What Categories of Things Do You Track in Trello?
Chapters
0:00:12 Question for Cal about his categories in Trello
0:37 Cal explains his system
1:43 Cal talks about his standard columns
4:54 Advanced advice on consolidation
00:00:00.000 | [Music]
00:00:05.000 | Let's move on with a question from Kevin.
00:00:09.000 | Kevin asks, "What category of things do you track on your Trello board?"
00:00:15.000 | Well, as Kevin is hinting, and we've talked about many times before on this show,
00:00:20.000 | I organize my tasks on task boards.
00:00:24.000 | I happen to use Trello. There's other software that can do the same thing.
00:00:29.000 | Here's my setup. I have a unique board for each of my different professional roles.
00:00:35.000 | So right now, for example, I have a board for my computer science research.
00:00:40.000 | That's my researcher role.
00:00:42.000 | I have a board for my administrative and teaching roles as a professor.
00:00:48.000 | So I sort of separate out those two things.
00:00:50.000 | There's a lot of work involved with getting classes together
00:00:53.000 | and other sorts of administrative details of being a professor.
00:00:56.000 | That's one board, a separate board for the research I do as a professor.
00:01:00.000 | And then a separate board right now for my work as a writer.
00:01:04.000 | I'm actually thinking about perhaps differentiating that into a board that focuses just on writing
00:01:10.000 | and another board that focuses on all the details of running the media,
00:01:15.000 | the fledgling media empire that is what I facetiously call Cal Newport Studios.
00:01:20.000 | And I haven't yet, but I might.
00:01:22.000 | There's other times I've had other boards.
00:01:24.000 | I've mentioned before during my stint as the director of graduate studies for our department,
00:01:30.000 | that got its own board. It was a whole separate role.
00:01:33.000 | So I have a board for a role.
00:01:35.000 | There are some standard columns I use on almost every board.
00:01:38.000 | On almost every board, I'm going to have a column for things that need to be processed.
00:01:42.000 | So I don't even really know how to get my arms around this thing that just fell on my plate.
00:01:46.000 | Someone just came and said, hey, we have to figure out how to promote this new minor
00:01:50.000 | that we're going to be launching as a program.
00:01:53.000 | And I don't even know what that means and how we promote it,
00:01:56.000 | but I don't want to keep track of it in my head.
00:01:57.000 | I have a column where I can put that card.
00:01:59.000 | And that's a column I can come to and say when I'm doing my weekly plans,
00:02:02.000 | I need to start processing some of these things,
00:02:04.000 | like figuring out what it means and making them more specific.
00:02:07.000 | I usually have a column for definitely do this week.
00:02:11.000 | So I'm doing my weekly plan.
00:02:12.000 | I'm going to move cards onto that column that I definitely want to do this week.
00:02:15.000 | I always have a waiting to hear back from column.
00:02:18.000 | I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:02:21.000 | Okay, I'm waiting to hear back from this person on this thing so I don't forget it.
00:02:25.000 | I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:02:28.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:02:31.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:02:34.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:02:37.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:02:40.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:02:43.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:02:46.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:02:49.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:02:52.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:02:55.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:02:58.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:03:01.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:03:04.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:03:07.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:03:10.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:03:13.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:03:16.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:03:19.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:03:22.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:03:25.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:03:28.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:03:31.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:03:34.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:03:37.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:03:40.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:03:43.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:03:46.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:03:49.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:03:52.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:03:55.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:03:58.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:04:01.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:04:04.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:04:07.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:04:10.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:04:13.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:04:16.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:04:19.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:04:22.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:04:25.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:04:28.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:04:31.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:04:34.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:04:37.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:04:40.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:04:43.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:04:46.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:04:49.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:04:52.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:04:55.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:04:58.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:05:01.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:05:04.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:05:07.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:05:10.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:05:13.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:05:16.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:05:19.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:05:22.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:05:25.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:05:28.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:05:31.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:05:34.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.
00:05:37.000 | And I'm going to put a card in that column under the proper role.