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Trello offers a popular tool for personal productivity and team collaboration. The platform gives users more than 25 million users worldwide.

You can easily customize the platform based on your tasks and working preferences. And it delivers a powerful way for businesses to organize projects.

Trello expert Brittany Joiner said in an email to Small Business Trends, “Trello is a great tool to help you take everything that’s rushing around in your brain and to get it out and organized in a central location. Imagine not having to run around with a thousand things in your mind, but being able to organize and access those when needed.”

Tips on How to Use Trello

But in order to make the most of Trello, you need to get a grasp on its capabilities. Whether you’re new to Trello or looking to step up your game a bit, here are some expert tips that can help you leverage Trello for your small business.

Start With One Area in Mind

Trello has a ton of different capabilities. You can use it just for your personal to-do list, team collaboration, project management and endless other functions. To avoid getting overwhelmed, Joiner recommends that you start slow and get used to the features as you go.

She says, “Try it out in one area, get your feet wet, and then add it to more places.”

For example, you might start to use it for your personal projects at first. Then over time, you can introduce it to your team and use it for collaborative projects.

Import Info from Spreadsheets

If you’re just getting started with Trello or beginning to use it in a new area, you might already have some info saved in spreadsheets or other documents. Instead of starting from scratch, you can create a new card and then copy and paste cells from your spreadsheet. Trello can automatically turn all of those list items into new cards, so you have a good starting point for your business’s to-do list.

Turn Websites into Trello Cards

You can also add Trello cards directly from websites. You just need to save the Trello bookmarklet to your browser. Then when you’re on a website that you want to include in one of your Trello boards, just click on the bookmark and you’ll be able to select where you want it saved.

Define Due Dates Immediately

Especially when you’re using Trello for team management, it’s important to make expectations very clear. To avoid having important tasks put off, assign specific due dates to every item as you create it. This can even be helpful for your own personal tasks, but it’s especially essential for managing expectations and making sure everyone on your team knows what’s expected.

Scott Friesen, business productivity expert and founder of Simpletivity told Small Business Trends, “Defining a due date and an owner will allow the appropriate stakeholders to receive notifications and keep everyone on the same page.”

Label Everything

Friesen added, “Using labels is a very helpful way to manage all of your information within the tool. By default, only the label color will appear on the front of a card when viewing a Trello board. But by clicking on the label itself, the label will expand and display the label name as well (so you don’t have to rely on color only).”

Star Important Boards

Some of your projects are probably a bit more important or frequently used than others. Instead of sifting through your boards every time you need to get to one of these, star those that you want to access right away. Then you’ll be able to see them right at the top of the page and save yourself tons of time.

Learn Keyboard Shortcuts

One of the major advantages of Trello is its ability to save you time. To really get the most out of that advantage, the tool offers a wide array of keyboard shortcuts for various functions. Trello offers a handy infographic to help you learn these shortcuts and keep them top of mind as you get used to Trello.

Join Trello Communities

Since Trello is so customizable, it can help to learn how others are making the most of it so you can gain some inspiration for your own business. Joiner recommends connecting with other users in the Atlassian Community, which is run by Trello’s parent company, or the Trello Slack community. You can post questions or read updates and tips from other users in both of these.

Use Power-Ups

Trello also allows you to connect with third-party apps and tools, which it calls power-ups. These can help you add extra features or import your information from the other tools and services your business uses.

Joiner says, “They super-charge your Trello boards. Some of my favorites include the Calendar Power-Up, Custom Fields Power-Up, and the Card Repeater Power-Up.”

Explore Automation

Another way to save time, especially for advanced users. There are power-ups and other services available to help you create these automated processes, depending on your company’s needs.

Joiner says, “Exploring automation is a great way to make your boards even more advanced. You can use the Butler Power-Up, or tools like Zapier or IFTTT.”

Image: Trello

This article, “Master the Art of Trello for Small Business with these 10 Tips” was first published on Small Business Trends