How do I use Trello for Personal Task & Goal Management?
I have used many To-Do, task management, and goal tracking apps to manage my day-to-day tasks, and plan my short goals Let’s say 1–2 months long. After switching from one app to another I just wasted a lot of my time. I could not figure out how to handle all the burden for so many pending tasks. I just kept adding a lot of tasks but could not complete many of them. This just made me frustrated.
The reason for my inability to complete the tasks was poor planning, as I could not imagine the whole picture while making plans thus every time I planned something I just focused on that thing only. I knew I needed a new strategy to list down the tasks. I need to make a plan in a different way.
According to LinkedIn’s latest study, we are easily distracted and not all To-Do lists are created equal and the quality of your list is tied to your success. Almost 89% of professionals admitted they don’t accomplish all the tasks on their To-Do list by the end of an average workday. The inability to take action and complete the work can lead to depression and depression can result in more procrastination and delay in completing the tasks therefore even more stress and depression. Today I will tell you how I have started organizing my life because this new strategy has helped me to be more effective in planning my day. It might help you in breaking the Procrastination-Depression Cycle and become more productive with your time.
Trello
I have started using Trello for personal tasks and goal management. It helps me to organize my work in a much cleaner and efficient way. I can see all of my tasks and goals on one screen, making it easier for me to see the whole picture and easily update it.
Trello is a tool for managing projects and personal tasks. Trello’s boards, lists, and cards help you to organize your life in an effective way.
How do I manage my life with trello?
Today I will tell you how I use Trello to organize my personal day-to-day tasks and goals.
I have a board called ‘Task’ in which I have a total of 8 lists:
- 5-Mins Tasks
- 30-Mins Task
- 1-Hour Tasks
- 3-Hours Tasks
- Today
- Tomorrow
- 1-Month Goals
- Done
I have categorized all my tasks by estimating how much time each task takes.
I will add all my tasks that I can complete in under 5 minutes in the ‘5-Mins Tasks’ list. This includes all the tasks that can be completed in 2–3 minutes. For example, reading a small article, cleaning my table, arranging my clothes, etc.
And similarly, I have a 30-Mins Task list. Any task that will take more than 5 minutes will come under 30-Mins Task Category. This includes Reading one or more long articles that take more time than 5 minutes or buying something from outside.
Tasks that take longer than 30 minutes come under the 1-Hour Tasks list. Tasks, such as watching a few tutorials, or doing small assignments, will be listed under this category.
Anything longer than 1 Hour comes under the category of the 3-Hours Tasks list. These are tasks that I find complex or boring most of the time and I left most of the tasks unfinished. It is not necessary that these tasks take a full 3 hours. Tasks can be completed in 80–90 minutes or in 2 hours. But adding them under a 3-hours task list will remind me that these tasks will take most of my time so I should only do such tasks when I am free. Taking 3 hours to complete a particular task needs serious commitment and If I can complete my task before 3 hours I can enjoy my remaining time by taking a break to relax or giving myself a treat for completing the task. Long tasks such as completing projects, watching tutorials, and practicing or book reading can come under this category.
The next two lists are Today and Tomorrow. It is better to plan one day ahead so that’s why I have added tomorrow’s category along with today. After arranging my all tasks in the above categories I can plan my today and tomorrow accordingly. I will see how much free time I have to complete my tasks and then can add some tasks from previous categories in my Today and Tomorrow list And when any task is complete instead of deleting it I will just add them under the Done list so I can keep the track of all the tasks that I have completed.
Managing Goals
And in addition, I have one last category called 1-Month Goals. This is where I add my 1 week long, 2 weeks long or 1 month-long goal. Goals are not a single action or but it is a series of tasks or action that needs to be completed in order to complete the particular goal.
I write each goal separately. For each goal, I add the title, due date, Milestones that I need to achieve in order to complete my goal, all the resources like books that I need or tutorials I need to watch, etc. And then I add a checklist in which I add all the tasks that I need to complete in order to complete the goal.
For example, in the screenshot above I have added a Goal to study Deep Learning. I added the due date of next month. I wrote milestones like understanding basic concepts of Deep Learning, learning different frameworks, and implementing simple Deep Learning models. I added all my Resources I am planning to cover including blog posts, free video tutorials on youtube, and Udemy courses. Then I added the checklists. One of the good features of trello is that you can add more than one checklist. So I have added four checklists one for each week and then I have added small tasks for each week. This way I can keep track of my progress on a weekly basis.
Prioritizing Tasks
Finally, you can add color labels to give priority to each task. For example, I have added 3 different priorities for High (Green), mid (Yellow), and low (orange) level importance. I have also added an urgent (Red) label so I can see visually which tasks need to be completed urgently.
Conclusion
That’s it. That’s how I organize my life now. since I have started using this technique to manage my all work, I have been able to complete it in a much more efficient and effective way. I hope this technique will also help you to organize your life too.
