033: Tech Tuesday – Trello

033: Tech Tuesday – Trello

Back in episode 23 we talked about an app called Evernote that is a great tool for not only collecting and finding notes but has a ton of other uses as well. If you haven’t tried it yet, do a quick search and try it out.

On today’s Tech Tuesday, we’re going to take a look at a slick, cross platform task management tool called Trello.

Like Evernote, Trello is one that I’ve been using for years and still use here and there.

I love it because, again, it is cross platform and lets me enter, modify or retrieve my task info from my computer, phone or wherever.

So, what is Trello.

At it’s core, Trello organizes tasks inside Boards and then grouped by Lists.

A board might be a certain department or area or product line of your business (say Customer Success or Accounting or Manufacturing).

So, when you select a board, picture that board being like a cork bulletin board, filling your screen.

Then, on the board are a series of vertical tiles called lists. These can be for specific sub-areas within the main area. Or they could be each tied to a status of specific tasks for that board.

Each of these lists can be clicked and dragged to wherever you want them.

And then on each list are the tasks. Trello calls them cards. The same is true with the cards. They can be clicked and dragged, edited, whatever.

And you can add labels to cards to tie things together easily.

So, let’s say you have a board for a specific project.

And on that board your lists are titled “Not Started”, “In Process”, “Waiting” and “Complete”.

You would create all your cards (or copy from a template) in the Not Started list and then as they change status you can drag them onto the appropriate list.

Meanwhile, you can use the tags to connect items by type or category, you can assign due dates, add attachments or notes, add sub checklists, whatever.

And on top of all that, you can share boards with other people and assign specific tasks within the group.

It’s so clean and easy to use, is just as easy on a phone as a computer, and is just a great way to track things.

If you haven’t tried Trello yet, check it out at trello.com today.

Thanks for listening to today’s episode. You can shoot me an email at shawn@shawnwashburn.com.

I’d love to connect: website / LinkedIn / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter

023: Tech Tuesday – Evernote

023: Tech Tuesday – Evernote

How Can You Better Organize Your Work?

On today’s Tech Tuesday episode, we’re going to talk about one of my favorite tools.

Evernote.

If you’ve never used Evernote I don’t think we can be friends. OK, totally not true… as long as you give it a try.

Evernote is a cross platform app (meaning you can access it on your phone, computer, tablet and lawn mower — I think they’re still working on this one).

I love that, first and foremost because I use it in different ways on each of those… except the lawn mower.

At it’s heart, it’s a place to store notes electronically. But it’s so much more.

Let’s take a quick look at some of the ways you can use it and how I use it from different platforms.

OK, so, let’s start with my phone.

Generally, with the phone version, I mostly use it for searching for and retrieving notes I’ve previously created.

But I sometimes will use it to auto dictate notes into Evernote from my phone as well.

From your phone, you can create a text note, scan something into a note with your phone’s camera, hand write, attach, record audio and more. It really has a lot of functionality.

And as an aside, the structure of Evernote’s system is pretty cool too. Each note has a title that you give it. And then you can assign an unlimited number of tags to a note (for different categories you created) or place notes into folders as well.

The searchability is one of my favorite aspects of the whole thing.

Now, on to the other way I use it. On my laptop. On a laptop, you can use the native app by itself or also install a Chrome Browser plugin.

The nice thing about the plugin is that it creates a little button that lets you quickly save a whole web page, just an article on a page, bookmark the page, take a screen shot and more. And it comes with a lot of editing tools to go along with that.

Even if you just use the regular desktop app version, it’s still a great way to capture or type things out.

If you’re already an Evernote user, I’m sure you’re just sitting there nodding your head, resonating with the awesomeness that is, in fact, Evernote.

If you haven’t tried it, just search for Evernote just about anywhere and you’ll find the app.

Then, search for “how to use Evernote” and you’ll also find some great tips and techniques people have developed to help you make the most out of it.

I’d love to hear from you about how you like to use Evernote. You can email me at   shawn@shawnwashburn.com. I read every one and would love to hear from you.

You could share a screenshot from your podcast player or just send them to shawnwashburn.com.    Thank you so much.