How to Consolidate GitHub, Jira, Asana, Linear, Notion, and Email Tasks in One List Without Switching Tools

If you manage multiple projects or clients, your tasks are likely scattered across GitHub, Jira, Asana, Linear, Notion, and even your inbox. Constantly switching between tools doesn’t just waste time—it fragments your focus and increases the risk of missing something critical. The solution isn’t migrating everything to a single platform (which is impractical if you work with teams using different tools), but grouping tasks from multiple apps in one place without switching tools. This way, you keep each project’s workflow intact while gaining a unified view to prioritize and progress without losing context.

Why You Need to Consolidate Your Tasks in One Place

When you use separate apps for each project, each has its own logic: GitHub shows issues and pull requests, Jira prioritizes tickets with complex workflows, Asana organizes tasks into projects, Linear groups issues by teams, Notion mixes databases with documentation pages, and emails often remain as loose reminders. This creates three key problems:

• Loss of context: Switching between apps forces you to remember where each task is and its current status. For example, a code review in GitHub might be blocked by a Jira task you missed because you were in Asana.
• Difficulty prioritizing: Without a global view, it’s impossible to compare which task is more urgent—a critical bug in Linear or a pending delivery in Notion. You end up working on whatever the last app notified you about, not what truly matters.
• Time wasted switching tools: Studies show that context-switching between apps can consume up to 40% of your workday. Every time you open a new tab, you lose seconds (or minutes) reorienting yourself, and those seconds add up.

Productivity isn’t about doing more things—it’s about doing the right things at the right time, and that’s impossible if you can’t see all your tasks in one place.

How Foco Solves the Problem: Step-by-Step

1. Connect Your Tools Without Migrating Data

Foco doesn’t force you to abandon your current apps. Instead, it uses OAuth connections to automatically pull tasks assigned to you in GitHub, Jira, Asana, Linear, and Notion. So, every time someone mentions you in a GitHub issue or assigns you a task in Asana, it appears in Foco as a new task with the same title, description, and deadlines. No duplicates or manual migrations: The task still exists in its original app, but now you see it alongside the rest.

To set this up, go to Settings > Connections and select the tool you want to connect. Foco will request read permissions (never write permissions unless you enable the 'complete tasks in the source' option). Each connection has two options:

• Automatic destination work: Foco analyzes the task content and assigns it to the most relevant work (container). For example, a GitHub issue tagged frontend will go to the Web Development work.
• Fixed work: All tasks from that connection go to a single work you choose, such as Client X or Project Y.

2. Organize Your Tasks by Works (Not Projects)

Unlike apps like Asana or Notion, which organize tasks by projects or workspaces, Foco uses works as containers. A work can be a client, a personal project, an area of responsibility (like Marketing or Support), or even your home life. Each work has a name and a color you define, and all its tasks inherit that color. This allows you to:

• Visually identify which task belongs to which context. For example, Client A tasks appear in blue, Internal Development tasks in green, and personal tasks in gray.
• Filter with one click: In Focus mode, you only see tasks from one specific work, ideal for concentrating on a client or project without distractions.
• Avoid mixing contexts: If you use a spreadsheet or a generic app, it’s easy for a client’s tasks to get mixed with another’s. In Foco, each work is a visual silo you can open or close as needed.

3. Configure Which Tasks Sync and How

Not all tasks from your external tools are equally important. Foco lets you adjust what gets pulled in and what gets ignored:

• Status filters: By default, Foco only pulls tasks in To Do or In Progress status. You can exclude completed or archived tasks to reduce noise.
• Tag or priority filters: If you only want to see high-priority tickets in Jira, configure the connection to ignore the rest.
• 'Complete in source' option: If you enable this, marking a task as done in Foco will automatically close it in the original app (e.g., a GitHub issue or an Asana task). This avoids updating status in two places.

4. Centralize Your Emails as Tasks Too

Emails are often a constant source of pending tasks, but they rarely integrate with the rest of your workflow. With Foco, you can forward any email to your personal capture address (u-xxxx@in.heyfoco.com, unique to each user), and Foco will convert it into a task with the subject as the title and the email body attached as a note. This is useful for:

• Client requests: An email with a brief or an urgent request becomes a task with a due date and priority.
• Reminders: Emails requiring action (like confirming a meeting or sending a document) no longer get lost in your inbox.
• Invoice tracking: An email with a pending invoice can become a recurring task to check its status.

The capture address is private, and you can rotate it anytime from Settings > Copilot. Foco automatically extracts dates, times, and priorities from the email text, but you can always edit the task before saving it.

Views to Manage Your Tasks Without Losing Track

Once all your tasks are in Foco, you need ways to visualize them that fit your workflow. Foco offers three views you can switch between with one click:

1. List View: Group by Dates and Priorities

The List view organizes your tasks into sections by due date: Today, This Week, Later, and No Date. Within each section, tasks appear sorted by priority (urgent, important, normal). This is ideal for:

• Planning your day: You see at a glance what you need to do today without checking each app separately.
• Prioritizing across works: If you have an urgent task for Client A and an important one for Project B, the list helps you decide which to tackle first.
• Filtering by due date: You can change the grouping criteria to see tasks ordered by their deadline, not by when you plan to work on them.

2. Kanban View: Customizable Workflows

If you prefer a visual approach, the Kanban view lets you create custom columns (like To Do, In Progress, Review, and Done) and drag tasks between them. On desktop, dragging is smooth; on mobile, you use tabs. This view is useful for:

• Tracking complex task states: For example, a development workflow with columns like Backlog, Development, Testing, and Deployed.
• Multi-stage works: If you manage an editorial project, you can have columns like Ideas, Draft, Editing, and Published.
• Collaboration: If you work with a team, you can assign tasks to other members and see who’s working on what.

3. Calendar View: Integrate Tasks and Events in One Place

The Calendar view shows your tasks alongside events from your external calendar (Google Calendar or Outlook). Tasks appear as time blocks based on their due date and duration, while external events appear in gray (read-only). This lets you:

• Avoid overlaps: If you have a meeting at 10:00 AM and a task scheduled for 9:30 AM with a 1-hour duration, you’ll see there isn’t enough time.
• Plan realistic days: If your calendar is full of meetings, you can postpone tasks to days with more availability.
• See everything in one place: You no longer need to open two apps to know what’s on your agenda.

Comparison with Asana: Why Foco Wins for Freelancers and Small Teams

Asana is a powerful project management tool, but it has key limitations for those managing multiple works or clients at once:

• Free plan limited to 2 users: If you collaborate with multiple clients, Asana’s free plan falls short. Foco, on the other hand, allows unlimited works and tasks in its free plan, ideal for freelancers juggling multiple projects.
• Minimum of 2 seats for paid plans: Asana’s Starter plan costs $10.99/user/month (billed annually) but requires a minimum of 2 seats. If you work alone, you pay for a user you don’t need. Foco has no minimums: you pay only for what you use (€4/month for the Foco plan or €20/month for the Plus plan).
• Project-focused, not work-focused: Asana organizes tasks by projects, which can be confusing if a single client has multiple projects. Foco uses works as containers, making it easier to separate contexts (e.g., Client A - Development and Client A - Support).
• No email integration: Asana doesn’t allow converting emails into tasks automatically. Foco does, thanks to its email capture address (u-xxxx@in.heyfoco.com).
• Calendar view limited in free plan: In Asana, the Timeline view (similar to a calendar) is only available in paid plans. Foco includes the calendar view in its €4/month plan.

That said, Asana is a better option if:

• You work in a large team with complex workflows: Asana offers advanced automations and portfolios that Foco doesn’t have.
• You need task dependencies: Asana lets you set relationships between tasks (e.g., Task B can’t start until Task A is complete). Foco doesn’t support dependencies.
• You use forms to capture tasks: Asana includes customizable forms for collecting requests, something Foco doesn’t offer.

The Asana prices mentioned are as of July 9, 2026 and may change. For freelancers, solopreneurs, or small teams managing multiple works at once, Foco offers a more flexible and cost-effective alternative, especially if you value email integration, a unified task view, and no minimum user requirements.

Tips to Keep Your Unified Task List Under Control

Consolidating your tasks in one place is just the first step. To make the system work long-term, follow these practices:

1. Review Your Connections Weekly

External tools may change their APIs, or your permissions may expire. Every week, check Settings > Connections to ensure all your integrations are still working. If a connection fails, Foco will notify you, but prevention is better.

2. Use Tags to Group Cross-Work Tasks

While works separate contexts, sometimes you need to see tasks from different works that share a theme. For example, all tasks related to documentation or billing. Use color-coded tags to group them and filter by them when you need a thematic focus. In Foco, tags are unlimited, and each can have its own color.

3. Leverage the Daily Briefing to Prioritize

[How to Apply the 1-3-5 Rule for Productivity Across Multiple Jobs Without Feeling Overwhelmed]( /p/how-to-apply-the-1-3-5-rule-for-productivity-across-multiple-jobs-without-feeling-overwhelmed) explains how to focus on what matters, but Foco’s daily briefing helps you apply it. Every morning (or at the time you choose), Foco generates a summary with:

• What you accomplished yesterday: To celebrate progress and stay motivated.
• What needs attention today: Urgent or important tasks requiring immediate action.
• What’s due today: Deadlines you can’t postpone.
• What others owe you: Tasks assigned to others that are blocking your progress.
• Calendar updates: Events or meetings affecting your availability.
• The highest-impact task: A key task that, if completed today, will have a ripple effect on your productivity.

The briefing is generated automatically from your tasks and events, and you can receive it via email if you prefer. It’s like having an assistant reminding you what deserves your attention today.

4. Use Listen Mode to Capture Meetings

Meetings often generate tasks that never get recorded. With Foco’s Listen mode, you can record the meeting (with timestamps) and transcribe it automatically. The audio and transcription are saved as a note attached to a task, but Foco doesn’t create tasks on its own—you decide which actions to extract. This is useful for:

• Client meetings: Note agreements and create tasks directly from the transcription.
• Support calls: If a client reports a bug, record the call and attach it to the corresponding GitHub or Jira task.
• Brainstorming sessions: Capture ideas and turn them into tasks with one click.

Conclusion: A System That Adapts to You

Grouping tasks from multiple apps in one place without switching tools isn’t about replacing what already works—it’s about eliminating the friction of jumping between contexts. Foco doesn’t force you to migrate data, abandon your favorite tools, or pay for features you don’t need. Instead, it gives you a unified view of what truly matters: what you need to do today, what you can’t postpone, and what deserves your attention.

If you manage multiple works, clients, or projects, try connecting your tools in Foco and see how your workflow changes. Start with one connection (e.g., GitHub or Asana) and add more as you get comfortable. The key is to start small and scale: don’t try to consolidate everything at once, but build a system that grows with you.

For more on organizing tasks across multiple contexts, check out [Batch processing for multiple jobs: how to group similar tasks and reduce context switching]( /p/batch-processing-for-multiple-jobs-how-to-group-similar-tasks-and-reduce-context-switching).

FAQ

Can I group tasks from Trello or ClickUp in Foco?

Currently, Foco doesn’t have native integration with Trello or ClickUp. However, you can use email capture (u-xxxx@in.heyfoco.com) to forward tasks from these apps and convert them into Foco tasks. You can also vote for new integrations in the app’s feedback panel.

What happens if a task is updated in the original app (e.g., GitHub)? Does it sync in Foco?

Yes. Foco syncs task changes every time you open the app or manually with the refresh button. If someone modifies the title, description, or status of a task in GitHub, Jira, or Asana, those changes will reflect in Foco.

Can I assign tasks to other team members in Foco?

Yes, but only if they’re invited to that specific work. You can invite collaborators via email from the app, and they must accept the invitation. Once inside, you can assign them tasks, but they won’t see your other works unless you invite them to those as well.

Does Foco work offline?

Yes. Foco saves a local copy of your tasks and syncs changes when you regain internet access. However, features that rely on external integrations (like GitHub sync or the daily briefing) require an internet connection.

How do I prevent Foco from filling up with irrelevant tasks?

Use filters in each connection to exclude tasks by status, tags, or priority. For example, configure the Jira connection to only pull high-priority tickets. You can also archive tasks in Foco without affecting the original app.