Trello Tutorial in Ten Minutes (How to Use Trello to Get Your Life Together)

If you struggle with missed deadlines,  procrastination, and forgetting tasks, then stay tuned for the fastest, most effective  Trello tutorial on YouTube. Let's go! Most people who feel unorganized don't have a system to track  projects and tasks.

So today we're going to create one in an app called Trello. Get started by going  to Trello. com and then clicking on "Get Trello for Free" in the top right.

Once you've created an  account and verified your email, you're taken to your workspace. A workspace is Trello's term  for a container of boards, and each board is a way to track tasks. Now we are going to create a  productivity system in a single board, and make sure you stick around until the end because  there is one key habit you need to make sure Trello works for you.

Now for some weird reason  you just hate the productivity system that I share with you today, you can always try some of these  templates up top. Okay, enough talk, let's create the board by clicking on the "Create New Board"  button. Let's call the board "Organize My Life".

Now don't be afraid to customize the background  here to match your style. If you click on "See More" next to "Photos" you can search Unsplash  for stock photography. I like this photo of a beach at twilight, so I'll try that.

Let's also  change the visibility of the board to private. You can always share your board with multiple  people, so we're making this private because it's a board for your life. Let's click "Create"  and wait for the magic to happen.

Great job you've created your first board. Now sometimes Trello  creates a blank board and sometimes like this one it creates these lists up top. Lists are a way  to organize your tasks.

If your board is blank, don't worry, I'll show you how to create lists  in just a second. With lists the idea is to move your task from left to right. A task on the left  usually means it's not started and a task on the right means it's complete or pretty close.

That's  why having three lists of to do, doing, and done is a very common system. We're going to give this  system an upgrade by adding two more lists. Click the "Add another list" button to the right of your  last list.

We'll call this one "Organize me" and then press the enter key and then scroll over  to the right and call this next one "On hold". Let's now reorder the columns to keep the left to  right pattern. Click and drag "Organize me" to the left of to do.

Then click and drag "On hold"  between to do and doing. We're going to talk about the system but let's talk about cards first.  Cards are tasks.

You can create one by clicking "Add a card" on any list. Let's scroll over to  the "Organize me" list to add some cards. Step one in this system is to add any task you need to  keep track of for more than one calendar day in the "Organize me" list.

Trello makes it very easy  to add cards. Simply type the name of the card and press enter. Then keep typing for as many cards as  you have.

Okay, that's enough cards for now. Now you might have a card that you want to add more  detail to. So, click on the card and you're faced with a whole new set of options.

Let's just focus  on the description. Here you can add any details with just about any formatting that you like,  including markdown. You can also add attachments, hyperlinks, images, and even @ mention others  in your workspace if this is a workspace visible board.

Let's click "Save" to commit these changes.  And you can click anywhere outside this pane to close it. Next, if you have a card that's part  of a larger project, you can tag it with a label.

Let's click on this right contract card. Click  on "Labels". We like orange for this project.

So, let's click on the pen icon next to the orange  color. Type the name of the project and then click "Save". Then check the box next to the label.

I'd  also recommend adding a label for high priority work. Let's use red and click the edit icon  again. I'll call this "High Priority" and then click "Save" and check the box again.

Our changes  are done and we can click outside of this twice to get back to the main board. I'll quickly add  these labels to a few other cards. Labels make it simple to filter cards by priority or by project. 

To do that, click on the "Filters" button in the top right. Then check the box next to the label  you want to filter by. Your board automatically reflects the changes.

Okay, you've done great so  far, but we need to make sure you never miss a deadline. If a card has a due date, you need  to add it to Trello. Let's clear this filter and then click on "Review Contract" internally.

We  need to finish this by September 24th. So, click on "Dates" and then click on the 24th. And you can  set a reminder for yourself.

I like the default of one day before. Click "Save" and then click out of  the card. You'll get notifications in up to three places.

The first is through the notification  bell at the top right. Next is through email and third is through desktop notifications if you  have them enabled. So, in review, anytime you have a task that you can't complete in one calendar  day, put it in "Organize Me.

" So, for step two, you need to go through a transformation. Instead of talking about tasks, we need to talk about goals. Most people can only accomplish  about one to three core goals per day.

And by core goals, I mean things that move you, your team,  your project, or your whole business forward. They're aligned to your weekly goals and your  quarterly goals. So, here's step two.

At the end of each day, decide what your core goals are  for tomorrow. Next, add those goals as cards to your doing list. You should find that you can  group multiple tasks from "Organize Me" into the same goal.

Here's a trick you can use to link  these two cards together. Click on the task that you're going to incorporate into your goal, then  go to your browser's address bar and copy the link to this card. Then open your goal under "Doing.

" Click on "Checklist" to add subtasks. Change the name of the checklist if you like and click "Add. "  Then paste the link you just copied and press "Enter.

" Trello immediately recognizes the card.  Add any other task you need to complete the goal as a checklist item. I recommend preserving any  due dates and labels associated with the original cards.

Let's exit this goal. Now, I've got two  representations of this right contract task. I'll right-click on the original card in "Organize  Me" and then click on "Archive" to hide it.

Now remember, you've got to limit the doing list to  three. For this example, we'll stick with two. Now, you've pre-decided that these two goals are  the most important things to get done tomorrow, and if anything else comes up, you're evaluating  that new thing against these goals.

Chances are the new thing can wait. And then at the end of  the day, you're on to the most satisfying step when you complete your goals. Step three, move  your goal from doing to done.

Now, it'd be great to say you accomplished everything, but sometimes  it doesn't happen. Now, if you don't complete a goal and it's not high priority for the next day,  move it back to on hold. Then the process repeats itself.

Dump tasks that you haven't completed into  the "Organize Me" list. Then add your top three goals for tomorrow into the "Doing" list and  archive any tasks that you've turned into a goal by right-clicking and then clicking "Archive. "  You may have noticed that the to-do list is pretty lonely.

You may not need it, but I found  it helpful to create goals for later in the week. This can also keep your "Organize Me" list pretty  tidy. Okay, one last trick for you.

Sometimes you just need a calendar to figure out when things are  due. But if you try to look at a different view, you'll find you'll need Trello Premium to look at  a calendar. So instead, click on the "Power-ups" icon in the top right and then click on "Add  Power-ups.

" There are so many cool things that you can add to your board, but we're all about  keeping things simple. So, search for "Calendar" and then add the calendar power-up. Click the  "X" to return to your board.

The toolbar doesn't refresh right away, so click on the three dots  in the top right then click on the calendar icon that just showed up. You'll now see every card  with a due date on the calendar. Now many people fail with a productivity system because they only  make time to add items or check them off the list, but they never spend time organizing that list. 

So, here's my super final tip to wrap all this up. Schedule a daily meeting for yourself at the  end of the day to organize your lists of tasks. Otherwise, and take it from experience, it won't  happen.

If you want to learn more about that, check out our time blocking tutorial here. This  is David, signing out. I'll see you next time.