“Once you have a clear idea of your priorities – that is your values, goals and high leverage activities, organize around them”

— Stephen Covey

Hey, Beauty! I can’t believe it’s already October and we are less than 90 days away from the New Year. It’s crazy how fast time flies! The summer is long gone and the crisp air of the fall mornings is here to stay!

I was inspired by the recent “Back To School” hype to create this post and help you organize and make the best out of the rest of the year. Even if you are not going back to school, I am guessing you are going back to some sort of responsibility after the summer holiday – be it university, work or your own business.

I am sure that you will appreciate some help with keeping everything organized and neat, especially with the upcoming holiday season and the cheerful mess that comes with it.

Without further ado, let me introduce you to my secret helper and my number one tool when it comes to organizing my life – Trello. I already spoke briefly about it in my previous post, but Trello is so awesome that I feel like it needs more attention. So here we are…

What is Trello?

Trello is an online Project Management (PM) platform that is inspired by the kanban card system for managing and improving work flows. Trello is visual, intuitive and flexible and since I am very visual person I was instantly hooked on its Pinterest-like feel.

The Basics

You can create a free account at www.trello.com in less than a minute and start organizing and planning your life. You can use it both on desktop computer or download the app on your phone. Once you log in to your account you’ll be able to create your first project board.

Each of your projects is hosted on a BOARD. You can create a new board or copy an existing one. Each new board is empty and you can add numerous columns that are called LISTS. In every list you can add numerous CARDS. The cards are where the fun begins, because you can customize them as you want and add as much or as little information.

What’s So Special About It | Key Features

Here are some of my favorite key features that make Trello so great:

• It’s free – there is also a paid subscription plan, but I doubt that you’ll need it, especially if you are going to use it for personal use only. I use it for my business as well, and the free version covers all my needs.
• It’s very visual – you’ll love this, if you are visual person like me. The boards remind me of a cork board where you can pin and stick notes and photos. You can overview your entire project on a whim.
• Drag & Drop – the platform is very intuitive and user friendly with its drag and drop feature. You can adjust cards and attach files in seconds.
• You can add friends & family – adding friends & family to your projects is great and especially useful for meal, trip or event planning boards, where you can all brainstorm ideas, give your input and follow the progress of the tasks.
• You can attach links, photos and files – whether it’s a photo of an exercise you want to try next week, a file with the recipe you don’t want to forget or a link to a website you want to check later on, Trello got you covered.
• You can write comments – besides the Description section that each card has, you can also write comments in each card. Another useful thing is that you can tag the other people in the board in your comments, so they won’t miss any updates.
• You can add checklists – this is probably one of my favorite features. You can add various checklist under each card and then just tick the box when you are ready with the item. There is also a progress bar showing you how far you are with your list and it is very satisfying seeing it on 100%, I won’t lie!
• You can add calendar & reminders – this feature is especially useful for editorial calendars, planners and events. You can assign due dates to specific cards (tasks) and set reminders when the time has come.
• You can add custom labels – love this feature as it allows you to color coordinate your cards and to navigate easily in your board and project.

Those are the main basic features of Trello, that I use daily myself. However, the more you use the platform the more new things you will discover. This will help you to find your unique approach and way of organizing things. Don’t be afraid to experiment with the features – there is more than one way they can be used and way more than one way you can organize your projects in manner that will make most sense for you.

How I use Trello?

I discovered Trello by chance when I was looking for PM tool for our web design business two years ago and I use it ever since. I use it for my business, for the blog and in my personal life and I absolutely love it.

Here are some of the ways I put Trello into practice:

• Project Management tool
• Editorial Calendar
• Social Media Calendar
• Event Planner | Meal Planner | Workout Planner
• Resource Library
• My library – reading lists and tracking the books I read

How you can use it?

Your imagination is the only limit on how you can use Trello. Its flexible and numerous features are making it great for tracking and organizing your various projects – being personal or work related. I’ve seen people using it for planning their trips, weddings and product launches; for tracking their marketing campaigns and for back to school hauls.

There is truly no limit to the use of Trello. You can start building your boards from scratch or check the boards I have made for you in the Bloom Room – my library with free resources. Also if there is a board that you really want, but can’t find it in my library just let me know in the comments and I can fix it for you.