I’m a big fan of Trello. I love it a lot, it’s free, it’s simple, it’s intuitive. And recently, I’ve been looking into ways I can manage projects from a higher level view instead of a per project kanban-style in-depth view.

I’ve decided to see if Trello might actually be able to help with that.

Why do this?

Initially the value of doing this might seem frivolous; but it gives me a chance to see at any given time, the ‘active’ projects I have on my plate at any given time. Using a traffic light system, I’ll know the status of any various projects as well!

Instead of trying to keep a mental checklist of everything I’m up to, this Trello board should help me keep track of things that need to be done for a variety of different topics. Therein, I think, lies the value in doing this experiment. If successful, it’ll improve my time deficiencies, and issue tracking capabilities on a personal level.

Methodology

I’ll be using this Trello board (it’s also the Projects link on my main menu up the top of the site) to organise my Projects into different categories. Things will be sorted as:

• Each category forms a list
• Each project in that category is a card
• Tasks/To-Do in each project is in a checklist
• Comments are used to provide updates on the project
• Projects can be labelled based on the status of project:
  • Green = Project is considered released (it may have upgrades and extra tasks to do)
  • Yellow = Project is in active development
  • Orange = Project is in conceptual/planning stages
  • Red = Project halted/unstarted

Here’s a screenshot of a few projects in how I’ve organised things right now

Hopefully, by doing things this way, I will be able to keep a rolling project log through the Comments section of each of those project cards.

Expected Benefits

Greater focus on completing and achieving project outcomes; and less time spent procrastinating on what needs to be done amongst the many projects in my mind.

In conclusion (random musings)…

Prior to the start of this year, (we’re only 4 months in…) I really spent a lot of time looking at various tools and just using them at face value, never really looking into how I could best use them, nor did I feel the need to really de-clutter my life. However, the turning point I believe, was picking up the habit of Bullet Journalling, and the start of my new career opening some doors for me on how to declutter the most messy part of my life (aside from my career itself)) – my tech/gadgets and gaming habits.

I’ve since looked at the tools I have available to me, and really decided to try out using them to their better (if not greatest) effect so that I can hopefully be a bit more minimalist with my life, less wasteful and more efficient.