar view by clicking "Calendar" in the view selector at the top of your project. This view displays all tasks with due dates on a monthly grid. Click the three dots next to the view name and select "Set as default view". This ensures your team sees the publishing schedule first when they open the project, making date-based planning automatic.

Calendar view works best when you assign due dates to represent publishing dates rather than internal deadlines. Your team can still see drafting and review deadlines in list view or on individual tasks, but the calendar shows when content actually goes live for your audience.

Setting calendar as your default view keeps your team focused on publishing consistency rather than just task completion.

Step 3. Build templates, tasks, and views

Task templates eliminate repetitive setup work and ensure your team follows the same process for every content piece. You create a single master template with all the subtasks, fields, and instructions your team needs, then copy it each time you start a new article, video, or post. Custom fields let you categorize and filter content based on the attributes you defined in Step 1. Saved views give different team members instant access to the specific information they need without cluttering everyone's workspace.

Create a task template

Click "Add task" in your project and name it "Template: Blog Post" or whatever content type you create most frequently. Fill in the task description with your content brief outline or key requirements that apply to every piece. This might include your brand voice guidelines, required word count range, SEO checklist items, or formatting standards.

Add subtasks by clicking the subtask icon or typing Tab+S. Each subtask represents a specific action someone on your team must complete. Break down your content creation process into clear steps:

☐ Research topic and competitors
☐ Write content brief with target keywords
☐ Create first draft (1,500 words)
☐ Add internal links to 3 related posts
☐ Upload featured image and optimize alt text
☐ Review for grammar and brand voice
☐ Schedule in CMS with meta description
☐ Promote on LinkedIn and newsletter

Assign subtasks to role-based owners like Writer, Editor, or Designer rather than specific people. When you copy the template, you'll replace these placeholder names with actual team members. Set relative due dates like "Due 3 days after task creation" if Asana supports it, or leave dates blank to fill in manually.

Add custom fields to your project

Navigate to "Customize" in the top right corner of your project and select "Fields". Click "Add field" and choose the field type that matches your tracking needs. Dropdown fields work best for categories like Content Type or Channel where you have a fixed set of options. Create your first field called "Content Type" and add values like Blog post, Video, Case study, and Infographic.

Repeat this process for each custom field you planned in Step 1. Make sure field names are short and descriptive so they display properly in list view. Your asana content calendar becomes filterable once you have these fields populated across your tasks.

Set up saved views for different needs

Create a view that shows only content assigned to you by clicking "Save view" after applying filters. Name it "My content" so you can jump directly to your assigned work. Build another view filtered by "Content Type = Blog post" to see all articles at once, or "Channel = LinkedIn" to review social content specifically.

Saved views let each team member see exactly what matters to them without changing the project layout for everyone else.

Step 4. Automate, track, and report results

Automation removes manual handoffs and prevents tasks from sitting forgotten in your pipeline. You set up rules that trigger automatically when tasks move between stages or when specific conditions are met. Tracking keeps your publishing schedule visible across your team. Reports show you which content types perform best and where bottlenecks slow down production. Your asana content calendar becomes a performance engine rather than just a planning tool.

Set up automation rules

Click "Customize" at the top of your project and select "Rules". Choose "Add rule" and pick a trigger that matches a workflow transition. When a task moves to your "Review/Editing" stage, automatically assign it to your editor and set the due date to 2 days from now. This eliminates the need for writers to manually notify editors or guess at review turnaround times.

Create another rule that triggers when a task reaches "Scheduled". Set it to add a comment tagging your social media manager and change the custom field "Status" to "Ready for promotion". You can stack multiple actions in a single rule to handle complex handoffs:

Trigger: Task moved to "Published"
Actions:
- Add tag "Live content"
- Assign to Marketing Manager
- Move to "Promoting" section
- Set due date to 7 days from now

Track publishing metrics

Add a "Dashboard" tab to your project by clicking the plus icon next to your view tabs. Create charts that show content output by month, tasks by assignee, and average time spent in each workflow stage. Filter these charts by custom fields to see which content types take longest to produce or which channels get the most attention.

Monitor your calendar view weekly to spot publishing gaps or content clusters. If you see three blog posts scheduled for the same day and none for the following week, you can redistribute assignments before deadlines hit. Check your board view daily to identify tasks stuck in review longer than expected.

Consistent tracking turns your content calendar from a planning document into a diagnostic tool that reveals process improvements.

Generate performance reports

Use Asana's reporting features to create monthly summaries showing total content published, completion rates by team member, and on-time publishing percentages. Export these reports as CSV files or share them directly with stakeholders who need visibility into content operations without accessing the full project.

Build a portfolio that groups multiple content projects together if you manage separate calendars for different brands or content types. This gives you cross-project metrics and highlights which calendar produces the most consistent output.

Next steps

Your asana content calendar is now ready to manage your entire content pipeline from initial planning through final publication. Start by moving your existing content ideas into the Ideas/Backlog section and assigning due dates based on your publishing schedule. Invite your team members to the project and assign them to specific tasks so everyone knows their responsibilities immediately.

Create your first piece of content using the template you built in Step 3. Watch how tasks move through your workflow sections and adjust automation rules if you notice friction points. Review your dashboard weekly to identify bottlenecks and celebrate wins when content ships on schedule.

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