Trello Power-Ups: A Quick Guide to the Trello Kanban Board

Originally published March 9, 2022

Most business owners are on a quest for the perfect workflow. Getting everyone on the same page of what they're supposed to do can take over meetings and emails, cutting into time better spent elsewhere. 

Meet Trello: a project management tool to help your team stay on task and meet your business's goals.

The Trello app promises to streamline your company's processes. It also offers a treasure trove of integrations, power-ups, and secret features.

Tweaking your software and automating recurring tasks is helpful. But the siren call of increased productivity can pull you away from actual work and lead to over-engineering your productivity. 

So this is our guide to the easiest and quickest ways to power up your Trello board.

[This is not a sponsored post. We just like and use Trello.]

In This Article:

What Is Trello?

Before we get into optimization, here's a brief introduction to Trello. Trello is a project management software that can help you manage your projects and tasks for you and your team. Trello has had around 50 million users since it was launched in 2014.

Trello is a web application based on the Kanban method, which Toyota started using in the 40s to track tasks. It's a visually based organization that uses columns and lists that move based on their status. 

Kanban boards organize, prioritize, and list projects visually to enhance productivity and time management. Imagine a wall of different colored sticky notes depicting specific tasks organized in a particular order in which to accomplish. You can also move cards between lists as needed. Trello does just that on your screen. 

Trello's boards can be customized to suit the needs of the user. For example, you can use cards for whole tasks or as steps in a larger project. And while classically, lists are organized in order of priority, you can also break them up by project, team member, or theme. 

Pricing

One of the most attractive parts of Trello is its pricing. While many programs have a free tier, they often withhold essential functions, forcing you to upgrade.

Trello offers most of its essential functions for free. Standard and Trello Premium cost $5 and $10 a month, respectively, and each tier provides additional features for quality of life.

We'll focus on the free tier since it already offers many customization options, making it ideal for lean small businesses.

5 Ways You Can Use Trello To Work More Efficiently

These Trello tips and tricks are less focused on what you can do with Trello than what you should do with Trello. Yes, you could create the most immaculate Trello board the world has seen. Still, realistically, your time is better spent elsewhere.

The following are five ways you can use Trello to work more efficiently:

1. Templates

The benefit of having 50 million users is that the Trello template library is enormous. Regardless of your industry, the Trello team or its users have created a template for you.

Templates offer a live preview you can click through while deciding which suits you.

The same wisdom about not over-engineering productivity applies here. Don't spend forever and a day looking for the right template for you. The nice thing about a Trello board is that it's easy to modify as your needs arise.

Look for something simple that makes visual sense. You want your board to flow logically from project inception to completion, with customization that accounts for your industry.

2. Integrations

Most businesses use several different applications to fulfill their needs. Unfortunately, this mixing and matching of apps can quickly turn into a total mess where some information is shared in one place and not updated elsewhere.

Trello offers integrations for most popular apps, allowing you to bring all your information from different applications into one place.

My personal favorite is Zapier for making Google Sheets into Trello cards. You can tailor it for particular use-cases for a wide variety of applications.

3. Shortcuts

I love using keyboard shortcuts to speed up my workflow. But there are so many (so many) Trello shortcuts to the point that it's a fool's errand to memorize them.

I'd recommend having an "at a glance" guide to shortcuts that you find helpful as the heading of a card. And if you need to see all of the shortcuts quickly, pressing "?" pops up the master list of shortcuts.

The shortcut I find most useful is "my cards filter." This filter minimizes all cards you're not a member of, so you can only see what you need to do, which is super helpful when your Trello board gets clogged up.

4. Cards

At first glance, the task card feature seems pretty straightforward: add a card, give it a title, write the description, and set a due date. But these cards have even more helpful features.

• Checklists are handy for all the little sub-tasks that don't deserve their own card.

• The attachment option lets you connect pertinent documents and images to the card.

• While there is no way to pin a card where you want it, having a card with all the quick references you need for a specific step is handy. Think links to templates or guides. Add a past due date if you want it to stay at the top of a particular board, and organize the cards by the due date using the "Sort by..." function.

• The template function is also great since it doesn't require extra effort and time on your part. For example, if you often reuse a checklist or any other formatting information, just click "Make template," and there you go! Anytime you want to use that, just select "Create from template" at the bottom right of a list.

5. Appearance

You aren't trying to win any awards with the aesthetics of your board. Still, Kanban is specifically a visual organization process. (And attractive digital workspaces make the day better, let's be honest.)

Use color coding with the label system to draw attention to urgent tasks.

You can also attach images using the "Cover" button. Covers are an excellent way to represent specific large projects visually and set them apart.

The backdrop is less technically important, so have fun with it. But if this is the first thing you and your employees see every day, you might as well harness some color psychology! Try a red background to create some energy or yellow for creativity.

Conclusion

All the apps that are supposed to make your life easier can combine to become unmanageable. So, Trello is a godsend for unifying your company as long as you can remember that the goal is productivity and not fine-tuning.

If you're looking to simplify your life and business, we're happy to help. People First Content can take the burden of writing content off you so you and your team can focus on your business. Click the button below to find out more!

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