How to Create Automated Reports with Trello
How to Create Automated Reports with Trello
Learn to outsource mental tasks to a computer to enable you to focus your efforts on the tasks only you can do!
If you have ever talked to me for more than 15 minutes without a doubt I have brought up Trello. I swear by this organizational tool. It has helped me outsource my to-do list in a fashion that has enabled me to get so much done that it leaves some people scratching their heads. How do I balance a full-time job, a freelance business, coaching basketball, mentoring college students, and carving out time for my wife?
Simple. I don’t remember anything. I outsource a lot of mental capacity to Trello.
Every week I have a meeting with the college students that I mentor and instead of trying to recall everything that we talked about last week I utilize Trello’s built-in email reporting. This automation will take a look at the board that we share and it will send me an email every Sunday 30 minutes before our meeting with an outline of everything that is due soon. This allows me to know what cards to review before the meeting to ensure that our short time is used as effectively as possible.
Instructions
Click on the Automation button at the top of the toolbar of the Trello board you are interested in getting reports from.
Once you click the button Trello will present you with options to automate your board. Email reports are a built-in functionality that doesn’t require any additional customization.
Once you click Email reports there are some built-in templates that satisfy the most common scenarios to automate. For my example we will do the “Due soon” option.
Next, a screen will pop up that will allow you to customize who the report should be sent to and when. For my use case, I have it sent to my inbox on Sunday at 3:00 PM.
All done!
With a few clicks, I have been able to automate and simplify my workflow with the college students I mentor. Probably a more pertinent use case for working professionals is for 1 on 1 meetings with your boss. Instead of having to check your email threads, Slack messages, and the random assortment of post-it notes you can have your boss sent this report before your 1 on 1 to ensure the conversation is as productive as possible.
There are so many more use cases for this and Trello has additional ways to customize these reports to fit your exact need. If you use Google Workspace you can unlock even more functionality to supercharge your workflows with Trello’s APIs.
Do you have an 💡?
If you have automation ideas you would like built, reach out to me for a free consultation!