“For every minute spent in organising,
an hour is earned.”– Benjamin Franklin
Being an entrepreneur is thrilling and filled with ups and downs, but the down times can be emotionally and mentally taxing. To help me stay on track, I use Trello – a marvellous tool that keeps my business running smoothly! If you haven’t heard of it already, let me introduce you to this fantastic asset.
Trello is a collaborative project management platform that allows you to visualise and organise your tasks, projects, and processes. It can simplify the way you manage your business and make it easier for others to collaborate. Here are five tips on how Trello can help automate your business.
Trello also includes features for team collaboration such as group boards, calendar views and integrated chat. You can assign tasks to other members or even invite external collaborators to join the board.
How to Start Using Trello
1. Create recurring tasks
To prevent yourself and your team from forgetting important tasks, set up recurring tasks for each stage of the project lifecycle. This can help ensure nothing falls through the cracks. For example, a daily standup can be used to review progress and identify any potential issues. Or set up weekly check-ins with stakeholders to keep them in the loop on your project’s progress. A biweekly status report is also a good idea for keeping track of accomplishments and challenges over time. Recurring tasks will help you stay organised and on track throughout your project.
2. Automate notifications
By setting up automated notifications on Trello, everyone in your team will be kept up to date with the latest changes and progress. This can save time and provide useful feedback when issues arise. For instance, a card could be set up to notify team members whenever something is added or modified in the project board. This way, everyone will have access to the same information, no matter where they are or what they’re doing.
3. Streamline collaboration
With Trello’s built-in chat feature, members of your team can have real-time conversations without having to leave the platform. This helps increase productivity as everyone has access to all the relevant information they need in one place. Through chat, team members can quickly discuss progress and share ideas, allowing for quicker decision-making and problem-solving. And with Trello’s mobile app, you can stay connected no matter where you are.
4. Set up automated checklists
Streamline your workflow by setting up automated checklists to track the progress of each task. This will help you keep all team members accountable and on track. Automated checklists can be set up to send reminders when a task is not completed on time or when the project reaches certain milestones. This will ensure that everyone stays focused and on top of their work. Plus, it eliminates any guesswork about who has finished what and ensures that everything gets done efficiently and accurately.
5. Integrate with other tools
Trello integrates seamlessly with many popular business tools like Slack, Google Drive, and Dropbox so you can access all your files and documents in one place. Plus, all your data is synced across devices so you can keep working from anywhere. This makes it easier to collaborate with remote teams and stay up-to-date no matter where you are. With Trello’s powerful integration capabilities, it has never been easier to increase productivity and workflow efficiency.
This list person has faced numerous issues with endless, duplicated lists. But then I encountered Trello which instantly revolutionised the way I manage my tasks. What’s more amazing is that it can automate repetitive actions and remind me to do things while eliminating chaos and overwhelm – making life a lot simpler!
However, to get you started and acclimated with the features of Trello, here’s a straightforward approach.
What is Trello?
Trello is the ultimate organisational platform for streamlining and keeping track of your work, enabling you to easily compile the information into boards and lists. It is a simple, yet powerful tool that can be used for everything from personal to-do lists and creative projects to team collaboration.
The main feature of Trello is its boards. You can create multiple boards and add cards to each board. The cards contain information such as notes, images, checklists, labels and due dates. You can also add attachments, and comments and assign members to each card.
Trello boards are extremely easy to use and customizable. You can group cards into lists and even categorise them with labels for better organisation. Additionally, you can create customised backgrounds for each board or set due dates for individual tasks on the cards.
To begin to use the main website mechanics is simple:
- Create a “Card” for each project or task you need to complete
- Place these cards on any of the boards (lists) as needed
- Label the cards with the due date, and priority, and assign them to yourself or another team member
- Assign comments or discussions to specific “cards” as needed
- Create templates for those repeating tasks and projects
Start with a Blank Trello Board
Trello is an innovative, online application that helps you streamline your projects and seamlessly collaborate with others.
A blank board:
- Create a row for each project and add columns with the title of tasks for each project (e.g. “Research”, “Ideas”).
- Add rows for yourself and anyone who will be working with you on the project, then add cards for tasks that need to be done.
- To add a card, click on the “Add Card” button in the top right corner of a row or column, type in the name of the task, assign it to yourself or someone else on your team by dragging their name from inside Trello onto a card, and leave a description of what you’ll do next to complete it.
This way, the ideas and tasks in cards are categorised simply by theme or person, and everyone can add things underneath each column as they see fit.
“Keep your business organised and simple, that is the obvious secret most entrepreneurs overlook.”
– Samantha Morris
Create lists for your different projects
Trello is a great service for making simple lists. Here are some ideas:
- List of tasks to do:
- List of blog posts to write:
- List of topics for videos:
- List of clients and their needs:
- List for all the different projects I am working on.
Add cards to the right list based on their type
There are 3 types of cards:
- Regular cards: Just added to each list. Can do this on any board you like.
- Card with a link: this card can be for online documents or web pages that need attention, you can add images to make it clearer.
- Separator cards: by adding at least three hyphens to a separator card you can create clarity in your list.
Assign a due date for each card based on the type of task it is (keywords – date due, due date, card due date)
Depending on its nature, you can assign a due date to each card. This information will be displayed in the form of an orange dot next to it once it has been entered. When this deadline arrives, the colour shifts from orange to red as a reminder that action needs to be taken by whoever is responsible for completing this task.
When the card is for an idea, there’s no need to rush—after all, it’s just a first step in the process of content creation. Thus, owe yourself grace and assign ‘no date’ as the due date. This will ensure you have ample time to brainstorm and craft your concept with excellence!
Organise your cards into columns based on what stage they are in the pipeline. (keywords – column for each stage in pipeline, column for each stage of project management plan)
There are many stages in the pipeline and you should organise your cards accordingly.
Column 1: Not Started
Column 2: In Progress
Column 3: Completed
Visual learners will benefit greatly from organising their projects and tasks in a board-like format because it enables them to have an overview of the progress they’ve made. It’s also extremely useful for proofreading materials and staying on top of everything that needs to be done. This blog post was created by utilising lists within a board – which shows just how effective this method can be!
My Final Thoughts on Trello
Taking advantage of the wonders that come from utilising a tool like Trello to arrange and automate your life and business requires an investment–you must put some time into it and consider what matters to you, as well as how you’d want things done. Very much like with any other application or software, its usefulness relies solely on the data given by users along with set protocols.
