Trello Tutorial: Manage Your Tasks & Projects Like a Badass

​About Trello

This board is now ready to take in cards and to process them. Think of the a card, as mentioned above, as a unit of work. Each unit of work enters the board on the left side, in the first list and moves through to board towards the right, until it is completed.

As work is done, tasks flow from left to right through this workspace and you can get an at-a-glance view of what's in progress, what's done and what's important to do next.

The lists we've created each have a specific purpose.

The "In" list is where all new work comes in. Whenever a new task comes in from anywhere or you have a new idea, create a card for it in the "In" column. One major advantage of using this list is that you can get stuff out of your head. Or, when a new task comes your way, you can make sure that it's added to the list, even if you don't have time to take care of it or prioritize it right that moment. But having it in the "In" list gives you peace of mind, because you know this will be processed eventually.

The "This Week" list is where you add tasks once a week, from the "In" list. These are higher priority or more urgent tasks, that you want to get done by the end of the week. Ideally, you only populate this list once a week and then empty it out over the course of the week. Realistically, sometimes new tasks will be added during the week and you won't always be able to clear everything. But that's okay. It's better to have an imperfect plan for the week than no plan at all.

The "Today" list is, you guessed it, where you add tasks you want to get done today. Depending on your preference, you can pull tasks into "Today" either every morning or every evening, to plan the next day.

The "Waiting" list is for tasks where you've done all the work you can do and you're waiting for something or someone else. An example of this from my work: when I've finished recording a video, I hand it off to my editor. At this point, the video isn't finished yet, but my work on the video is done, for the time being. Until the editor is done with their part of the work, the task is pending for me and I want to get it out of my "in progress" lists.

The "Done" list is for tasks that are completed. You can also choose to immediately archive tasks that are done (more on that later). The advantage of having a "Done" column is that it lets you periodically review the work you've completed in the last week or month.

Sorting by Priority

There's one more basic principle we need to put into place, in order to get the most out of Trello. Above, we looked at how cards flow from left to right through a process. The second crucial factor is to sort cards within a list by priority. Place the highest priority cards at the top of the list.

Get used to sorting cards like this and periodically re-order cards as priorities shift. As a result, you'll be able to get a comprehensive overview of your work at a glance, on your Trello board. You'll immediately see what work is in what stage and what's the most important stuff to work on next.

What Goes Into Trello Cards?

Each Trello card can contain all kinds of information and you can use a card to represent an entire, large project or just a single task. You can also integrate Trello with countless other apps and share data between them and Trello.

With so many options, what should you populate cards with, for maximum productivity?

Not Too Much, Not Too Little

You can definitely put too much into a Trello card, making it lose the advantage of giving you quickly accessible information. But I also don't recommend making a separate card for each micro-task - that will just clutter up your board.

I've done into more detail on this in my video on Board Velocity, but in short, here's my recommendation: ideally, one Trello card represents a piece of work that can be done in a day or less.

Yes: Checklists, Descriptions, Links

Most typically, I will use checklists in a card and I'll add notes and links to the description field. Here's a simplified example of what I usually "store" in a card:

I love using checklists within cards. This allows me to break any task into micro-tasks and gives a greater sense of momentum, as I'm getting work done. Checklists are also great for any task that comes with a repeating process. For example, making sure you do all the right steps when publishing a new blog post or sending out a newsletter.

No: Content Writing, Long Discussions

I don't write content in Trello or use Trello for extensive note taking. If there are documents related to a card, I will simply add a link to that document in the card description. In my business, we use Google Drive to store documents and other resources. But something like Dropbox, Evernote or countless other options could work just as well.

Every Trello card comes with a comment field. I only use the comment field for a few specific purposes:

• When a card is moved into "Waiting" I add a comment with a note about what this task is waiting for.
• I use @mentions to ping team members about important card updates.

I don't use the comments function in Trello to actually discuss work. I think it gets too overcrowded, too fast. I would much rather meet face to face, get on a call or use a dedicated app like Slack for work related discussions.

How to Use Trello Labels

A neat feature in Trello is that you can add labels to cards. You can freely name labels and have as many of them as you want. There are many ways to use labels. Here's my approach: I use labels to categorize different work types.

Here are the labels I use for the ActiveGrowth work board:

If you're working with a team, the very best keyboard shortcut is "Q". Whenever you hit Q, a filter is applied to the board, to show you only cards that are assigned to you.

This is super useful on a crowded board, to help you focus on your own work. Plus, every team member should periodically enter this "only my cards" filtered view to "clean up" and make sure all their cards are in the right lists.