Do you wish you could be more organized and productive? If you’re feeling stressed and disorganized, Trello can help. By the way — the app is free for basic use, and it’s a wonderful tool for writers.
Think of it as an electronic bulletin board, or whiteboard.
(Disclosure: I have no connection to the developers; I simply enjoy the program.)
Trello lessens stress and helps you to be more productive
As a writer, not only must you keep abreast of everything in your business, you also need to track and organize elements in your projects. Trello can help. Not only can you track projects and sales, you can track tasks, such as plotting your novel, or creating a content calendar for a client’s blog.
Need inspiration and ideas on how you might use the app? Explore these excellent boards for writers. You can copy these boards and customize them to your needs.
Trello’s novel planning board
Trello basics: boards, lists and cards — on your computer, and devices
The app consists of boards.
Your boards (you can create as many as you like) contain lists, and again, you can create as many lists as you need in a board. Each of your lists contains cards. It’s easy to connect everything: boards to other boards, lists to lists (even in another board), and cards to cards.
To get started, here’s the Trello Guide.
Trello Inspiration offers dozens of templates so you can kickstart your activities.
Let’s look at some tips to help you to use this app for your business.
1. Writing fiction? Plot novels (and even complete series) with Trello
Over the years, I’ve used many tools to help me to develop plots, but I always come back to Trello. Not only does this app make it much easier to check where you are in your plot at a glance, you can track your progress with your characters’ arcs and much more.
2. Blogging? Use Trello to manage your content calendar and finances too
Are you blogging for yourself and/ or for clients? Trello can keep all your content calendars — and your finances — manageable.
Add the Calendar power-up to a board and drag and drop your content ideas from one list to another. You can also keep track of client invoicing and other bookkeeping.
Speaking of bookkeeping, Trello can help you to manage your writing business.
3. Need help? Add clients, editors and virtual assistants to Trello boards
If you have a writing business, you work with others.
You work with:
- Clients;
- Editors;
- Designers;
- Other writers…
Trello makes it easy to keep track of projects and people. You can communicate with your clients and colleagues right within Trello boards and cards.
4. Make this year your best year yet: organize your goals in Trello
Do you find it challenging to keep track of your goals? You’re scheduling projects, clients, and marketing. If you’re a self-publishing author, you’re also scheduling publishing dates.
Trello can help, ensuring that nothing falls through the cracks.
5. Save time by creating templates in Trello
Trello’s templates save you time every day — they also ensure that you don’t miss anything. You can create templates for all your processes: client on-boarding, publishing, marketing, and more.
Trello’s dozens of integrations ensure that Trello works well with others. Connect Trello to your favorite tools using browser extensions, or Power-Ups, right in Trello.
If you haven’t tried Trello, experiment with it. It’s a useful tool to help you to become more organized; you’ll enjoy writing too when you’re less stressed.
Copywriter and marketing pro Angela Booth maintains a busy copywriting and ghostwriting practice. Fascinated by online marketing, she wrote one of the first business books for internet marketing, published by Allen & Unwin. She’s been an enthusiastic blogger since the late 1990s.
