Why Don't You Use More Trello Columns to Match David Allen's System?

00:00:00.000 | [music playing]

00:00:04.660 | Hello, my name is Dave Kerlin, I'm a real estate salesperson.

00:00:08.340 | My question is in regard to the capture

00:00:10.500 | and review parts of your productivity system.

00:00:13.100 | I know you use Trello and I personally have adopted using it myself,

00:00:17.140 | but as the number of Trello cards get bigger and bigger,

00:00:20.660 | the list gets longer, I find it difficult to effectively look at them

00:00:24.740 | and make decisions about what to do and not to do.

00:00:28.160 | You have alluded to David Allen's system in the past

00:00:30.500 | and I'm familiar with his method of capturing things in context categories.

00:00:34.900 | Is there a reason you don't create more columns in Trello and use this method?

00:00:39.140 | It seems like it would be a more efficient way to review these tasks,

00:00:42.700 | et cetera, when doing daily and weekly planning

00:00:45.960 | and dealing with a really big list of possible activities and projects.

00:00:50.260 | Love your podcast, it's been so helpful

00:00:53.000 | and the time blocking method has helped me immensely.

00:00:56.900 | Thanks.

00:00:58.500 | So I would do with Trello with card overload, three things.

00:01:05.140 | One, more boards.

00:01:07.740 | So I'm a big believer in different boards for different roles.

00:01:11.760 | You can even have different boards for different projects

00:01:15.300 | if it's a major project, but there's something about having a fixed

00:01:19.140 | and specific context for the task you're looking at

00:01:21.700 | that actually makes it much easier to grok what's on your plate.

00:01:25.160 | And so to have a role for teaching, to have a role for research,

00:01:29.500 | to have a role for writing, to have a role for media stuff like podcasting,

00:01:33.900 | to have a role for a particular heavy service road,

00:01:36.960 | like I'm the director of graduate studies,

00:01:39.320 | all those can be different boards. So that helps.

00:01:42.520 | Two is more columns. I think it's fine if you want more columns.

00:01:46.160 | I don't like there to be too many because I don't want to fiddle too much.

00:01:49.200 | I prefer sort of generic columns things can go into.

00:01:51.500 | I've talked about this before on the show.

00:01:54.420 | I don't always do a column for each project, for example,

00:01:58.600 | but maybe I will if it's a big project that has a lot of tasks.

00:02:02.420 | So you can use more columns if that helps.

00:02:04.500 | If you have 30 columns, you're going to have a different problem.

00:02:07.520 | But if you want to go to seven columns instead of four,

00:02:09.560 | and that makes a big difference, fine.

00:02:11.300 | Third, and this goes against Allen orthodoxy, but I do it,

00:02:16.220 | is consolidate more on the individual cards.

00:02:19.420 | So a Trello card can actually capture a lot of information.

00:02:23.420 | If you're in an Allen mindset, by contrast,

00:02:25.800 | every item in your list is a very specific action

00:02:28.800 | that requires no further thinking. You can just execute that action.

00:02:32.220 | I will often have a card that maybe on the back

00:02:35.720 | has a 10 element action list,

00:02:38.460 | and three of those things are already crossed out.

00:02:40.600 | So the card is just saying whatever it is,

00:02:44.760 | working on getting podcast,

00:02:49.200 | you know, uploaded to all the relevant platforms,

00:02:51.900 | registered with the relevant platforms, that might be a card.

00:02:54.900 | Now on the back, there might be 10 different platforms listed.

00:02:58.500 | And in the notes section, I'm beginning to capture notes

00:03:01.160 | about the URL and the instructions for doing it for each of those platforms.

00:03:05.360 | And maybe some of those platforms I've already done

00:03:07.120 | and some of them are still exposed.

00:03:08.700 | And all of that gets visually compressed to a single card.

00:03:12.520 | And I know what that means when I see it during a review,

00:03:15.000 | like, oh, yeah, I'm working on that.

00:03:16.500 | Maybe I should put aside some time to get a couple more of those done.

00:03:19.500 | So that really, I think, makes your deck a lot more shallow,

00:03:23.900 | where a lot of things can get consolidated into a single card.

00:03:27.400 | So I would do those three things.

00:03:29.460 | If you're still overloaded, that might be another issue.

00:03:31.720 | Then maybe you're doing way too many things

00:03:34.100 | and there's a whole essentialism conversation to have.

00:03:36.760 | Go see Greg McKeown's book, Essentialism, for more on that.

00:03:41.200 | But until then, do those three things, more boards, more columns,

00:03:44.120 | more on the back of each individual card.

00:03:47.200 | That makes a big difference.

00:03:48.920 | (upbeat music)

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Why Don't You Use More Trello Columns to Match David Allen's System?

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