Ordering uniforms, preparing for camp, choosing competition music and costumes… the beginning of the season is a whirlwind of to-do lists. If you’re not careful, you can spend the first month of your season completely swamped and overwhelmed, missing major deadlines that cause you headaches later. That’s why every coach needs a project planning tool to help you keep your head on straight. There are lots of options out there, but there is one online tool I think you should consider because it’s super easy and it’s FREE!

I’m not ashamed to say it…I am a master planner, and I love all things organization! Even if you’re not very good at to-do lists and making sure you meet all of your deadlines, as a head coach you need to have some way to keep everything organized. That’s why I want to share with you my #1 project planning tool that helps keep me organized and on top of everything. Plus, if you’re lucky enough to have a team of coaches working with you then you’re really going to want to pay attention to this. It allows you to delegate and keep track of what’s going on in your program so that you can reduce your own stress and spend more time actually coaching!

My Secret Sauce: Asana

Asana is a project management software, but before you think it’s too much for you, it’s FREE and super simple to use. There is a paid version so if you really love it and want to get fancy you might upgrade, but I’ve honestly always used the free version and been super happy with it.

Here’s how this project planning tool works:

Go to asana.com
Create a profile with whatever email address you primarily use for team related thing. IF you have other staff working with you, have them do the same
Verify your email address and complete your profile with your full name and a picture (not essential but it does help if you’re working with a team)
Enter your Team Name and emails of additional people who will be working with you. I like to keep it to assistant and JV coaches, but it could work well to add captains or a booster parent depending on how your team is run. Or just keep it to yourself! You decide what’s best for you.
Asana will ask you for the name of your project when you create an account, just pick something. You can say Summer or Competition season, any major area of work for your team. It’s not important at this phase, you just need one to start and can change it at any time.
Get started by inputting tasks, subtasks, due dates, assignments to your coaching staff. It’s all you need to keep things organized this year!

Take a look for yourself!

As simple as it is to use Asana, it’s probably easier to see a short demonstration than it is for me to explain how it all works. So feel free to watch this demo video so you can see exactly how I use Asana to keep my team organized.