Project Management for Personal Productivity: Say Hello to the Board

In today’s fast-paced world, personal productivity at work and at home can be a challenge. To-do lists can quickly spiral out of control, and whiteboards on the fridge are no longer relevant to people who use smartphones and other mobile devices for general life management. And what about all those tasks that are really part of a larger overall plan to Manage the Household, Lose 30 Pounds or Save for Disney World?

We all have more personal commitments than ever these days, and simple to-do lists may not be enough to help you stay on track. That’s why it can be incredibly helpful to organize tasks within a larger plan and put capture everything on an online board. A variety of free and paid project management tools are available online, and Trello is one of the best free options. With tools like Trello, you can quickly generate lists of milestones within a larger goal on cards, develop checklists within cards for each of those milestones, and then organize them by “buckets” such To-Do or Not Started, In Progress and Completed. In this case, you will typically start out with all your cards in the To-Do column on the left, begin moving them across the board to the right as their status changes to In Progress or Completed, and then jump for joy as you realize that you can actually see yourself making progress toward your goals!

Let’s say you want to fix up your house and put it on the market. (With mortgage rates at an all-time low, now’s a great time to sell!) In no time at all, you can create a free Trello account and, from there, a Fix Up the House board within the app.

Next, you want to list all your to-do’s on a series of cards. Your list of cards may consist of the following:

• Replace Attic Door
• Paint Children’s Bedrooms
• Upgrade Electrical Panel
• Replace Outdated Light Fixtures
• Paint Bathroom
• Replace Vanity

As you create your cards, you may notice that some of your to-do’s need a checklist of their own, and with project planner tools such as Trello, you have that functionality! Simply tap to open one of your cards — let’s go with Paint Children’s Bedrooms — and add a checklist which includes the following:

• Measure wall space
• Measure trim and baseboards
• Pick a new wall color
• Calculate amount of paint needed for bedroom walls
• Calculate amount of paint needed for trim and baseboards
• Buy supplies: paint, paint rollers for trim and walls, extension pole, roller brushes, sponge brushes, blue tape, drop cloths

Once you have created all your cards, added checklists where appropriate and assigned due dates to all the cards, you may then go to the dashboard and tap to open your board, tap the ellipsis in the upper-right corner of your To-Do list and choose Sort By Due Date. Voilà — all your To-Do’s are arranged in the order you need to begin working on them!

Trello and other project management tools also offer “power-ups,” such as syncing your board and project timeline with your online calendar. With Trello, one free power-up is available per board; after that, you’ll have to upgrade to a paid version.

This is only the beginning, of course, and Trello offers users plenty of useful tips on their website and through email that will help you make the most of the features offered. If you haven’t already discovered the power of project management tools for personal productivity, you’ll soon find out just how powerful — and even addictive — these can be. Never again be overwhelmed by random to-do lists or notes to self!

This lesson in personal productivity comes to you courtesy of InsureYourCompany.com. For more information about how we help businesses of all sizes get the coverage they need, contact us.