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.

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!

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