Since around 6-8 months ago, I have been meaning to come here and write a post very similar to the one @LightHouse just posted. Only.. mine was going to be about a tool called Asana, and how it had helped my productivity a lot.
Well.. a couple of weeks ago, he asked me if I had tried Trello. I said no, and that I had been using Asana - but that I would "check it out" (not to be confused with dabbling with it, lol). I honestly wanted to give it a proper test, as there were a few things about Asana that irked me, even though I loved it for other things.
The same day I started testing Trello, I was hooked! I spent the next couple of days setting up my system and exporting/importing all my tasks from Asana.
Before Asana, I was guilty of what @AllenCrawley was saying too - random sticky notes and papers, everywhere. Even the back of envelopes and receipts scattered about in a huge disorganized mess. Yet it "kinda sorta" worked because I forced myself to be disciplined.
On a scale from 0 - 10, Asana took my productivity from probably a 4 to a 7.
Trello has now taken that to a 9. And just like @Iwokeup said, I too use it for personal/family management of stuff.
I think the main cool thing about Trello is that every person can set it up to work for them - as long as you settle and stick to a system.
I now have 4 main boards for;
- My main business
- Motivation
- Reading / research (books, videos, blogs, podcasts, tools)
- Personal fitness
My main business board basically follows the GSD setup, except I don't keep a 'Done' list. I just hover over a completed task and press 'c' on the keyboard to archive it. Satisfying! I also have a 'Pending' list in here for tasks that are awaiting outside input, for example if I'm waiting on a response from a supplier or results from a test before that task can complete.
I also use ALL the label colors and use filtering actively.
So my #1 most important tasks I label with 'Admin' (yellow). Some of my other important labels are;
By using the filter function (shortcut is the 'f' key while on your board), I can instantly turn on/off just the types of tasks I want to see - in each of their respective lists. For me, this has been tremendously effective!
So for example, if I need to dedicate say, Thursday morning to website improvements AND that also will affect my bottom line first - with a click of a button I can see all those tasks that I should do NOW, are upcoming, or are pending for some reason.
There's a ton of more stuff you can do also, which I haven't gotten into yet. Check out their upgraded plan for a lot more features + integration with Zapier or IFTTT for some really advanced awesomeness. Some of us could geek over this shit for days, lol.
But really - thanks to @LightHouse for getting me into Trello, and also for posting this here.
To all; If you aren't utilizing a productivity tool yet - get on it right away. This is the sort of stuff that makes a difference between just shuffling by in your business.... to making true, consistent, daily progress. A must for every serious Fastlaner.
Well.. a couple of weeks ago, he asked me if I had tried Trello. I said no, and that I had been using Asana - but that I would "check it out" (not to be confused with dabbling with it, lol). I honestly wanted to give it a proper test, as there were a few things about Asana that irked me, even though I loved it for other things.
The same day I started testing Trello, I was hooked! I spent the next couple of days setting up my system and exporting/importing all my tasks from Asana.
Before Asana, I was guilty of what @AllenCrawley was saying too - random sticky notes and papers, everywhere. Even the back of envelopes and receipts scattered about in a huge disorganized mess. Yet it "kinda sorta" worked because I forced myself to be disciplined.
On a scale from 0 - 10, Asana took my productivity from probably a 4 to a 7.
Trello has now taken that to a 9. And just like @Iwokeup said, I too use it for personal/family management of stuff.
I think the main cool thing about Trello is that every person can set it up to work for them - as long as you settle and stick to a system.
I now have 4 main boards for;
- My main business
- Motivation
- Reading / research (books, videos, blogs, podcasts, tools)
- Personal fitness
My main business board basically follows the GSD setup, except I don't keep a 'Done' list. I just hover over a completed task and press 'c' on the keyboard to archive it. Satisfying! I also have a 'Pending' list in here for tasks that are awaiting outside input, for example if I'm waiting on a response from a supplier or results from a test before that task can complete.
I also use ALL the label colors and use filtering actively.
So my #1 most important tasks I label with 'Admin' (yellow). Some of my other important labels are;
- Sales (green, for ANY task that will directly impact revenue)
- Amazon (orange)
- Website (blue, for anything requiring technical/design changes to the site. Labeling them as separate also will easy let me find stuff I could outsource to a coder/designer)
- Marketing (red, for anything that will help grow traffic)
- Products (grey, for anything regarding product developing, manufacturing, sourcing)
- etc.
By using the filter function (shortcut is the 'f' key while on your board), I can instantly turn on/off just the types of tasks I want to see - in each of their respective lists. For me, this has been tremendously effective!
So for example, if I need to dedicate say, Thursday morning to website improvements AND that also will affect my bottom line first - with a click of a button I can see all those tasks that I should do NOW, are upcoming, or are pending for some reason.
There's a ton of more stuff you can do also, which I haven't gotten into yet. Check out their upgraded plan for a lot more features + integration with Zapier or IFTTT for some really advanced awesomeness. Some of us could geek over this shit for days, lol.
But really - thanks to @LightHouse for getting me into Trello, and also for posting this here.
To all; If you aren't utilizing a productivity tool yet - get on it right away. This is the sort of stuff that makes a difference between just shuffling by in your business.... to making true, consistent, daily progress. A must for every serious Fastlaner.
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