I've recently been reading Tim Feriss' Four-Hour Work Week which mentions Paretto's Law as one of Tim's core principles. The idea that you can apply to the 80/20 rule to pretty much most things.
Well, I actually find that Trello isn't the best tool when it comes to simple to-do lists that have individual tasks. As I mentioned briefly in a previous lesson, I use Trello for project management, and I use OmniFocus for life management, but for those who are unwilling or uninterested in using OmniFocus. Click Spark at the top left of your screen; Select Add Account.; Choose your email provider. If you don’t see it on the list, click Set Up Account Manually.This is the way you can set up IMAP accounts only. Trello is a task manager built around the concept of ‘Kanban’ which is essentially a scheduling system that allows you to move your tasks from one state to the next. The interface is built around the concept of a ‘Task board’ with columns for each state a task might be in (for example “to do, in progress, done”). The workflow is then to move tasks from one column to the next.
For example, only 20% of your customers provide 80% of the profit at the very least. Often times it's much more than that. With this powerful knowledge we can decide which customers we spend the most time on and which customers we treat with a light touch (since they provide minimal benefit). This got me thinking about concentrating my own efforts and making sure my workflow too is giving the 80% benefit with only 20% effort.
GTD
In a quest to become more efficient with my time I've been searching for ways in which I can keep on top of tasks whilst optimising my time and minimising waste. I really love the concept of Omnifocus and the Getting Things Done (GTD) philosophy and Omnifocus fits that perfectly. However, the big problem with Omnifocus and GTD is that you can be easily swamped by too many things to do and a consequence a lack of productivity as you switch from one task to another, or become a victim of analysis paralysis.
Pomodoro Technique
As well as GTD, I've been really impressed by the Pomodoro Technique. The Pomodoro Technique invented by Francesco Cirillo emphasises that people are great at concentrating on tasks for a short burst of time, traditionally for 25-30 minutes. In this short time you concentrate on one task and one task only. This time is called a “pomodoro.”
At the end of each pomodoro you take a 5 minute break, whether that's to grab a drink or take a toilet break. The idea that every person can be effective every hour of every day is a myth. It just doesn't happen.
With pomodoro you set yourself a limit to the number of pomodoro's you believe you can complete each day. This is traditionally anywhere between 10-12 pomodoro's. Before you know how much you can complete though, you start by tracking your time. You might be fairly shocked to find out that you're actually nowhere near as effective as you thought you were and a lot of time is wasted on activities that provide no tangible benefit. Like looking at funny cat gifs.
Curse you internet!
Bringing Together Two Worlds
What inspired this blog post is when I stumbled upon Pomello App, a tool that would allow me to bring together the worlds of GTD and Pomodoro in one beautiful union. Pomello app allows you to track the number of Pomodoro's it takes to complete a task on your Trello board.
The glue that's missing is the ability to copy tasks from Trello directly into your Omnifocus app.
This is where IFTTT (IFThis Then That) fits in. Similar to it's rival service Zapier, IFTTT provides recipes that allow you to link two services together using trigger events. For example, in our case, we want to use a recipe that states:
“IfA Card is Created on my Trello boardThen Send a Task to Omnifocus via my Omnifocus Inbox”
I've created my own recipe that creates a task in my Omnifocus inbox when I create a card on my Trello board.
The Ultimate Workflow
Breaking it all down here's what I do to set this all up:
Trello
- Create a board
- Add a list to that board
Omnifocus
- Sign-in to manage your Omni Sync Server account
- Under “Mail Drop to Inbox“ section click “Add an Address”
- Copy the maildrop email address (which should look like *@sync.omnigroup.com*)
IFTTT
- Use my IFTTT to Omnifocus recipe
- Link the recipe to your Trello account and select an appropriate board/list
- Paste into the Omnifocus Drop Server email address your *@sync.omnigroup.com* address
Pomello
- Get the Pomello App for Chrome
- Open Pomello and log into your Trello account
- Open your Trello Board
- Add a card to the list you setup in IFTTT
- Wait a moment for the email to be sent to Omnifocus
- Open Omnifocus and click “Sync”
You should now see your Trello task in Omnifocus so you know what tasks you need to do!
Putting it in Action
Now that the task is in Omnifocus, we can start using the Pomello app in Trello.
To use Pomello simply look at your Trello board. Since Pomello is a Chrome plug-in it will show in your applications. Select the card that you rasied and click “DO IT” to start a 25-minute pomodoro session.
Having fought for years to try and find a workflow where I can get the balance and focus right between productivity (feeling like I've actually accomplished something that day), I'm certainly finding that this workflow is one step closer to that vision and the ultimate workflow nerd-utopia.
Trello Omnifocus Sync
Have a try yourself and let me know what you think!?
What workflow are you using right now?
Trello Omnifocus Workflow
2021. Trello is redesigning its project management platform for a remote work future
Productivity app Trello, a virtual whiteboard-style platform for organizing and managing projects, is announcing a major redesign today in addition to new features for helping businesses manage third-party integrations. The platform is getting a visual overhaul, both to its logo and the illustrations it deploys across its website and apps. It’s also getting multiple new ways to both customize cards and view your workload beyond the core whiteboard column view. The new cards include both mirror cards and link cards, which the company hopes will make it easier to manage other apps and services from within Trello. Trello is also introducing five new board views that deviate from the standard column layout the platform helped popularize.
2018. Trello acquired business process automation tool Butler
Trello, the collaboration tool owned by Atlassian, announced an acquisition of light-weight business process automation tool Butler. What Butler brings to Trello is the power of automation, stringing together a bunch of commands to make something complex happen automatically. Over the years, teams have discovered that by automating processes on Trello boards with the Butler Power-Up, they could spend more time on important tasks and be more productive. Butler helps teams codify business rules and processes, taking something that might take ten steps to accomplish and automating it into one click. This means that Trello can be more than a static organizational tool. Instead, it can move into the realm of light-weight business process automation.
2018. Trello gets a newsfeed and improved notifications
Project management service Trello (owned by Atlassian), is getting a revamp. Trello is known for its cards and boards — and nothing else. But that also meant that power users often had to wade through a number of boards to figure out what they should focus on next. Now, Trello is getting a personalized newsfeed that will highlight activity from your Trello teams. The newsfeed will include sections like “Up Next” and “Highlights” to give you a better overview of what’s happening inside your projects. Also new in Trello are improved notifications. You’ll now be able to change due dates and stop notifications from any given card right from the notifications. In addition, you can also mark alerts are “read” or “unread.”
2017. Trello comes to the desktop, gets Stride integration
Popular project management tool Trello (which was recently acquired by Atlassian) launched desktop apps for Mac and Windows. Until now, Trello only lived in the browser. Now, Trello users will get all of the usual features they know from the browser, with the added ability to get native desktop notifications and add cards from anywhere thanks to support for plenty of keyboard shortcuts, for example — and you can do all of that without being tempted to surf over to Facebook when you’re done. If you’re using an Apple laptop with the Touch Bar, then will also be able to use that to create new cards and open boards in a new window with just a tap. Given that Atlassian launched its Stride Slack-competitor last week, it doesn’t come as a surprise that Trello is getting some integrations with Stride now, too. Specifically, this means that you can now start Stride audio and video conferences right from within Trello so you can instantly start a conference call with all Trello board members without having to shift between different applications.
2017. Atlassian acquired Trello
Atlassian has acquired project management service Trello for $425 million. Just like with many of Atlassian’s other acquisitions, the company plans to keep both the Trello service and brand alive and current users shouldn’t see any immediate changes. With Trello, Atlassian is acquiring one of the fastest growing project management services. It now has about 19 million users. Trello brings more productivity to individual and team projects. It shows all of the projects from the entire team in a single glance. Assigning projects is easy, just put them in the assigned person’s or team’s list and when completed drag it to the completed list. Each “card” or task can be commented on and links can be added. Trello works across multiple devices and uploads files from Dropbox or Google Drive.
2016. Trello makes its Power-Ups available to free users
Project management service Trello made its Power-Ups (third-party integrations) available to all of its users, including those who are on the service’s free tier. Until now, only paying users were able to use this feature, which includes integrations with products like SurveyMonkey, join.me, Github and Slack, among many others. Free users were restricted to using three very basic Power-Ups: Calendar for seeing Trello’s calendar view, Card Aging for slowly fading out cards as they age, and Voting for (you guessed it) adding a voting option to cards. Besides, Trello is launching integrations with Intercom, Github Enterprise and Screenful. Trello itself is also launching two new Power-Ups itself: custom fields for users who want to be able to create new data fields and visual cues for their cards, as well as a Card Repeater that allows you to set intervals for repeating tasks. With Card Repeater, you can set up Trello to automatically create copies of certain cards for recurring tasks like expense report due dates. This feature is currently only available as a public beta, though, and admins will have to request access to it.
2016. Trello launched platform for developers
Project management tool Trello is opening its Power-Ups Platform to developers who want to integrate their services with Trello. Launch partners for Trello’s new developer platform include the likes of SurveyMonkey, Zendesk, join.me and Giphy. In total, Trello currently features about 22 add-ons in its directory. For Trello users, having access to these third-party tools directly inside the service means they won’t have to switch context quite as often to perform some routine tasks and will be able to automate more of their workflow inside of Trello. It’s worth noting that Trello has long had an API that gave developers access to some of Trello’s features from inside their own apps. With the new platform, though, developers can directly integrate certain features into the Trello user interface.
2015. Project management service Trello adds tracking USPS, UPS, FedEx and others
Project management service Trello launched a new feature that brings shipping and tracking data from UPS, USPS, FedEx, OnTrac and LaserShip right into Trello cards. That’s a nifty little feature for existing Trello users, given that it now allows them to easily track their shipments in real time right from their project management tool. This means a small business could now use the service to easily track the progress of their shipments and as their status changes from in-transit to delivered, the card will automatically change colors from yellow to green (or to red when the shipment is delayed). Trello recently launched its revamped business offering, which includes a number of other third-party integrations, too. Like Atlassian, Trello is clearly looking to expand outside of the developer niche that first adopted the service.
2015. Trello launched revamped business version
Project management service Trello launched a revamped version of its business offering that introduces new features like third-party integrations with tools like Slack, GitHub and Salesforce. These new integrations — called Power-Up by Trello — will make life quite a bit easier for Trello users going forward. While you have long been able to connect Slack and Trello, for example, the new integration now lets you tell Trello to remind you of a card on one of your Trello boards in a few hours and then Slack will pop up a reminder later in the day. The previous integration only allows you to get an update in Slack when there was basic activity on your Trello cards, lists and boards. Similarly, the GitHub integration now allows you to see relevant details from GitHub (commit messages, pull requests, etc.) right on a Trello card that’s updated in real time. Other supported services include Box, Google Drive, Google Hangouts, Dropbox, Twitter, Evernote, Salesforce, Mailchimp, Help Scout and appear.in.
2015. Trello launched enterprise version with single sign-on support
Trello, the kanban-style project management app launched its enterprise service today. Trello already offered paid tiers for individuals and businesses, but enterprises obviously have slightly different requirements from startups and small teams that may or may not have gotten IT’s permission to use the service. So in addition to all the standard paid business features (permissions, membership control, etc.), the enterprise tier includes features like single sign-on support and intrusion detection. With the new single sign-on support, Trello users can integrate their existing Okta, OneLogin or other SAML-based login systems to use the service. The company’s regular business accounts are only integrated with Google Apps. In addition, the new paid tier includes phone and email support, as well as guaranteed file encryption at rest. Enterprise users will also get dedicated account managers.