Activity log

Activity log#

We keep a log of the work we do for our communities in Asana. Its purpose is to understand where our effort goes and to generate reports for team members, communities, and funders.

Each activity records:

  • What we did - a short task title and description.

  • Effort in hours - see Time fields.

  • The type of action - mapped to our major areas of work: delivery, operations, connecting, and stewardship.

  • Who it was for - the contract, consortium, or member group the work supported.

How to log activity#

There are two ways to log activity. Use whichever fits your workflow, but log a given task in only one of them so hours aren’t double-counted.

Via GitHub (automatic sync)#

Best if you’re already tracking the work in a GitHub issue.

  • Label the issue with one of the sync labels, like asana-sync. The data-sync repository has the current list of labels.

  • A data-sync automation creates a matching Asana task and syncs the title, description, assignee, GitHub Hours, and status one-directionally from GitHub to Asana. Changes you manually make in Asana are overwritten.

  • Sub-issues sync automatically as sub-tasks; you don’t need to label each one.

  • Close the issue as Completed to mark the Asana task done. Closing it for any other reason (Not planned, Duplicate) removes the Asana task, since the work wasn’t delivered.

Directly in Asana#

Best for logging work retroactively, or work that isn’t tied to a GitHub issue.

  • Add a task to the Activity Log project in Asana.

  • Link the engagement the work supported in the task’s project column.

  • Set the action type, and log your time in Actual time (Asana’s built-in timer works well).

Time fields#

Tasks share a standard set of time fields, and Total Time adds them up:

  • Actual time - time logged directly in Asana, for work not tracked in a GitHub issue.

  • GitHub Hours - hours logged on the linked GitHub issue, synced automatically. Don’t edit it in Asana; the sync overwrites it.

  • Total Time - GitHub Hours plus Actual time. This is the figure we report against an engagement.

  • Estimated time - hours a task is expected to take, used for planning.

Principles for logging time#

  • Count hours per person. If two team members attend a 1-hour meeting, log 2 hours total.

  • Include the work around the work. Preparation, follow-up (like writing a summary), and code review from other team members all count for time.

  • Be generous. People tend to underestimate how long a task takes. Account for context-switching and the on/off-ramp around the task itself.

  • Times are best effort. Use reasonable judgement rather than trying to account for every minute.