Demonstrates proper use of async and await keywords, and breaking back into synchronous code without any duplication of logic.

Async Demo

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.Diagnostics;
using ExtensionMethods;

namespace TaskTest
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            MainAsync().Wait();

            Console.WriteLine("\nPress any key to end.");
            Console.ReadKey();
        }

        static async Task MainAsync()
        {
            Stopwatch s = Stopwatch.StartNew();
            s.Checkpoint("Very beginning");

            s.Checkpoint("Before sync start");
            Foo f1 = MakeAFoo();
            s.Checkpoint("After sync end");

            Console.WriteLine("\n\n");

            s.Checkpoint("Before async start");
            Task<Foo> f2Task = MakeAFooAsync();
            s.Checkpoint("After async return");
            // we can continue doing whatever we want here, as long as it doesn't rely on the result from f2Task
            Foo f2 = await f2Task;
            s.Checkpoint("After awaited Task");
        }

        public static async Task<Foo> MakeAFooAsync()
        {
            await Task.Delay(3000); // could be anything - constructing an object, calling a server...
            return new Foo();
        }

        public static Foo MakeAFoo()
        {
            return MakeAFooAsync().Result;
        }
    }

    class Foo { }
}

namespace ExtensionMethods
{
    public static class ExtensionMethods
    {
        public static void Checkpoint(this Stopwatch sw, string note = "", int indentSize = 0)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("{0}Checkpoint: {1} ms; {2}", String.Concat(Enumerable.Repeat("\t", indentSize)), sw.ElapsedMilliseconds, note);
        }
    }
}