Trello: the Ultimate Behind-the-Scenes Organization Tool

First and foremost, it must be said that I do not work for Trello, nor am I getting compensated in any way for what I'm about to share with you. Unlike traditional influencers who make money wearing designer clothes and using new products while they rave about a specific brand, I am a whole new kind of influencer... the kind with approximately 3 followers (all of which I know personally), no advertisers and a whopping $0 coming my way for the information I'm about to share with you. I could tell you that it's because I'm above all that and don't feel the need to be compensated for my opinion, but the truth is that I simply haven't found anyone willing to pay me for my opinion. Yet :) Until I do, the thoughts and feelings expressed here on my blog remain 100% my own.

I digress...

If you're looking for organization tips on closets and pantries and toy rooms, this isn't the post for you. Today we're going to talk about all of the behind-the-scenes stuff that no one else can see: the calendar, appointments, sports schedules, home maintenance... you know... the crap we all wish we had a personal assistant to handle.

I stumbled upon Trello several years ago in my search for a task management tool for work. A few things immediately stood out as beneficial: as a nonprofit organization, the price of zero dollars was incredibly appealing; the ability for multiple staff members to connect in one space to collaborate on projects was particularly useful given my remote work status; and, last but certainly not least, with a never ending opportunity to create checklists, I knew I'd found a tool that would make my heart happy day after day. While there is a cost to their upgraded version, I can assure you from personal experience that their free features are perfect for keeping track of a wide range of household and business tasks.

As you know from my previous post, I love making lists! Trello has provided me with the ultimate tool for keeping all of my lists in one place and, if you like lists even a little bit, I highly recommend giving it a try for yourself.

Today, I thought I'd dive into the basics of Trello for anyone that wants to see what it's all about. Certainly, you can visit their website to learn more, but since I, myself, am a skeptic when it comes to most things on the internet, I thought it might be more effective to share directly from my personal experience rather than telling you it's great and sending you off to their site.

Let's start with the signup - it's easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy - I used my google account for simple future sign-ins, but there are several ways to set up an account using minimal information (I hate when creating an account on a new site feels like applying for a mortgage). Once your account is created, you'll name your workspace. I got really creative and used the default "Trello Workspace." Fortunately for me, I can go back and rename this whenever something more original comes to mind (like a good comeback, I'm no good in the moment, but within a few days something witty should come to mind).

Before getting too far ahead of myself, I think it's important to understand the basic structure of Trello. Your WORKSPACE is the overarching umbrella that things fall under. For example, I have a workspace specifically for my work as an employee of a nonprofit organization. I work there part time and that work is completely separate from anything I do personally, so that workspace is kept separate from my personal workspace. My work workspace has several boards (2 of which are mine and another 4 that I share with other members of the staff) and are designed to cover the big picture parts of my job (i.e. marketing, 5K planning, etc.). My personal workspace (for my free account) can have up to 10 boards, although I only use a few. 

Each BOARD can have a theme (color or background image) to suit your needs and/or your mood and can be changed anytime. As you can see from my screenshots below, I went with a calming flower theme for my Home Management board. On that board you'll see several default LISTS, which can (and should) be changed to fit your needs.

You can certainly keep as many lists as you want on a board, but I would caution you against using too many as it creates a need to scroll endlessly to find what you're looking for. If you're going to have so many lists, it might be worth creating additional boards.

Under each list you'll find your CARDS. Think of these like digital post-it notes that can be sorted into lists and moved around freely. There is nothing permanent about how you set up your Trello board, so move things around until you find what you like.

Now that my Home Management board has some lists that I find useful and some cards in each list, I can start playing around with some of the more effective features. Let's start with the Summer 2023 card in my Vacation Planning list. When I click on that card, it opens to provide several different ways to add details about this trip. The description section is a place for open text and the checklist section makes it easy to create and edit your to do list specifically related to this trip. You can also add due dates, attachments & members (more on those later).

You can also add colored labels to cards if you want certain things to stand out. In my Home Projects list you'll see that each card is tagged with a different color label. I've chosen to name those labels so that I don't have to remember them. These labels would also be easy to utilize for my Recurring Appointments list, or I could simply create additional labels for other purposes depending on my needs for each list. Added bonus to using labels: if you click on 'filter' you can filter your entire board by a variety of things, including labels, so if you use them well, they'll come in very handy as your board fills up over time.

Each card can also have its own cover photo which could be used for a wide range of purposes. For this board, I elected to highlight the different sports that I have cards for so they stand out. You can also use your own personal photos as cover photos. For work, we use sponsor logos so that, when scrolling through a list of sponsors, it's easy to find the card for the sponsor we're looking for without having to read each card's name.

As mentioned earlier, one of my favorite things about Trello is how easy it is to move the cards around on the board. They can move from one list to another or be archived completely. Whenever my cards have dates (like doctor appointments for example), I like to reorder them so they're in order by date. My floating Pediatrician card here shows how easy it is to drag and drop the card to a new location, up or down the same list or to another list entirely.

Once I add dates for my next scheduled appointments, it's easy to see what's coming up without having to scroll through my calendar on my phone.

Here I've created another card in my Home Projects list where I can save info about the projects I want to do but am not quite ready to plan. In this example, I've also added a note about how I want to work towards that goal by saving money from each paycheck and I've renamed my Checklist to better describe what this list is. And what's really cool about this is, once I'm ready to move forward with planning for any one of these projects, I can hover over that checklist item and an ellipses appears (you know... those three dots that indicate there's more...). If you click on the ellipses and select "convert to card" it automatically removes this task from this checklist and creates a new card on your Trello board. I've circled the spot where the ellipses appears even though it's not shown here.

A few additional features that make Trello even more awesome:

Due dates: If you're someone that needs to keep track of a whole lot of things, each card can be set to send you reminders at different intervals based off the due date. For example, if you have a dentist appointment, you can set a reminder for 2 days beforehand and you'll receive a notification 48 hours before that due date to remind you of that appointment. The reminder setting can be different for each card, so you can pick and choose what you want to be reminded of.

Attachments: Maybe you want to keep scanned documents handy for some reason (insurance cards, vehicle registration, birth certificates, business cards). You can attach them to cards in Trello so that everything is easily accessed in one place.

Members: If you have other members of your household or colleagues that need to access the same information, all you need to do is add them to your board or your workspace using their email address. Adding them to your workspace gives them access to all of your boards, or you can add them to just one board. They'll have to set up their own Trello account (also free), but your workspace or board will be shared with them so they can view and make edits as well. Updates are made real-time, so if you're both in Trello at the same time, the updates will appear as they're saved. Additionally, you can utilize the feature of adding members to cards so that you can use the filter feature to see only what's important to one person and or be alerted to changes made to your cards.

The app: Possibly one of the very best things about Trello is that it's not only amazing on a computer, but is also extremely user friendly through the app. Everything appears the same in both formats making it easy to switch between the two seamlessly. Using the app means you can also get notifications about upcoming due dates and card changes right on your phone (rather than just email) and you can easily access any card info, checklists and attachments on the go.

I think it's pretty clear that I'm a huge fan of Trello. There are countless ways that it can be used to keep track of things and this example is just one way that Trello can help bring calm to life's chaos. What could you use Trello for in your everyday life? If you're looking for help, I'd be thrilled to assist you in customizing your own workspace to fit your needs!

Happy Trello-ing :)