As a startup, an entrepreneur, or a freelancer it is pretty easy to get overwhelmed with all the tasks that need your attention.

Your typical day might involve sending out pitches to investors, checking up with your team, assigning new tasks to people, prepping for a presentation, researching new ideas for your content marketing campaigns, writing blog posts, and so much more.

Truth is you can easily lose track of things that matter to your business. Your productivity nose-diving; and even fall behind with important projects – except if you have a tool that helps you manage all the moving parts of your business.

So, how do you stay on top of your game, manage your team, and keep an eye on project progress within your organization?

Here enters Trello.

Trello is an easy-to-use ( once you get the hang of it) straightforward online project management app that enables you at a glance get a sense of pending tasks, what everyone is working on, and completed tasks.

Think of it as the web version of your whiteboard with sticky notes that lets you and everyone else on your team the different tasks each person is working on.

How to use Trello

Trello consists of boards, lists, and, cards. The board is the top level layer just like your organization’s central whiteboard.

It’s the main working unit often used to indicate the whole workflow of your team; you can create one for a particular client or a single project. You can invite members to any board either the entire team or specific individuals.

The next feature is Lists. It helps you group specific activities on a Board. The default approach is the classic Kanban method. Use the To-dos, Working, and Done lists to keep track of progress.

Of course, each List should indicate a stage in a project’s progress – you know like tracing out your workflow.

Finally, Cards often use to indicate specific tasks that need to be worked on. They are super flexible – you can easily add task descriptions, attach files, include checklists, tag who’s it for, and even set due dates and times.

Also, there’s a chat feature that allows team members to leave comments as they work through a task. Once a job is completed, it can be moved to the next step – list.

So, that’s basically an overview of how to use Trello. However, the power of this tool is in its flexibility, and you can do so much more with the “Power up” feature that allows you to integrate other third-party apps.

Why use Trello?

First, the app is free, and you don’t necessarily have to upgrade to the premium account to enjoy its benefits.

Secondly, it provides a great way to visualize everything that’s going on around you – see what everyone is working on, view progress, and track completed tasks.

Finally, if you work remotely or have a distributed team, Trello offers a great way to recreate the “office feel,” monitor workflow more efficiently, and ensure everyone is on the same page.