Trello is a project management tool that has been gaining in popularity in part because of its simplicity, speed and flexibility. Projects are categorized by boards which contain lists and those lists in turn contain cards. These cards can have attachments, checklists, comments, team member assignment, labels and more.
Trello’s flexibility and easy of use allows for it to be used in many ways. One way in which I am using trello is to manage my reading workflow. I wrote about ways that I’ve discovered how to read more and smarter and trello has been a vital component. I use trello to store book recommendations from various sources such as friends, podcasts, blogs etc.
I maintain a reading queue to stay in a consistent cycle of books to read. Planning what to read next ahead of time can help reduce decision overload or lack of direction which can lead to inconsistent reading habits after you’ve finished a book. I keep multiple reading category lists to maintain a big picture view of the different categories of books I am reading and this helps me to see the category I am most focused on or should read up more on.
Having a list dedicated to reviews reminds me to maintain active thought and criticism on the book I’m reading. I add comments to the card based on various weaknesses or strengths I want to highlight.
Once you read start to read a lot more books, it can be difficult to remember all the material within them after a while. I use a flag note system to mark important areas and then I go back and enter in notes after or in-between reading. I use the notes list to keep track of books I am currently taking notes on. After I’ve taking notes rated and reviewed the book, publicly or privately I then move the card to finished.
Update: I've created a basic template after a suggestion from a reader. Link: http://bit.ly/trelloRead How to import: Click on Menu within Sidebar > Click on Coby Board.. > Enter in the Board Title and Organization Note: You can select to keep the sample cards or remove them. Remember to update the board visibility as it is public by default.
High Level View of Trello Board:
- Potential Reads & Themes
- Up Next
- Multiple Lists for Reading Categories
Potential Reads & Themes
Multiple Lists for Reading Categories
NotesI choose to use post it flags to indicate important areas while I’m reading a book. I personally do not take notes while I’m reading because I want the reading experience to be fluid and have little interruptions. I also commute a lot and active note taking would slow down my reading significantly. So using quick post it flags when reading is like going on a mining expedition and having the lead scout out the area first barely scratching the surface and leaving flags to indicate the areas for the miners to dig for later on. You can use one color for everything or multiple colors. I choose to use multiple colors to indicate varying levels of importance.
- Color : General Highlight / Supporting section of Chapter
- Color : Summarized / Main Point of Chapter
- Color : Very Important to Me
ExtrasThis section contains extra uses for trello you can implement. Description You can use the descriptions to collect information about the book you’re reading within the card. Use sites such as amazon, barnes & noble, library thing etc. to get overview and genre/category information. You can add more to the description as necessary. Attachments Cards have the ability to preview images as you have probably noticed throughout the image examples above.
I use goodreads to get book covers to add as attachments to cards. Find the book you want,for example this awesome book by Sarah Kay, click enlarge cover and then right click and save image. Due DatesYou can set due dates to cards to time box your reading to make sure that you are consistent and do not let one book sit for months on end. This can help you schedule a reading calendar after you gain experience on your reading speed and have the book info that can help you estimate how to assign multiple due dates to books. Members You can use the members to assign individuals to a card. This can be helpful if you’re both reading the same book and the book’s trello card can be used to comment and converse about the book. Checklist You can use checklists to organize a book’s table of contents to manage your reading progress on a particular book. Labels Labels can be assigned to individual trello cards. Here are some examples of possible labels.
- Recommendable: Books that you would recommend
- Blog Reference: Potential to be used as a reference in a future blog post or paper
- Backlog: A book that has postponed due to new priority to be continued later ; can be moved back to Up Next list
- Stopped Reading: A book that you have ceased reading due to poor quality, complete lack of relevance or extreme levels of disengagement.
- Fiction: Fiction Category
- Non-Fiction: Non-Fiction Category