If sticky notes are 3M’s gift to random thoughts and ideas, and the Internet is Al Gore’s (ha) gift to communication, Trello is Trello, Inc.’s perfect union of the two; a web app combing the simplicity of sticky notes with the power of the Internet; a gift to anyone who wants to organize their ideas and turn them into reality.
Want to skip the foreplay? Sign up here and play with it. It’s free.
Note: I don’t make a penny for recommending this tool. I just love it that much.
If you’re not ready to dive in, here’s why you should consider it.
Your Ideas are Worth Nothing, Unless...
I’ve written before on just how valuable your ideas are.
Bottom line up front?
If you haven’t taken action on your idea, it’s worth precisely nothing.
Many ideas have infinite potential, but never amount to anything because their creator didn’t execute. It’s easy to understand why. One of the most challenging things to do is take that first step toward transforming an idea into reality. We fear perfection, success, and failure all at the same time. We are overcome with indecision when facing a forest full of trees to cut down.
As such, any app that captures your ideas, if it’s to be worth anything, must also help transition your ideas smoothly into execution.
This is why I love Trello. It’s an idea organizer, process development, project management, and general productivity tool for turning ideas into reality and getting shit done.
Trello, the Kid-Friendly Productivity Tool for Grownups
Think of Trello like an online whiteboard (called a Board) you can cover with sticky notes (called Cards). Your whiteboard is divided into columns (called Lists)—one for each step in your process.
Trello can support multiple Boards, and each can be customized to fit any stepwise process that works for you.
- Turning Ideas Into Reality - From idea generation to research to a project plan.
- Managing Sales - From lead to opportunity to sale to revenue.
- Project Management - From project charter to execution to review to project close.
- Writing - From idea to research to draft to published to marketing after.
Your Cards are the thoughts, ideas, and tasks that you need to track through your process. They are the digital "sticky notes" containing a title, description, notes, labels, assigned team members, due dates, and other tracking tools necessary for small business projects. Create new ones, delete old ones, move active ones between the columns to represent where each task lies in your process. You can even view the cards with due dates on a calendar. Oh, and if your Card is a bigger task that requires multiple actions to complete, you can list action items within and track them to completion.
It’s Time to Take Action
Trello is free to use for teams, making it perfect for creators, entrepreneurs, and businesses with less than 25 employees. For businesses working in distributed environments, the Trello app on iOS and Android interfaces perfectly with their web app, allowing teams to access their Trello board anywhere they have an Internet connection.
Remember, your ideas are worth nothing if not executed.
And if you don’t have a process for turning your ideas into reality, it’s about damn time you created one. Trello might be exactly the app you are looking for to help you get organized, get productive, and transform ideas into action.
About the Author
Michael Mehlberg
Co-Founder | Technology, Apps, and Wicked Cool Productivity Tools
Mike Mehlberg spends most of his productive hours playing with cool apps that would make him more productive, if only he’d use them for real work. Want to get organized and maximize your time? He knows an app for that. Contact him at mike@moderndavinci.net to get organized, get productive, and make the most of each day.
