Trello Vs Asana? Which Will Suit You The Best?

Trello Vs Asana? Which Will Suit You The Best?

Ready to get organised?  Here is a quick Trello vs Asana comparison to help you choose a system to help your productivity levels.

If you follow me on any of my social channels you will know that I am all about getting focused and un-muddling your life. It’s not just about business success, it’s also to clear headspace. I want you to have more time to focus on things that are important to you, whether that be family and caring responsibilities or pursuing your passions.  

Many of us business owners have multiple things on the go, with a side-hustle to the side-hustle along with our personal life. It can be easy to lose track of what we need to be doing to move our projects forward.

Some of the tools out there can take some of the muddle out of your head and put it into a cohesive order.  I have used a few of these systems and thought I would do a quick comparison of two of the leading tools Trello vs Asana.

Trello Overview – Ideal system for visual learners

Trello is a card-based task management system which is based on the Japanese Kanban methodology.  In Japanese, the word “Kan” means “visual” and “ban” means “card,” so Kanban refers to visual cards.  Another way to think about them is like online post-it notes.  If you can picture the basic scene there would be three boards “To Do” “In Progress” “Done” and you can move the cards along the boards as tasks are completed.  

In reality different boards are set up by project or focus area which could be anything from “launch new campaign” through to “holiday childcare” 

Trello is a very visual way of un-cluttering your mind and showing progress as a project moves through various stages. You can have several different boards for all sorts of things to keep your projects and ideas organised. 

Pros

  • Easy to use and get to grips with, but lots more to do with it as your business develops
  • Visual and able to attach lots of information to the front of cards, meaning you can see things at a glance.
  • Gold version means you get extra features for only $5 a month, and lets you automate a whole bunch of stuff with a tool called Butler! 

Cons

  • Easy to all of a sudden have a million boards with no way to check them! 
  • It can look too busy for some, so may be overwhelming. 
  • Communication is not the easiest, and things can get confusing if you don’t get a good system in place to make sure everyone uses a board in the same way. 

Perfect for visual people who like to see things at a glance and make it look great too!

Think of it like the a ring binger planner, gone digital, which you’d fill with notes and stickers if you wanted to. Or the Pinterest of organisational tools! 

use trello and asana together
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Asana overview – love a list?  This one is for you

Asana also has a simple clear UI and is a task-based system built around projects which then have tasks below them. Visually it is also clear and easy to use but probably has a more traditional linear feel. This makes it more ‘tick-able’ so definitely great for clients who need to see what’s coming next.

You can also do the Kanban style boards with the boards option in Asana too. 

If you have project dependencies where things need to happen before the next part can start, you can set this up on Asana quite easily and if a project is quite complex this is probably the right system to use. It’s great for using with clients 

Pricing is similar for both systems, with a free version that can then be upgraded to use either more licences or a more feature-rich version. 

Pros

  • Easy to follow list style interface that lets you or clients easily tick items
  • ‘Cleaner’ lists but still with the ability to attach documents and comment on individual tasks within them, as well as add subtasks. 
  • Easily get or send email alerts from the project.   

Cons

  • Can be harder to copy and invite people into the projects you’re working on, as there are different sections, and depending on whether you’re invited to someone’s project, or you invite them to yours, it can get a little muddled. Still the best client option in my opinion though.
  • Not as easy to visually tell the difference between tasks

Perfect if you need something in a straight list and don’t want visual decoration or distractions.

Think a good old fashioned notebook with lists – pimped up and made digital. 

trello vs Asana comparison

So, not much in it, but which is it, Trello vs Asana, can you guess which way I will go?!

For me as a creative, Trello is the system that I prefer as I am a visual designer, I enjoy setting up my own cards and seeing the whole picture, I found it quick and easy to get started. I love it so much I created a whole template shop 😜.

I find that it’s a real time-saver as I don’t have to continually re-write lists, I can just drag and drop tasks along as they progress.  It’s so easy to move my cards along as I complete an action and I have set my account up to sync to my calendar.

I can label my tasks in order of priority and also with my other focus task which is whether my task is to “grow” my business or “maintain” it.

BUT I do actually use both systems, so my personal recommendation is to use both if you have clients that you need to collaborate with, use Asana for them, and Trello for you. I use…

Asana – project management with clients, link it with Dubsado and Trello, all external facing.

Trello – home and business planning, weekly to-do’s and all internal stuff.

So you can also use Trello and Asana together if you’d like to. Check out the links you can make with Zapier to get an idea of how that could work for you.

Still can’t choose?

Ultimately, Trello Vs Asana, whichever you choose (or another tool altogether) it’s got to be right for you, so give it a go, spend some time trying them out and getting a feel for them, then make your decision. 

If you want to start with a bang, why don’t you try one of the templates in the Trello template shop.

Trello for Teams – Tips to Get Super Organised

If you’re looking for some Trello for teams tips, you’ve come to the right place.

Having a group of people who know what their roles are on any given project is great.

Having a group of people know exactly what their roles are and when they should perform them to complete a chain of tasks is even greater.

Trello has the capacity to allow teams to work together without anyone jumping ahead with their portion of a task or worrying about letting anyone down. By using its wide array of functions, you can keep everyone in the loop with a project and be super-efficient by creating project workflows that work in precisely the way you need them to. You can collaborate, use systems to break down projects and focus on the bigger picture all at the same time.

Particularly strong for those of us who work remotely and manage teams, Trello allows you to build and sustain team working from wherever your office is in the world.

It breaks down silos and supports personal strengths with its wide range of power-ups – such as Slack and Google Drive – to create a centralised hub to manage your workforce, project and team.

Personally, I love using Trello with my team. I have set up notifications that let me know when it’s time for me to carry out my part of a project – such as proof read, edit or contribute something – and these save me time when that “hmmm – I wonder if Natalia’s done xyz… I’ll just log on and check…” thought pop ups – I know I don’t need to check because Butler (one of my fave add ons) will have sent me an email to tell me that her workflow is complete.

Sound complicated? It doesn’t have to be, promise.

Here are my top tips for getting started with using Trello for teams.

First you’ll want to set up a team if you’re using the paid for business version, or if you’re using the free version, then you can have personal boards and invite people on a board-by-board basis.

1. Have a List on the left with instructions on how you’ll use the board.

If you’re setting up, and people don’t know how to use, you can record a Loom video and add the link to a Card. This then forms a point of reference that is always visible to anyone who is added to the team. If you add a new process, it gets added to a new Card. You can attach screenshots and voice notes, too, for members to learn new processes.

2. You can add standard processes as Checklists.

If you have an agreed process, you can add this to the start of your board and then copy it for other cards. I use these processes a lot for my content creation editing and checking; as the system is always the same so it just saves me time by creating a standardised checklist that is always used when I proofread something for publishing. It helps my team members know what the expectations of tasks are, too, without constantly having to scroll back through their Inbox to find an initial email or project plan.

3. Email your team board

SHOW MENU > …MORE > Email-to-board Settings

Then grab the email address there and add it to your contacts. That means you can forward emails straight to the board! Seriously, it’s brill!

4. Use stickers & labels

Stickers are a great way to identify actions that need to be taken on cards. Visual clues are great for highlighting a change or drawing someone’s attention to an alert that concerns them. They’re also quite fun and allow you to inject some of your / your brand’s personality into your teamwork, which is always nice. To find stickers, click on SHOW MENU > Stickers.

For labels, you can make these whatever you need to, but it makes sense to use ones that group the type of work you need to do, like ‘design’ ‘writing’ ‘contact’ etc, OR you could use them to show what stage a project is at.

5. Get on board with Butler

Butler is the automation tool for Trello. It will take your Trello from pretty cool, to AMAZING. There are lots of things you can use Butler for, but my fave for teams is adding a command to say ‘when {this checklist item} is complete, send {this person} and email to let them know. There are so many ways you can use it, like I do on my blog content board.

Have you used Trello with your team yet?

If you fancy a template that’s already set up to help you to do just this, click right here, folks. All of my templates come with a handy video that walks you through how to get everything set up and then voila! Team work just got a whole lot smarter.

Seven Yearly Business Planning Tips for When You Don’t Feel Like It

Sometimes yearly business planning can feel really, really hard.  I know the feeling, whether you’re still in the current year or you’ve just gone into the new year and you’ve got still got loads and loads of things that you need to do. You can feel like you still want to enjoy the moment you’re in and feel a little apprehensive about the next twelve months. Even if you feel like this, you can still make some gentle plans to ease you in to yearly business planning, whether you’re starting at the beginning, or half way through.

So what’s the point in making a plan if you’re not even going to be able to stick to it in the first place? Well, there are some ways that you can make this easier on yourself: following some of the tips below, when you just don’t feel like planning, to get you out of that rut and actually enjoy planning your year. You might want to do this in January; you might want to do it before the year starts, but don’t stress because – no matter what – you can do it whenever you feel like it.

So here are my 7 top tips for yearly business planning when you really don’t feel like it.

1. Don’t stress about what everybody else’s business plans are

It’s really easy at this time of year to compare yourself to others and look at what everybody else is doing. You’re, no doubt, seeing on Instagram that everybody has these amazing plans for 2020. Comparing yourself to others is a sure-fire way to instantly feel like you don’t want to do any kind of yearly business planning because you’re overwhelmed by what everybody else’s plans are.

If this is how you’re feeling right now, take time away from social media and turn off notifications for those you don’t want to hear from right now. If you really do want to do some planning, remove yourself from those places that make you have Comparison-itis so that you don’t actually feel like you ought to be doing things that everyone else is doing.

Ultimately, you’ve got to do this in a way that is unique to you, otherwise, you’re just not going to do it, so stop comparing yourself to everybody else’s plans and actually start to investigate plans that you can start something that is going to work for you.

2. Plan when it feels right, not when you feel like you have to

Plans for the next year don’t have to start the year before but it does make sense if they do. If you’re reading this at the end of 2019 it’ll be near the end of the year but not quite in 2020, so have a think of a rough outline of ideas now or you might even have started planning earlier. You don’t have to feel like you’ve got 2019 in the bag to start making plans for 2020; but you might still have want to be focused on things for 2019 before you start planning.

There’s nothing wrong with yearly business planning in January, or February, or March or hey, even when you’re planning for an academic year – so planning from September to August if you’ve got children – which could work for you as well, so don’t feel like you have to do it at a certain time when everyone starts talking about it. Come September or October, everybody seems to start talking about how important it is to plan for the next year but if that doesn’t work for you: don’t stress. If you’d rather do it in January or February then that is what you should do – focus on the time that is right for you else you won’t benefit from it but start to jot some ideas down now to take the thoughts out of your head before you finish work for the holidays.

3. Find a way that works for you

Lots of the planners and calendars out there might feel too overwhelming if you’re feeling that ‘I-don’t-want-to-plan’-feeling. A whole-year diary or annual planner probably isn’t the best place for you to start, if you’re feeling like this. Instead, look for planners like the flexible Trello planning templates in the template shop that are going to be able to get down your thoughts without it feeling overwhelming. You don’t need to add everything to a plan so just go with the flow and use what is going to be helpful for you and ditch the rest. It is not a one size fits all process; find a way of planning that works for you.

If quarterly planning isn’t working, try the term planning calendar because this might be an easier way of planning and, whatever you do, just remember that you don’t have to do what everyone else is saying, remember that you can do your own thing. If you’re using the Trello boards, remember that you can simply archive and delete anything that you don’t need and add in anything else that is helpful for you onto the board. 

 

4. Don’t feel like you have to plan the entire year

Start by planning the next 3 months of time rather than the whole year, if planning for the year is just feeling far too overwhelming. Begin by getting some notes down on what it is that you want to do for the next three months, or even the next six weeks.

Having that focus, when you go into 2020 or the New Year, is going to help to focus you so, even if you don’t feel like planning for the whole year, just try and get down something to help you in that first section so that you’re not starting back to work after a holiday and wondering what on earth it is that you’re working towards. Think of the short term planning as helping yourself out and letting you switch off properly at the end of the year.

5. Re-frame it in your mind

Don’t think about it like ‘I am planning the year’ think about it from the place of ‘what did I love doing in my year that I can take forward?’ You don’t have to have a whole 1, 3 or 5 year plan laid out – I know that can feel really stressful – so, instead, have a little re-think around it and think about why it is that you don’t like planning: is it just because you just hate the idea of planning in general? Or is it that you’ve done planning things before and that’s felt really stressful? Once you’ve identified that trigger point you can spend some time unpicking it and then move forward to plan in a way that suits you best.

I know that the end of year or the beginning of a new one can feel overwhelming with things that you feel you ‘should´ be doing but by giving yourself the gift of forward thinking and getting some brief ideas down for a rough plan for the year, I promise that you will be find it much easier to switch off when you have breaks! And you know I love a break.

6. Do it with a friend

Still feel overwhelmed by it? You could find a group to do it with, coaches like Holly June Smith and Ruth Kudzi will sometimes run planning calls or session. Or find someone else who’s in a similar position to you and see if you can plan it together. It doesn’t have to be time intensive, it could be an hour together to go over ideas, or you could have a more formal time to meet every month or so. An accountability buddy as it were. Or you could even find someone who runs planning sessions.

Make it something fun you can do together and treat yourself to lunch while you do it perhaps, and visit a nice working space. Which leads me to point 7.

7. Make yearly business planning fun!

Planning doesn’t have to be a chore. Get yourself some treats, make a brew, get out to a new location. Do it with a friend, a la point 6. Get some big paper and jot down all your ideas, or draw them with different coloured pens. Make a vision board, or a Pinterest board. Or have some fun with some new Trello templates like the ones in my shop.

And remember that you run your own business, so YOU get to CHOOSE. Choose to make it more enjoyable. You get to decide.