Let me start with recognition: I know that my mind will lose information on the way and I get stressed just by thinking about it. Sometimes I can be a control freak, I know that as well but I also know that my organizing skills save me all the time when I need to check something about a project that has millions of years (yes, I do like an overstatement). As a project manager with different projects in hands is very important that I have as much as possible under control. Each one of us has their own mechanisms for that, mine is Trello.

When I first started with Trello, not enough time has passed when it was really doing the opposite of my intentions: it was boosting my stress and anxiety levels high up and I was losing it. To be fair, it was not Trello’s fault. It was mine. By then I had one board with so much information that it seemed I was not doing my work right and that I had so much to catch up.

After talking with a colleague (you have no idea how much you helped me, João!), he showed me that I was increasing my anxiety by not organizing information the right way. And that’s why I’m here, to give you some guidelines, like dos and don’ts, and hopefully help you if you’re in need.

So let’s go!

First of all, set up your mainboard with simple columns

You need to have a mainboard where you go to daily. The one that gives you the general perspective of your work plan. In that board, you can have as many columns as you wish but I would start with the ones below:

Backlog — This is the column where you put the information/requests you receive and don’t have the time to analyze right away. That email you received asking for a new budget or the next text you’ll be working on for Medium. You don’t have the time to follow up at that moment but it’s something you will work on. The idea is that you drag and drop cards from this column to the ones I’m showing up next.

Today — Here you put the cards you will be working that day. Simple as that. Don’t over complicate this.

This week — The tasks you trust yourself you’ll be working on during the week.

Later — The tasks you know you have to work on but the deadline is far away in time or not that urgent.

Someone else — This one is more than what meets the eye. Really, I do believe this column was the one that changed everything for me. Imagine that: you received feedback from a client on a design, you forwarded to your creative team for analysis and you expect a feedback today, so you leave it on Today column. With the other tasks you need to do and 3 or 4 more feedbacks you’re expecting. It’s psychological, I know, but when you’ll look at that column it will seem that you have so much work to do. And you may have. But there are some tasks that are not on you at that moment: they are someone else’s. And by separating this, you will even be more efficient because you easily know what’s your to-dos and what are the ones you need to be following up.

Done — The good column. This one is purely psychological but it can make a difference. Our brain needs to visually see what has been done, that we are going well. So instead of deleting cards when the task is done, you drag and drop them to a Done column and see it grow. You can archive all cards once a month, but no more than that. Let this column show you how much work you have done!

Personal/Notepad — This one is totally optional (all are, really). Think of it as the column where you put some notes to yourself, which may not even be related to work but that is important to keep in mind.

Every task that doesn’t fit in on one of this columns, goes to a specific board of the project itself, like Documentation or past client requests that you need to save as history. We can talk more about that in another article.

Believe me, just by separating the tasks by Today, This week and Later you are already giving yourself space to breathe.

Now you asked me: Master Marisa, how can you save us from slip on this and create a monster? Well, I’m not taking any responsibility, but listen, I mean, read:

1. Be realistic about your to-do. Add too many tasks for the day will only increase your stress levels when you look at it in the morning and by the end of the day when you realize you left so much work to do. If you work in an agency you know the drill but you really don’t need to add more stress to that.
2. Unexpected tasks will drop on your lap and mess up with your neat organization. Accept it. The faster you internalize that there is stuff you cannot control, quicker you recover from it and minimize the impact of what you cannot control in what you actually can.
3. If it’s not up to you, it’s not on your to-do. Take of that pressure on your shoulders and put it on Someone else column. This doesn’t mean you’re not keeping an eye on it, it just means that it’s not a task for you in that stage.
4. Sometimes tasks won’t be done in the timeframe you scheduled. That happens. More frequently than you’d like unexpected stuff show up and mess up with your neat organization. But it won’t help if you feel less competent. Just acknowledge that and try to fit them in. You’re not superman or woman, you know? And the day really has a limited amount of hours. So if something is left behind, just guarantee that you’ve done everything you could in the time frame you had. Is like what my boss always says: “Good is Great’s enemy”. If you don’t understand, I’ll simplify: you cannot deliver 100% perfection all the time.
5. Maintain your boards up to date. This will guarantee that you always know what to do next and what to follow up, which will really help on your work-related anxiety peaks because you’re in control of yourself.

There’s always add-ons you can use: colored labels, due dates, Trello Power-ups, add your team to the boards, email plugins that automatically generate a card… But the best way to begin is by keeping it simple and don’t over complicate from the start.

Bottom line: it’s important that you have a methodology. Because otherwise you can get overwhelmed by the information you collect and it starts backfiring at you. But above all believe that you are capable of maintaining under control what you can control and that you have the strength to overcome what you cannot. Shift your mindset and you’ll master your work plan.

Thank you for reading

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