Using Trello outside of the professional workplace

As Project Management tools go, Trello by Atlassian is probably one of the best-known ones out there. It is used by both tech practitioners as well as business people. Trello is an online version of the Kanban Board popularized by the Japanese. And for the entirety of 2021, I have been using it to manage my non-professional projects; i.e, my personal life.

I will show you how soon, but first things first...

What is a Kanban Board?

This link can probably explain it better, but here goes: the Kanban Board is a visualization that represents the progress of a task, or a series of tasks. These tasks are placed on the board at positions that denote the stage at which the progress of that task has arrived at. For example - Backlog, In Progress, Completed.

A typical Kanban Board.

The tasks are then moved when progress takes place, until the tasks are completed. The overall effect is a visual of where each task is at, at the current time.

Now that this is hopefully clear, let us examine how the use of this tool can be used in the personal life of a tech professional.

What does Trello manage for me?

What I have used Trello to manage all the fun little code projects I work on, the blogposts that make it onto this blog, some crafts projects and learning assignments.

Chores managed by Trello.

Also, I use Trello to schedule my weekend household chores. Dental. Banking appointments. All that mundane stuff.

Breakdowns into sub-tasks

Checklists can be used in each card to break the task down into smaller chunks. When items in the checklist are checked, there is an indication on the card reflecting how much of the task has been completed. This is important because while the overall status of a task remains binary (i.e, completed or not completed), there is a huge difference between 10% of a task having been completed, and, say, 90%.

Checklists

Also, breaking a task down makes it more manageable. I get to tackle bite-sized chunks instead of an entire otherwise gargantuan task. Take for example, a task like "Learn Japanese". Learning an entirely new language is daunting in itself. But if we broke it down into multiple checklists for reading, writing and speaking, with each checklist further broken down into different sub-tasks, it now looks doable. And these tasks are segregated into logical groups, which lets me see which parts of Japanese I am progressing in more - reading, writing or speaking. What I may want to concentrate on more - vocabulary or grammar. It provides significantly more insight into the task than simply "Learn Japanese".

Daily tasks

Daily tasks are a list of things I want to work on or get done on any given day. They could be an existing card on the board that I need to do work on. They could be some entirely new items that needs to be done on that day, like laundry or grocery shopping.

Miscellaneous tasks

In the case of the latter, those tasks take priority because they have to be finished on the day itself. Therefore I would recommend that there is a limited number of these such items on any given day.

In the case of the former, it is a little more nuanced. The objective is not to finish the task, but rather do work on it. So if I do enough work for one or more items on the checklist to be checked off, it counts. How much work I do on that task does not matter; only that I spend time on it. If I spend time on that task but do not actually manage to check off any items, then obviously I did not break down that task thoroughly enough. Therefore, if I follow my own rules, this forces me to at least do one thing on the checklist. If I do this consistently, eventually, the task gets completed. This serves to enforce discipline.

Overall benefits

I've explained how Trello helps in organization of my personal life and all my required tasks. That is an undeniable benefit, especially since I have to break down tasks to fit into the Kanban Board system, and group these sub-tasks logically. This also means that I get real practice using a system like Trello.

Task management.

As mentioned, Trello (or other systems like it) are in use professionally for task management. Being familiar with something like that lends me a professional edge.

Not only does Trello play a role in my professional life as a software developer, it also plays a role in my personal life. In the larger picture, Trello has kept me pretty much on track.

Completed,
T___T