Asana Content Calendar Template: Complete Setup Guide for 2025

Manuel Weiss
8 min read
Uncategorized
Kanban board showing multiple columns with content pieces.
TL;DR: Asana’s default content calendar template is basic and lacks the structure needed for serious content operations. This guide provides a complete, battle-tested Asana content calendar setup with:
  • 9-stage workflow from idea to promotion
  • Pre-built templates with subtasks for each content type
  • Advanced automation to prevent bottlenecks
  • Performance tracking with built-in reporting
Plus a free downloadable template that takes 15 minutes to implement.

Asana’s content calendar template is good but quite simplistic. If you want something more opinionated our Asana template might be for you. Fast to get started. Easy to adapt.

Why Content Calendars Drive Predictable Marketing Results

Let’s take a step back. Why even use a content calendar? A content calendar is one of the most powerful tools in the belt of digital marketers. It helps keep your team accountable. And makes it visible to the rest of the organization what has happened and what will be coming up. Read our high-level blog post on the benefits and effectiveness of content calendars here.

Using it diligently also adds “predictability”. It sets the foundation for consistent content production. With the right SEO optimizations in place, this leads to predictable and consistent traffic to your pages that you can turn into predictable leads. This is the cornerstone of a content marketing strategy.

Is Asana The Only Content Calendar Tool?

There are many tools to use for your content calendar. We wrote about how to set up a content calendar with Trello and how to set up a content calendar with Airtable. Another great tool is Asana. Asana is a project management tool that has all the needed components for a great content calendar.

Essential Asana Features for Content Teams:

  • Process visualization through customizable kanban boards to model and visualize the content creation process
  • Calendar integration for publication scheduling to get an overview of publishing dates of different content pieces
  • Collaboration tools including tasks, subtasks, task owners, due dates, comments, and @mentions
  • Task templates for standardized content workflows and ways to templatize tasks
  • Automation features that reduce the risk of something slipping through the cracks
  • Performance reporting to assess process performance and identify bottlenecks

How to Set Up Your Asana Editorial Content Calendar

Step 1: Model Your Content Creation Workflow

Start from idea to content being written, published, and promoted. Set up “sections” on the “Board” view of your project. Each section is a content creation stage, e.g. content backlog, preparation, editing, promoting, etc. Each section shows the status of the card as it moves through the process.

Kanban board showing multiple columns with content pieces.

Content Creation Workflow Stages:

  1. Content Backlog – Prioritized content ideas with keyword research
  2. Preparation – Content briefs, writer assignments, and resource gathering
  3. Writing – First drafts through final revisions
  4. Editing – Copy editing, SEO optimization, and fact-checking
  5. Scheduling – CMS upload, meta data, and publication timing
  6. Scheduled – Final review before automated publishing
  7. Published – Live content ready for promotion
  8. Promoting – Multi-channel distribution and amplification
  9. Done – Performance tracking and optimization insights

Step 2: Configure Tasks and Subtasks for Each Content Piece

Each content piece is a task on the board. Each task will live in a section of your board. Each task will have all the necessary information to move it through the process.

Each content piece has sub-tasks to show what needs to be done. Be clear on what you expect to get done at each stage. Disassociate planning from execution. That aligns the team and removes any hesitation when it comes to doing the things.

Pro Tip: On the free plan, you can use a task as a template that already includes all subtasks for each stage. This is easy to duplicate. See how we have done this in the content calendar template.
Advanced Strategy: On Premium, you can convert the task to a template or use automation rules to add subtasks when the task is moved to a different stage/section.

Step 3: Implement Strategic Content Tagging

Use tags to define content categories, content types, etc. Tags are great to define content types, content channels, and content funnel stages. For example:

Content Classification Tags:

  • Content Types: “Article”, “Ebook”, “Case Study”, “Video”, “Infographic”
  • Funnel Stages: “TOFU”, “MOFU”, “BOFU”
  • Distribution Channels: “Newsletter”, “LinkedIn”, “Blog”, “Webinar”
  • Priority Levels: “High Priority”, “Standard”, “Evergreen”

This allows you to quickly see what articles or ebooks are being worked on or planned.

Step 4: Set Up Due Dates and Publishing Schedules

Who doesn’t love due dates? It enables your team to coordinate around the most urgent tasks. It ensures content keeps moving through the process efficiently.

Common Setup Mistake: Don’t skip buffer time between stages. Teams that rush handoffs experience 40% more revision cycles and missed deadlines.

Step 5: Master Calendar View for Content Planning

Use the calendar view to see when content will be published. Seeing when content will be published is great for finding opportunities for co-promotion and distribution.

Calendar showing when articles, assets, or newsletter are being published.

Calendar View Benefits:

  • Content clustering for maximum SEO impact
  • Launch coordination with product releases and campaigns
  • Competitive timing awareness to avoid conflicts
  • Seasonal planning for holidays and industry events

Premium Asana Features That Scale Content Operations

Manage and add approvals

Manage and add approvals at key stages in the process. For example, before moving a piece to edit it needs to be approved by the content manager.

Automation rules

Automate the creation of subtasks on a task based on the section it is moved to. Get reminders on tasks that are soon due or overdue.

Forms

Collect ideas in the content backlog through publicly available forms

Dashboard

Use the dashboard to get a quick overview of the system/process performance.

Graphs showing completed and open tickets.

Complete Asana Content Calendar Template Breakdown

The content calendar template comes as a .csv that you can upload during project creation. This will prepopulate your board with the main content creation stages as outlined below.

Content creation process modeled in the template

  • Content Backlog: This is where all your content ideas go. It’s a prioritized list of content ideas. If you are using Asana Premium you can use the “Form” feature to collect content ideas from stakeholders.
  • Preparation: This is where you get your content ready to be worked on. Write a content brief. Assign a due date. Find and identify a writer. Hand it off to writers. Giving enough context to writers reduced revisions at a later stage.
  • Writing: This is where content gets written. From a first draft to feedback rounds to a finished article ready for editing.
  • Editing: At this stage, the content gets refined and made ready for publishing. From proofreading to copyediting to SEO optimizations to adding links and so on.
  • Scheduling: We have the final content piece. Now we need to get it ready for publishing. This includes creating design assets, adding them to the CMS, and scheduling for publishing.
  • Scheduled: Everything is prepared. The content is just waiting to be published.
  • Published: Content is published and ready to be promoted.
  • Promoting: Content is actively promoted via defined channels.
  • Done: Time to party and celebrate yet another content piece going live.

It also includes:

  • A how-to-get-started guide.
  • A template task for content pieces, ready for you to copy and adapt.
  • Predefined sub-tasks on the template task for easy adaptation.
Shows project overview in Asana with predefined links and goal.

Download the Asana Content Calendar Template

Download the Asana Content Calendar Template.

How to Customize Your Asana Content Calendar System

Add Context To Your Content Strategy

Include essential context in your project overview page:

  • Provide information about your target audience
  • Provide links to content goals, cadence, channels, etc.
  • Provide playbooks to align across your team on how to best get certain tasks done.

Essential Content Calendar Resources:

Adapt the Workflow to Your Team

Customize these elements:

  • Adapt the sections to fit your specific workflow
  • Modify the subtasks on the Template Task for your content types
  • Adjust timeline estimates based on your team’s capacity and quality standards

Make the template your own. Have everything you need to publish great content predictably. A well-prioritized backlog with excellent content ideas relevant to your audience. Know the status of each content piece as it moves through its creation process. Get full visibility of what content will be published and when. Identify opportunities for co-promotion and distribution.

A well-organized content calendar is one of the core building blocks of a predictable and scalable content engine.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does it take to set up this Asana content calendar system?

Initial setup takes 15-30 minutes using our template. Customizing workflow stages and subtasks for your specific needs adds another 30-60 minutes. Training your team on the new system typically requires 1-2 hours.

Can this system work for teams publishing less than 10 pieces per month?

Absolutely. The workflow scales down easily—smaller teams can combine stages and simplify subtasks. Even teams publishing 3-5 pieces monthly benefit from the organization and consistency this system provides.

What's the difference between Asana's default template and this system?

Asana's default template provides basic sections without subtasks, automation, or strategic guidance. This system includes battle-tested workflows, comprehensive templates, automation recommendations, and optimization strategies based on managing hundreds of content pieces.

Do I need Asana Premium for this to work effectively?

The core system works on Asana's free plan. Premium features (automation rules, custom fields, advanced reporting) significantly improve efficiency but aren't required for basic functionality.

How do I handle content that requires legal or compliance review?

Add a 'Legal Review' stage between 'Editing' and 'Scheduling.' Create subtasks for legal team review, revision requests, and approval documentation. Set longer lead times for compliance-sensitive content.

Can multiple team members work on the same content piece simultaneously?

Yes. Asana's collaboration features support multiple assignees, parallel subtasks, and real-time commenting. Use subtask assignments to clarify responsibilities and prevent duplicate work.

How do I track content performance within the calendar system?

Add performance tracking subtasks to the 'Done' stage including analytics review, social media performance analysis, and lead attribution tracking. Use custom fields to record key metrics directly in each task.

About the Author

Manuel Weiss avatar

Manuel Weiss

Since co-founding, growing, and selling his SaaS business for software development teams in 2018, Manuel has been helping tech companies build out their Digital Marketing ans Sales organizations for years, helping generate hundreds of thousands of leads and millions in revenue.

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