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The simplicity of Trello is its superpower. It’s not “opinionated”: it doesn’t force you into a particular way of working or thinking. You can set it up to be exactly how you want it to be, yet that setup isn’t daunting because there aren’t a million settings that need fine-tuning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The system I’ve set up on Trello is extremely simple, and makes perfect sense for my style of working. You could call it a lax version of the “Getting Things Done<\/a>” framework: it borrows many of the ideas, but implements them loosely and ditches others. I find it easier to stick to that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My system won’t work for you<\/strong>. You need to experiment to find a system that fits with your personal style. But I believe Trello is the perfect tool for doing that experimentation, because it allows you to do “just enough but not too much” and doesn’t force you to buy into anyone else’s idea of what “productivity” looks like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By sharing my system, I hope it’ll spark some ideas you can modify to come up with something that works for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Columns are the basic skeleton of Trello, and mine are set up like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n With these columns in place, I can use a very basic daily and weekly workflow:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes a task will need to be done on a specific day: for example, it has to be Wednesday because it needs to be finished by Thursday yet I won’t have all the information I need until the end of Tuesday. In these cases, I’ll set a “due date” on the card. Otherwise, I leave the due date blank: I just know that it falls this week or next week, and I can decide as I go along which day it actually gets done on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I then use a Trello feature called Butler<\/a><\/strong> to automatically move everything around on schedule: Next Week becomes This Week on a Monday, Tomorrow becomes Today at midnight…you get the idea. I’ll explain this in more detail later on \u2013 I just wanted you to know now that you don’t have to spend half your life dragging cards from one day to another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Today” is the critical column, because today is (obviously) the only day that I can actually do things on. There are a couple of loose rules I use to make sure I end up with enough on my plate, but not too much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I’m putting my day together (which, as I’ve said, I do at the end of each day by planning “Tomorrow”), I add:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The idea is to make sure the important and<\/em> the urgent both get done, so I’m moving forward what matters without letting other balls drop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I’ll normally have a rough idea in mind of at which point during the day I’m going to get my three meaningful daily tasks done: perhaps one first thing in the morning, then two during a two-hour gap between meetings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I don’t put these into my calendar for those specific times because I get stressed out when it inevitably doesn’t go as planned (something takes longer than expected, or something last-minute crops up that eliminates that time block), but I know this approach works for some people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As each day goes along, I start building up my “Tomorrow” list \u2013 so by the time I get to the end of the day, most of the blocks are in place and it just needs a bit of a review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To be honest, I mainly do this to reduce anxiety. If it becomes clear I’m not going to get through everything on my Today list, I’ll move something to Tomorrow so I have faith that it’ll get done soon even if not now. I’ll also drag things from “This week” when I suddenly realise I really want to get them done but don’t have time for right now. Again, allocating to “Tomorrow” reassures me that it’s going to happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I’ll often have a task that requires asking someone for a piece of information, or perhaps emailing a company asking them to resolve an issue. The task is technically done once I’ve asked or emailed, but how do I make sure I actually get the response I need?<\/p>\n\n\n\n If it exceeds some arbitrary threshold of “feels important enough” or “not confident I’ll hear back”, I’ll add a reminder to my Cracks List \u2013 as in, “falling through the cracks”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some real examples from this week:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Using some automation (which I’ll describe in a minute), whenever I add something to my Cracks list, it adds a “due date” of one week’s time. When that date arrives, the card gets catapulted back onto my “Tomorrow” list so I can follow up if needed. If it gets resolved in the meantime, I’ll just delete it from the Cracks list (or delete it when it pops up on “Tomorrow” if I forget).<\/p>\n\n\n\n This simple system removes a huge amount of mental overhead: once the task is done, I can completely forget about it because I know I’ll be reminded if the matter hasn’t resolved itself within a week. It also allows me to follow up relentlessly and look super-organised even when I’m not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My “Calendar reminders” column is where I put any tasks that I want to pop back into “Tomorrow” on a certain date. For example, it’s great for remembering to cancel free trials where you get automatically billed at the end of the trial period. I also use it for one-off tasks I want to be reminded about further ahead than “Next week”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The key to this is to use Trello’s “due date” feature when creating the card. I then use automation (which I promise I’m coming to next) to make tasks jump back from “Calendar reminders” to “Tomorrow” on the right date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s more common for people to manage this kind of thing by putting a note on their actual calendar, and there’s nothing wrong with doing it that way. I just like doing it in Trello because it’s so quick, and it allows me to maintain a clear “Calendar for appointments \/ Trello for tasks” separation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trello comes with various “power-ups” to add features on top of its basic functionality. One of these is called Butler<\/a>, and it allows you to set up extremely powerful yet easy-to-use automations.<\/p>\n\n\n\nMy column setup in Trello<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Managing “Today”<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Crafting tomorrow<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The “Cracks” list: effortless relentless follow-up<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Calendar reminders: Never forgetting the future<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
My Trello automations<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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