Monday 16 October 2017

How I use Trello to organise my life

I like to think I'm an organised person. I am generally on top of what needs to be done and when, and I like to work ahead of myself by writing lists and making plans to help keep things under control. I wrote a blog post recently about how I use Trello as a blogger, and I thought I'd expand on that with how I also use Trello to organise some of the other aspects of my life.

How I organise my life using Trello



Trello is an online organisational tool that uses cards, lists and boards to keep track of individual tasks and projects. I have lots of boards, some which are in regular use and some that I open less frequently. I'm always creating new boards for things that I'm working on, and I have shortcuts on my bookmarks bar for those that use most often.

The board that I open first every day is my To Do board. I use this board every evening to create my to do list for the next day. Each task is represented by a card. I have a number of tasks relating to my blog and social media that I carry out daily, and these are coded with an orange label. Daily housework tasks have a yellow label, and blog related tasks have a blue label. Anything with no label is a one off task, and I delete it when I've done it.

I have daily and weekly lists. At any one time I usually have a daily list for the current day and the following day, and a weekly list for the current week and the following week. When I've completed a recurring task I drag it across to either the next day or the next week. On a Sunday evening I'll set up the next weekly list.

I create additional lists as I need them, for example I currently have a list for things that I need to do before we go away in a few weeks, and a list of things that I'll need to schedule in for when we get back. I also have some general monthly lists for tasks that aren't urgent. Obviously my lists are personal and represent what works for me, but here's a sample!

Using Trello to organise my life - sample screen shot

You may notice that I have a counter next to the list title showing how many cards are in this list. This is a Google Chrome extension called CardCounter that I have installed, I find it really helpful. You may also notice that next to the name of the board it says 'Jain Team' rather than my name. This is because it is a shared board with my husband so that in theory I can allocate tasks to him, although in reality he doesn't pay much attention!

I also have lists elsewhere on my board for short term and long term projects, as well as crafty ideas that I want to try sometime, and lists for other things as they come up, for example ideas for the school holidays or books that I want to read.

I find it really helpful to work through my lists, and really satisfying to delete and drag away cards as I finish a task. I hope that this post has inspired you to give Trello a go, I really do find that it helps me!

If you want to see how I also use Trello elsewhere in my life you might enjoy these posts:

How I use Trello to plan a holiday
How I use Trello as a blogger

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