I haven’t been paid to talk up Trello. I’m on the free plan and have found it useful enough to share with my audience here!

This month I’ve been organizing my schedule, tasks, and goals with Trello.

I love how visual it is (GIFs!!!) and how I can drag and drop to see when I’ve completed tasks. It’s seriously great if you’re a visual person like me who likes tangible ways of tracking progress.

(Here’s how I use spreadsheets to track my editing progress)

I have a few boards I’m trying out. The weekly planner is plastered with Captain America GIFs as rewards for getting my work done (hee hee), and my master task list has Wonder Woman GIFs since she’s so motivating.

That latter list is something maybe you’d find helpful. I’m still working out the kinks with the weekly planner, but if I figure out how to make that work best for me, I’ll share it as a template, too.

I’ve also got plans to create a template board for story planning!

If you’ve ever seen my workplace, you know that I am HUGE on color coding. Trello makes color coding easy. I like to include a key on each board so I can remember what each color means without clicking on each card.

So on this board, I make major, time-consuming tasks red. They might not be the highest priority, but if I need to get them done, I need to schedule them first. When you’re filling up a jar, you have to start with the rocks before you fill in the gaps with sand.

The minor, quick tasks are orange.

Fun things I want to do but have to use as rewards for myself are dark blue.

Then I can add another label for any tasks that represent the things that are not urgent but are important to me.

(Urgency and importance: using the Eisenhower Matrix to get things done and meet your goals)

I’ve got labels for family, editing, writing, and teaching.

Trello also has a “Color Blind Friendly Mode”!

How to use this system

1. Add all of your incoming tasks to the Incoming list as soon as they come in.
2. Once you have a few spare minutes, then you can go through and label the cards in the Incoming list—remember, doing things in batches saves you time!
3. Then get tasks out of the Incoming list and into the 45-minute or 15-minute tasks.
4. If you think something will take you longer than 45 or 15 minutes, create another card for the task. (Click on the card and click the “copy” button under Actions)

You can work directly from this master task list, or you can move the task cards to another board (in my case, the scheduling board). I like having two separate boards so that the scheduling board doesn’t get inundated with incoming tasks.

Copy the template

If you have a Trello account, you can copy my board and use it yourself.

1. Visit my Master Task List template board
2. Click “Show Menu” on the right side of the screen
3. Click “More”
4. Choose “Copy this Board”
5. Start adding tasks!

Do you use Trello? Have any tips or advice for others? Any great template boards you want to share? Comment below!