Trello is one of the most popular project management tools available, known for its simplicity and effectiveness within a budget. There are numerous tools for managing projects. This free tool is based on a Kanban board and helps manage work in a project better to collaborate with teams. It uses boards, lists, and cards to help you organize and manage projects.

Whether you’re planning a project, tracking progress, or collaborating with a team, Trello offers a versatile platform to meet your needs. In this article, we will explore 10 practical ways to use Trello for project management, ensuring your projects stay on track and well-organized. From setting up boards to utilizing Power-Ups, these tips will enhance your productivity and efficiency.

10 Ways to Use Trello for Project Management

What is Trello and How To Use It?

Trello is a popular project management tool that helps you organize tasks and collaborate with others. It uses boards, lists, and cards to visually manage projects.

How to Use Trello:

1. Create a Board: Start by creating a board for your project.
2. Add Lists: Create lists within your board to represent different stages of your project (e.g., To Do, In Progress, Done).
3. Create Cards: Add cards to your lists for individual tasks. You can add details, due dates, and attachments to each card.
4. Collaborate: Invite team members to your board and assign tasks by adding them to specific cards.
5. Move Cards: As tasks progress, drag and drop cards between lists to update their status.

Key Features of Trello project management

• Boards, Lists, and Cards for organizing projects.
• Color-coded Labels for categorization.
• Checklists for task breakdown.
• Attachments for linking relevant resources.
• Due Dates for timely task completion.
• Comments for collaboration.
• Activity Log for tracking changes.
• Integrations with third-party tools.
• Mobile Apps for on-the-go access.

Trello project management is a very simple app at its core: a simple, plain system of organization and monitoring of one’s project, presented at a glance.

How to Use Trello for Project Management

Here are the 10 ways to use trello for Project Management:

1. Use Trello boards

Trello boards are the advanced version of bulletin boards that are used to organize thoughts. The specialty of Trello is that you are not restricted to using a single board and can use multiple boards as complex projects will require multiple boards. It also provides different privacy options: personal, private, team, organization, and public visibility. Your board will show you what is planned to be done, and task statuses, and help you indicate capacity limitations.

This function helps give context to the members about the status of work and description of the work that has to be done. The board headings can be customized and the priority of the task can also be highlighted.

Steps to Use Trello Boards

1. Sign Up and Create an Account: Go to Trello’s website and sign up for a free account.
2. Create a Board: Click on the “Create new board” button and give your board a name.
3. Add Lists: Inside your board, create lists to represent different stages of your workflow (e.g., To Do, In Progress, Done).
4. Create Cards: Add cards under each list for individual tasks. Click on a card to add details, due dates, attachments, and comments.
5. Collaborate: Invite team members by clicking on the “Invite” button and assigning them to specific cards.
6. Move Cards: Drag and drop cards between lists to reflect the progress of tasks.
7. Use Power-Ups: Enhance your board with Power-Ups (integrations and additional features) for added functionality.

2. Using Trello Cards

Once the lists on the board are completed, cards need to be added. These Cards are the building block of Trello which provides details of the tasks within the project. Clicking a card expands to show detailed information like the example shown below.

Steps to Using Trello Cards

1. Create a Card: Click “Add a card” at the bottom of any list and give it a name.
2. Add Details: Click on the card to open it. You can add descriptions, checklists, due dates, attachments, and comments.
3. Assign Members: Click “Members” and add team members to the card to assign tasks.
4. Label and Organize: Use labels to categorize cards by color-coding them.
5. Move Cards: Drag and drop cards between lists to show progress (e.g., from “To Do” to “Done“).
6. Use Power-Ups: Enhance functionality with integrations like calendars, automation, and more.

3. Calendar Planning

Trello’s built-in view makes it a calendar planner, allowing you to see your deadlines visually, organized by due date. Lists act as timeframes (“This Week“), while color-coded labels highlight priorities. Optional Power-Ups further enhance functionality, letting you sync with external calendars. This makes Trello a powerful yet flexible way to manage your time, no matter how complex your schedule gets. By leveraging these features, you can effectively use Trello for project management, ensuring that all tasks are tracked and completed on time.

After cards are provided and the due dates are specified, it displays the cards as such in the calendar by the order of due dates. This function immensely helps to prioritize work with a glance at this calendar.

4. Email Replacement

You can add cards straight from your email into Trello. Each Trello board gets its own special email address, making it easy to forward important emails directly to the board. This feature allows Trello to automatically create a card from the email. To find the email address for a board, go to the board menu and click “Email-to-Board.” You can add details in the email for customization. This feature helps keep your information organized within Trello, making it one of the effective project management tools to avoid information loss.

5. Productivity Metrics

You can manually track the key metrics by creating a list on your board for metrics. Trello also includes “power-ups,” which are specifically for more advanced tracking, usually paid, offering analytics and reporting from metrics such as how long tasks take (cycle time) and the total time taken from creation to completion (lead time). They provide this data on charts and graphs so that it is more visual and in turn, offers reports that will point out strengths and weaknesses.

6. Automate Repetitive Email Tasks

The built-in Butler in Trello is your secret weapon against the bane of manual tasks. First, identify the repetitive tasks that are bogging you down. Look for the emails sent often, with the same structure about them, or actions that you normally do on incoming emails. Status updates, default replies of information, forwarding emails to selected colleagues, moving it into certain folders – all of these are common causes. Standardize your emails with templates and clear subject lines to add to this efficiency.

7. CRM Tool

Trello can be an essential tool in managing Customer relationships. Each customer has a Trello card, similar to a digital folder holding all their info, notes, and deal value. Move the cards around, and you can instantly see where leads are within the pipeline – easy, at first glance, to understand what’s in the queue for your team. And it’s flexible for your team to work together on pushing these deals forward.

Here is an example of a CRM template:

8. Arranging Meetings 

Video conference tools like Google Hangouts and Zoom have been integrated into Trello. Video calling right from your Trello board is a click away with Trello. This eliminates the back-and-forth between apps or hunting down links for the meetings, centralizing everything.

9. Project Chat Channels

Additional communication is needed beyond comments on cards. Trello provides a separate chat room for each of your various boards. Real-time dedicated chat space on each project board ensures brainstorming, updates, and questions stay focused within the relevant board, not mixed with other conversations that may cause information overload. This fosters a more collaborative environment where problems are addressed quickly and projects move forward smoothly.

10. Time Tracking

Power-ups such as Clockify and Timesheets allow you to start timers directly on cards while you work. Get the time spent tracking and report it for analysis to help give you an idea about the project timeline, optimize workflow, or even ensure accurate billing for the billable service as well as add an estimation field helping you compare actual time vs your estimate.

Power-Ups for Additional Functionality

• Calendar View: Visualize tasks and due dates in a calendar format.
• Voting: Allow team members to vote on cards to prioritize tasks.
• Custom Fields: Add custom fields to cards for unique data tracking.
• Card Aging: Highlight inactive cards to focus attention on current tasks.
• Card Repeater: Automatically create recurring cards for repetitive tasks.
• Google Drive Integration: Attach Google Drive files directly to cards.
• GitHub Integration: Link Trello cards to GitHub issues for seamless development tracking.
• Jira Integration: Connect Trello boards with Jira for enhanced project management.
• Time Tracking: Monitor time spent on tasks with built-in time-tracking capabilities.

Conclusion

Trello is one of the best project management tools available, offering a flexible and visual way to manage tasks and projects. By using boards, lists, and cards, you can easily organize and track progress. The 10 ways we’ve discussed, including calendar planning, task assignments, and integrations, make Trello an essential tool for boosting productivity and collaboration. With both free and paid plans, Trello provides a scalable solution for individuals and teams looking to streamline their project management processes.

Trello features the flexibility of Kanban boards, custom cards, and all the built-in automation your team needs to be organized and super productive. Whether you are working on a project with a bunch of people or just trying to organize a simple to-do list, Trello is the tool to get this done.

10 Ways to Use Trello for Project Management- FAQs

Can Trello be used for project management?

Trello is a Kanban-based collaboration and task management tool that is perfect for all kinds of projects or teams.

Is Trello a scrum or Kanban?

Trello is an ideal platform for Kanban teams. You can easily configure the Board to match your process and it is visible everywhere, even when your team works fully or partially remotely.

What is the main task of Trello?

Trello is the visual work management tool that empowers teams to ideate, plan, manage, and celebrate their work together in a collaborative, productive, and organized way.

Is Trello good for project management?

Yes, Trello is excellent for project management due to its visual and intuitive interface. It helps teams organize tasks using boards, lists, and cards, making project tracking simple and effective. Trello’s flexibility and integration with other tools enhance its project management capabilities.

What is the main use of Trello?

The main use of Trello is to manage projects and tasks visually. It allows users to create boards for different projects, lists for stages of progress, and cards for individual tasks, making it easy to track and collaborate on work.

Is Trello project management free?

Yes, Trello offers a free version that provides essential project management features. The free plan includes unlimited boards, lists, cards, and members, making it suitable for many personal and professional projects. Additional features are available in paid plans.