Trello as a Daily Planner: Making Time to Take Care of Your Mental Health
Jessica Bell
Jan 11, 2022
Daily Organizer
Mental health is a huge issue in our world right now. With so many people struggling with mental illness, time management becomes very important to their survival. Luckily, time management doesn't have to be difficult! Using Trello as your daily planner can help you make time for things like exercise and meditation - all while staying on track with your work responsibilities!
Practicing time management skills is a great foundation to work on so many other skills that are practiced during therapy. So here, we will walk you through a tangible lesson on one of many ways to keep track of your time.
Trello is an online project management tool that can be accessed on any device with internet connectivity. It operates like a board with lists and cards, which you can drag and drop to change the order, also known as kanban. We like to set it up so that each list corresponds to a day of the week. But, the real kicker is using power-ups! These are little add-ons that make the app so much more useful. We'll use the power-up called Planyway to supercharge Trello. Below, we'll walk you through the details of using Trello and Planyway to boost your time management skills.
Setting up Trello
First, you'll need to create a free Trello account. You can do this by visiting trello.com and clicking "Sign Up."
Once you've created an account, you'll be taken to the Trello homepage. From here, click on the green "Create Board" button in the top-left corner of the page.
Next, you'll be asked to give your board a name and decide whether or not you want it set up as a team board with members that have access. We recommend making this a personal board so you can use it as a brain dump! Then you can add team members later if needed.
Once you've named your new Trello Board, you can click the green "Create" button at the bottom of the page. This will take you to your new Trello Board!
Now that we're in our Trello board, we can add our lists and cards. To make this really useful, we'll set up each list as a day of the week. Create eight lists titled "Monday" through "Sunday" with an extra named something like "Goals" for longer-term cards.
Setting up Planyway
Now, we'll go add a power-up called Planyway to really get the most out of Trello! Planyway is designed for Trello boards that track time-sensitive tasks. It will automatically convert your cards into a calendar view and color code them based on their due date! Although it does offer a web and mobile app, it is designed specifically for use with Trello.
Click on "Show menu" on the top-right corner, which will show the Power-Ups section. Open the Power-Ups menu and search for "Planyway".
Once you've added the Planyway power-up, you will be prompted to approve it to access your Trello account. Go through their approval process to complete this step.
Now we're ready to get started using Planyway! In the top-left corner of your Trello board, you'll see a three-line menu. Click this and select "Planyway a time management tool that helps you connect your Trello board with your Google Calendar. This way, you can see all of your upcoming events and tasks on one screen!
How to use this setup efficiently
Download the Trello app on your mobile device. You need to be able to add any thoughts that pop into your head at a moment's notice. So, you'll need to be able to use the mobile app the moment a to-do crosses your mind; try keeping the Trello app on your phone's home screen.
When you think of something you need to do, open your Trello board and add your thought as a card to the Goals list, or if you already know which day you'll complete it, add it to that list. This should be a five-second task that you don't think about too much. Every time this happens, write down your thought. Consider this your brain dump, every little thing that you need to complete should go here, no matter how small. If you spent time thinking about doing it, write it down. Eventually, this will become a habit and you won't think twice as to-dos cross your mind and you add them to your list.
Choose a time to sort through your list, either before bed or first thing in the morning. Setting aside this time is the most important part of good time management. You need to start with a plan so you have something to aim for. To get started with planning, open your Trello board and click on the Planyway button. In the Planyway view, you will see all of the tasks that you added to your Goals list as well as a calendar view.
Think about each task, how long it will take, and when you might be able to do it. Go through, one by one, and drag the cards onto the calendar at a time that makes sense. It is helpful to change the side-view to show only unscheduled cards, then you can add each card to the calendar until there are no more showing.
Once you've scheduled all of your cards, you can use the original Trello view as you go through the day. As you complete a task, click on the date to indicate that it has been completed. If you're feeling really ambitious, you can use the time tracking feature from Planyway. Open the card in Trello, and click "Start Timer" then come back to it once you're finished to stop it, and the total time will be automatically added to your card.
At the end of each day, review your list to see if you accomplished what you wanted to. Anything you didn't get done, simply drag to the next day at a time that makes sense. Then you can click on the three dots at the top of the list and choose the "Archive all cards in this list" option so that each completed item is removed. Then your list will be ready for the following week.
Bonus: Automation rules
Trello has a lot of fun automation tools if you're into that kind of thing. You can set up rules using simple "if this, then that" logic to do all kinds of things. Here is one rule that will make this board set up a little better:
When a due date is set on a card by me, sort the list by due date ascending
This rule will sort your list by due date any time the due date is changed. So, when you drag your items into the Planyway calendar, it will automatically re-order the Trello list so that it matches the schedule.
To set this up, go into the Automation menu and click on "Create Rule". Select the trigger from the Dates category - "when a due date is set on a card by me". Click the plus button next to the trigger to move on to choosing the Action. Select the Sort category to choose the "sort the list by due date ascending" option. Click the plus button and then save the rule.
Now every time you change your card's due date, they will be automatically sorted.
