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<\/a><\/p>\nSuddenly, it\u2019s 1 p.m., and I\u2019ve barely touched my to-do list. My entire morning has been spent jumping between messaging apps, slide decks, and Zoom calls \u2014 just trying to keep everyone aligned.<\/p>\n
Sound familiar?<\/p>\n
I spoke with Jake Cerf<\/a>, head of corporate marketing at Asana<\/a>, to untangle the biggest challenges most teams currently face when it comes to productivity \u2014 and how you can solve them.<\/p>\n Jake empathizes with the chaos that can ensue when you don\u2019t focus on creating efficient processes for team-wide productivity.<\/p>\n \u201cIt can get chaotic,\u201d he told me, adding, \u201cBefore I joined Asana, I reflected back on how I spent my time coordinating with folks \u2014 and it was a mess. We would be on email, Slack, and Google Docs and Slides. And you never really knew who was doing what, and when, and it was too easy to lose sight of the objective we were all after.\u201d<\/p>\n Which sounds painfully relatable \u2014 especially, if we also pair this with the time we spend on meetings. According to an analysis by Flowtrace, the average employee spent 392 hours on meetings<\/a> in 2024 (which translates to a full 16 days).<\/p>\n Fortunately, Jake shared some tried-and-true tips with me for cleaning up your team\u2019s processes and creating more scalable options to improve cross-functional collaboration.<\/p>\n I always want to know how my work connects to broader strategic initiatives \u2014 and so do most other people. They want to feel seen, valued, and know they are making an impact.<\/p>\n So much of a leader\u2019s job is about making sure people are working on the right priorities and aligning to goals that move the needle. Yet, according to Slingshot<\/a>, over 80% of employees don\u2019t know what they\u2019re working toward, which hurts both productivity and motivation.<\/p>\n That\u2019s what makes a product like Asana so crucial. Jake has an easy time ensuring he isn\u2019t micromanaging his team on specific tasks. That\u2019s because in Asana he can see how each sub-task his team is responsible for ladders up to the company\u2019s key objectives for the year.<\/p>\n Additionally, to solve for conflicting cross-department goals, I think it can be helpful to use one centralized productivity tool that highlights the top-down priorities for the company.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a leader, so much of our job is making sure people are working on the right things, helping unblock team members and enabling them to have a North star. It\u2019s good for productivity because when folks feel like they\u2019re working on things that matter, they do better work,\u201d Jake says.<\/p>\n He adds, \u201cYou don\u2019t have to be as in-the-weeds on the details. You can tell team members the what and the why, and they can figure the rest out. But being clear about big picture objectives unlocks productivity up, down, and across the organization.\u201d<\/p>\n If you\u2019re dealing with productivity issues, I suggest you start by ensuring each leader is aligned on the major company objectives for 2025 \u2014 and then task them with demonstrating how all of their team\u2019s projects ladder up to that ultimate goal. If a task doesn\u2019t fit, it\u2019s time to consider re-focusing on the activities that do.<\/p>\n A 2024 survey by Tech.co found that businesses using AI tools extensively are seeing a 72% boost in productivity<\/a> \u2014 pretty impressive, right?<\/p>\n There\u2019s been plenty of conversation surrounding AI over the past few years, but people are still skeptical about the improvements it can make to their daily lives.<\/p>\n At the same time, however, certain professionals are now strongly relying on it to boost their productivity. Our 2025 survey on AI<\/a> use among marketers worldwide found that 66% use it in their work. In the U.S. alone, this figure is even higher, reaching 74%. I think this explains Jake\u2019s observation that AI has proven much more useful as a teammate <\/em>rather than just a tool.<\/p>\n \u201cMy life changed drastically when I stopped prompting AI<\/a> with generic requests like, \u2018Please write this blog post<\/em>,\u2019 and instead honed in on who I wanted AI to be: \u2018Please write this blog post as if you\u2019re a tech writer at a large-scale SaaS company,<\/em>\u2019\u201d Jake says.<\/p>\n Jake highly recommends assigning AI a \u201crole\u201d when leveraging AI for productivity.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen teams are working on an important initiative, and you give each AI bot its own specific role, the output is much greater. Let\u2019s say you\u2019re writing a blog post \u2014 you can assign AI to be the editor, the fact-checker, or the content strategist,\u201d says Jake.<\/p>\n I noticed these use cases when reviewing the responses to our 2025 State of AI in Marketing<\/a> survey. Over 46% of marketers say they use AI as a researcher and for idea generation, while nearly 37% ask it to create a rough draft and build upon it themselves.<\/p>\n Jake also adds, \u201cIf you use tools like Asana, you\u2019ll have access to AI that is one of the world\u2019s greatest project managers. It can help you unblock issues and triage requests and make sure people are working on the right things.\u201d<\/p>\n Ideally, the productivity tools you leverage already have AI capabilities built in. If not, look into which plug-ins or external tools you might use to increase efficiency.<\/p>\n The antithesis of productivity is busywork. Recent studies show<\/a> that office workers dedicate over 50% of their time to repetitive tasks, such as manual data entry and document creation.<\/p>\n If your team is bogged down by menial tasks, they likely don\u2019t have the energy or time to focus on the big picture objectives that account for most of your team\u2019s impact.<\/p>\n That\u2019s a major roadblock \u2014 and one that can be solved with AI<\/a>.<\/p>\n Jake offers the example of repurposing content as one opportunity for increased productivity. He says, \u201cWith AI, you can take a keynote presentation and ask AI to draft a blog post on the keynote. Or, you can take your keynote script and ask AI to design the presentation itself.\u201d<\/p>\n He continues, \u201cFinding new avenues to increase the longevity and impact of your content is one of the best ways to use AI.\u201d<\/p>\nWhat Teams Get Wrong When It Comes to Productivity<\/strong><\/h2>\n
1. Each team leader needs to know how their work ladders up to corporate objectives \u2014 and they need to make it clear in their workflows.<\/strong><\/h3>\n
2. Assign your AI a \u201crole\u201d to uplevel your team\u2019s productivity.<\/strong><\/h3>\n
3. Leverage AI to minimize busywork.<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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