What is Trello? And how to use it

I once tried to manage a social media content calendar using Post-its on my office wall. It was perfectly color-coordinated and laid out week by week. Then #ThrowbackTuesdays stopped performing (fair), I couldn't create the content we needed for #MotivationMondays fast enough, and after a few rounds of rearranging, the Post-its stopped being sticky. So I pivoted. 

I still needed something visual, where I could see the whole plan at a glance, and could rearrange on the fly. It just needed not to be made of paper.

That's basically what Trello is: a digital board of cards you can drag between columns as work progresses. It works for content calendars, product launches, personal to-dos, and pretty much anything else you'd organize on a wall if walls were searchable and collaborative. 

Here, I'll walk you through everything you need to know about how to use Trello. 

Table of contents:

• What is Trello?

• How to use Trello at a glance

• Advanced Trello features

• What is Trello used for?

• Automate Trello

• How to use Trello: FAQs

What is Trello?

Trello is a visual personal project management tool built around Kanban-style boards. The whole tool revolves around three elements: boards, lists, and cards. I'll go into more detail in just a bit, but essentially, you drag-and-drop cards, which represent tasks or items, between lists as work moves forward. That's the core idea, and it really is that simple.

How to use Trello at a glance

Now that you know the core concept, let's get into the details. Here are the building blocks you'll work with in Trello:

• Boards

• Lists

• Cards

• Power-Ups

Boards

A board is your project's home base. This is where all the lists, cards, and activities for a specific project live. When you log in to Trello, you'll see all your boards on the home screen, each represented by a tile you can customize with a background color or image.

To create a board, click Create (next to the search bar) and then click Create board to start from a blank slate. 

You can also speed up the process by using a pre-built template. To browse them, click Create, and then select Start with a template (or click Templates in the left-hand menu). 

Each board also supports multiple views, which let you visualize the same cards in different layouts. The default is the classic Kanban board view (columns of lists). It's also the only view available to users on a free plan.

Premium plan and higher subscribers, however, can also switch to other views like Timeline, Calendar, Table, and Dashboard. For example, the Calendar view lays out cards with due dates on a weekly or monthly grid—perfect if you're managing a publishing schedule. The Timeline view plots cards horizontally, which is useful for tracking deadlines across a longer project.

Lists

Lists are the vertical columns on your board. They typically represent stages in a workflow, but you can use them however you want.

The most common setup is straightforward: To do, Doing, Done. But you can name lists anything and create as many as your project needs. For content work, I've used lists like "Graveyard" (RIP to all the memes that didn't get approved, but I couldn't bear to part with) and "Yoink!" for any creative inspiration. 

To add a list, click Add another list on your board, give your list a name, and click Add list or hit Enter. You can add up to 5,000 open (not archived) lists per board, which seems wildly unnecessary, but hey—maybe you use Trello lists to manage adoptable dogs (one list per dog). In that case, take all the lists you need. 

Cards

Cards are the actual units of work. Each one represents a single task, idea, or item. On the board, a card shows its title plus any quick details you've added, including labels, due dates, and card assignees. 

To quickly create a card, click Add a card at the bottom of any list, give the card a title, and click Add card or hit Enter. To move it, drag and drop it to another list or reposition it within the same list.

Click any card on your board to give it more details. Here are the main fields you'll likely use: 

• Members gives you an overview of anyone assigned to a given card. To add more members, click the plus sign under Members.

• Labels let you color-code your cards (up to 60 per card). By default, they're just colors, but you can label them so you're not wondering if green means "Go ahead with this idea" or "Go ahead and shut the idea down." To do this, click the colored label to edit and add new ones. Labels show up as colored bars on the card front, making it easy to scan a board and spot patterns at a glance.

• Due dates help you keep card deadlines easily visible. Set a due date (and, optionally, a start date), and Trello will automatically flag it yellow when it's due soon and red when it's overdue. You can also turn on reminders so Trello nudges you before a deadline hits.

• Attachments let you add files from your computer, cloud storage app, or anywhere else with a URL. 

• Description is where you add context about the task. This supports Markdown, so you can structure longer notes with headers, links, and bold text. 

• Checklists allow you to break a card into subtasks with checkboxes. Trello even displays a progress bar on the board so you can track task completion at a glance. For users on a paid plan, you can also assign individual checklist items and give them their own due dates.

• Comments and activity keep a running log on the card where you can leave notes, tag teammates with @ mentions, and have conversations tied to the task itself.

• Cover images add a color or image to the top of a card to make it visually distinct on the board.

Power-Ups

Power-Ups are integrations and add-ons that extend what Trello can do out of the box. There are hundreds of Power-Ups to choose from across different categories, including File management, Marketing & social media, and Communication & collaboration. 

Most of the Power-Ups are free to use (and there are no limits to how many Power-Ups you can install), but there are a handful of third-party Power-Ups that require an additional subscription fee. 

Here are a few popular ones:

• Card Repeater lets you create recurring tasks.

• List Limits is great for setting a maximum number of cards for a list, so you don't accidentally end up with an infinite-scroll situation. 

• Amazing Fields gives you more fields with different ways of visualizing them—think: progress dots and mini bar graphs—to really personalize your cards. 

• Zapier Power-Up lets you seamlessly connect Trello with thousands of apps—more than you'd be able to connect with using Power-Ups alone—so you can build end-to-end, AI-powered project management and to-do list systems. For example, you can automatically turn new calendar events into Trello cards and let AI analyze the event description and label the card by event type, status, or anything else. Learn more about how to automate Trello, or get started with one of these pre-made templates.  

Advanced Trello features 

Once you've got the basics down, there are two other advanced Trello features worth including in your project management workflows. 

Trello Inbox 

Trello Inbox lets you capture tasks from emails or Slack and turn them into actionable Trello cards—no copying and pasting or mental notes to "add that later" required. All you have to do is forward an email to your Trello Inbox email address (you'll have a unique address for each board) or save a Slack message, and it'll appear in the Inbox panel on your selected board. Once you're ready to organize your tasks, you can drop and drop Inbox items onto a list. 

If Inbox isn't immediately visible to you, click Inbox in the toolbar at the bottom of your board. Or use your keyboard shortcut to open and close your Inbox: g+i.

Trello Planner

Trello Planner syncs with Google Calendar and Outlook so you can see your meetings and commitments right next to your task lists. From there, drag and drop Trello cards into open time slots to block off focus time, which then appears on your connected calendar so your team knows you're booked. It's especially useful paired with Inbox: capture a task there, then immediately schedule time to knock it out in Planner.

Similar to Inbox, you can click Planner in the bottom toolbar to make it appear on a board. Or use your keyboard shortcut: g+p.

What is Trello used for?

Trello is designed to be a personal to-do list app, but its flexibility means people use it for just about everything. Here are some of the most common use cases to give you a sense of what's possible. 

• Track projects. Whether it's a product launch at work or a kitchen renovation at home, Trello gives you a visual way to break any project into phases and move tasks along as they progress. Set up lists for each stage, assign cards to teammates (or just yourself), and add due dates to keep things on track. Trello won't replace a heavyweight tool like Jira for complex engineering workflows, but for most teams managing most projects, it's more than enough.

• Plan content. If you publish blog posts, social media content, newsletters, or anything on a recurring schedule, Trello is a natural fit. Each card is a piece of content, labels represent content type or channel, and the Calendar view (for Premium plans and higher) lets you see your full publishing schedule at a glance.

• Onboard employees. You can build a Trello board with every task a new hire needs to complete, with labels to indicate what's a high-priority task (setting up a Slack account, for example) and what's not (reviewing your company's custom Slack emoji and marking your favorites—unfortunately). 

• Manage a lightweight CRM. Track sales leads or client relationships using cards for each contact. Add custom fields for deal size, status, or last contact date. It's not Salesforce or HubSpot, but for freelancers and small teams, it gets the job done.

Automate Trello 

Setting up a Trello board for the first or second time can be fun. Managing those boards, on the other hand, is less fun. Trello offers built-in tools to automate some of your project management workflows across hundreds of apps, including Slack, Gmail, and Jira. 

If Trello doesn't integrate with one of your apps, you can use Zapier's Trello integration to connect with thousands more so you can build a fully automated, AI-powered system. For example, you can automatically create Trello cards from new Slack messages or emails. And when a task moves to another list—for example, "Scheduled"—Zapier can add it to your calendar, complete with task details, setting aside time for you to work on the task. Learn more about how to automate Trello. 

How to use Trello: FAQs 

If you've made it this far, you practically have all the information you need to get started with Trello. But if you still have questions, here are answers to the most common ones.  

Is Trello free?

Yes. Trello offers a free plan that includes unlimited cards, up to 10 open boards per workspace, unlimited Power-Ups, and up to 10 collaborators. For most individuals and small teams, the free plan is plenty. But if you keep running into board limits or you want additional views, paid plans start at $5/user/month (billed annually). 

Does Trello have a desktop app?

Trello offers a desktop app for macOS and Windows, as well as a mobile app for iOS and Android. You can download the version you need from here. 

Related reading: 

• The best freelance apps

• The best Kanban tools

• Microsoft Planner vs. Trello: Which Kanban app is best?

• How to prioritize tasks (+ task prioritization techniques)  

This article was originally published in May 2019 by Eric Ravenscraft. The most recent update was published in April 2026.