Does it ever feel like just when you think you’ve got everything under control, you turn your back for a split second and suddenly tasks and requests start flying in from every direction?
Emails are pouring in, messages in Slack are lighting up—there’s even a voicemail from Mom asking you to pick up dessert for Sunday dinner. Given all this commotion, you just know something will slip through the cracks.
Luckily, it’s easy to turn almost any incoming request into a to-do in Trello. Here are some tips and tricks for sending tasks to Trello from your email, chat messages, voicemail, and more. This way, your productivity and peace of mind never skip a beat…
Out Of The Inbox
Remember that friend or colleague back in 2005 that refused to join Facebook? They’re probably on Facebook now, but they’re still sending emails like it’s the aughts, when they oughta be using Trello, right? But I digress. Like it or not, email is still a thing, but the inbox is not a place to collaborate or track what you need to get done. Here are a few ways to get out of email and onto a Trello board.
If you are using Gmail or Outlook, then check out the Trello Add-On for Gmail and add-in for Outlook. In just a few clicks you can send any email to the Trello board and list of your choice. The card created will automatically pull in a card title from the email’s subject and card description from the body of the email, but you can also edit them however you like.
On top of that, every Trello board and every Trello card has its own unique email address that allows you to create new cards or update cards, respectively. You can grab a board’s email address from the board menu, and a card’s email address from the card back, both in the “More” section.
Just like the Add-On for Gmail and the add-in for Outlook, forwarding an email to a board’s email address will create a new card on the destination board. Setting a forwarding rule in your email client can be a great way to automatically create Trello cards for inboxes full of support cases, sales inquiries, demo requests, or other tasks that require delegation. For client-based work, adding comments to already created cards via that card’s unique email address is a great way to aggregate feedback for work that has already started.
TrelloTip: Add frequently used Trello email addresses to your Contacts with sassy names so that you can recall them easily.
A Form-ula For Automation
On our marketing team, requests frequently come in for design, copy edits—you name it. The trouble with ad hoc requests is that it’s often difficult to get all the information you need to execute them in a straightforward way. Consider formalizing the process with a form service like Typeform or Wufoo, where you can specify what is needed for requests to move forward, and then use Zapier to automatically create Trello cards from new form entries.
Create an “Incoming Requests” Trello board that is available to everyone on your team so that they can easily see the status of their requests, and any questions that arise can be addressed in one centralized location. Also, make sure to enable the Zapier Power-Up on the board so that you can update and add new automations without leaving Trello.
Placate The Slack(ers)
My guess is that it won’t be but two minutes after you’ve shared your fancy new automated form request system with the team that someone will DM you in chat with an ask anyway. With the Trello app for Slack added to your Slack team, you can add new Trello cards to any of your team’s boards with the /add command.
Simply type /add and then the card title, like “/add Approve expense report for Tim,” or whatever the request might be. Trello will automatically create and add the card to the Trello board that is linked to the Slack channel. From there you can add a whole host of information to the card without leaving Slack like members, dates, and comments. For the whole list, and for information to get started with the Trello app for Slack, check out this article.
Share The Message
Ring. Ring. Who is it? It’s your boss leaving you a voice message at 8PM on a Saturday night for something that really doesn’t need to be addressed until 10AM on Monday. Or perhaps it’s your mom reminding you to pick up the dessert for family dinner two weeks from now. Either way, iOS and Android both have an exciting feature that allows you to share a variety of content and information right to Trello.
First, make sure that you have either the iOS or Android mobile app installed on your phone. Then, from within another app press the “Share” button and select Trello. (Note: iOS users may need to add Trello from within the Share menu by selecting “More.”) From there you can pick the board/list and name the new card. When you go into Trello the new card will have the attachment on it. This is a great shortcut for not only voicemail, but also voice memos, notes, photos, and more.
More Fun ‘Send To Trello’ Ideas
By now you can see that there are a myriad of ways that you can turn any task or request into a Trello card, whether it’s for a team board or just to track your personal to-dos. Here are a few more fun ideas worth exploring:
- For those with smarter homes than your average brick and mortar, check out this blog post for capturing tasks with Amazon’s Alexa and Trello via IFTTT.
- You can even do the same with Google Home and Trello.
- Finally, the Send to Trello extension for Chrome is a handy way to create cards from the browser. It’s really useful for keeping track of gifts or things to buy, potential places to stay when planning a vacation, or even media to consume, because sometimes a little R&R is a request we need to make to ourselves.
By getting in the habit of sending requests, ideas, and tasks to Trello when they turn up (no matter the source), you’ll create a system of tracking your to-do’s that leaves you with less missed opportunities and more serenity.
What are your favorite ways to manage requests in Trello?
Good or bad, we’d love to hear your thoughts. Find us on Twitter (@trello) or write in to support@trello.com.