Hi friend! Have you jumped on the Trello bandwagon yet? I know this tool has been around for quite a few years, but to be quite honest with you, it’s always overwhelmed me a bit.

I LOVE lists. I love making lists and I love checking things off… but I’m an over-analyzer. I make lists for my lists and then sub categorize those lists and before you know it I’m all in my head about it all and completely paralyzed.

How I use Trello to organize my Squarespace blog

Ugh. Over-analyzing is a weakness of mine. But I digress…

So, back to Trello.

I pretty much wrote it off as one of those things that my brain would just overcomplicate and never ended up using it… until recently.

Now, I can confidently say that I love Trello. I love how easy it is… I love how FREE it is… I love how you can make any type of system you can dream. And that’s exactly what I did.

I didn’t make it complex. I didn’t create some crazy, elaborate blog scheduler… but I create something that works for me. Hopefully you can gain something from this and if it helps you to just implement what I do, then go for it!

Here is my super simple blog organizing and scheduling system…

1. Create your blog post board

I just created a simple board that contains 6 lists in this order…
Ideas, Writing, On Hold, Ready for VA, Scheduled, and Published

I have 4 different themes that I blog about and everything I blog has to fit in one of these categories. Business Growth, Automation, Squarespace Tips, and Mompreneurship (I also have a personal category on my blog, but this usually falls under Mompreneurship too, so I don’t include it here).

So, in my first Trello list, I brain dump all of my blog ideas. This is literally anything and everything I think about that I could write. I really try to boost SEO for all things Squarespace and business strategy related, so I try to blog a lot about these things. I also love that I have the Trello app on my phone, so if I’m on the go and think of an idea, I can really quickly add it to this list!

Then, every couple months or so, I will sit down and go through my list to come up with the post ideas I want to create over the next 2 months. I’ll just drag and drop the cards that I want to post about to the top of the list. So I’ll have my top 8 ideas at the top of the “ideas” list.

2. Use your lists to keep track of your post progress

Next, I’ll pick one of the ideas and get to work writing the post. As soon as I start writing the post, I drag and drop that card from the “ideas” list to the “writing” list… super simple, I know. But I’m all about easy over here.

TIP: This may be different for you, but I find that my blog posts flow out of me first thing in the morning when I’ve just woken up. So, I actually give myself time to write blog posts on my phone while laying in bed… I’m typically also feeding a baby at this time, so it works out well! I just pull out my phone, open a new text note and start writing. This may not be your time… but the point is, allow yourself the time and space to write when you are inspired vs trying to cram it in when your schedule says you should.

And then I just follow the lists as I progress with each post. So, if for some reason a post gets put on hold while writing it, then I’ll move it to the “on hold” list. Once a post is done, formatted in Squarespace, AND my corresponding list email is scheduled and ready to go, then I move it to the “scheduled” list. Every so often I go through and move posts from the “scheduled list to the “published” list.

This video shows you how I move my posts from list to list as well as how to set a date for your post within Trello (below I’ll show you how to automatically sync your due dates with your Google calendar so you can be sure to get notifications!)

3. I use Trello + Google calendar to keep track of my deadlines and send reminders to my phone.

Trello has a super convenient integration with Google calendar. Once I decide when a certain post will be scheduled (I try to schedule out my post ideas one month in advance, at least), then I go in and add a due date to the Trello card.

You can easily add a ‘power up’ tool which will show your board deadlines in calendar view. You can then sync your board due dates with your Google Calendar (or any calendar that will integrate with a calendar URL)… this allows me to get Google calendar reminders and notifications on my phone or view my upcoming blog post deadlines from my Google Calendar anytime! SOO convenient!

In this short video I show you how to sync your Trello due dates with your Google calendar.

4. Trello makes outsourcing blog tasks a breeze.

Blog post formatting, publishing, and sending a weekly blog announcement email was the FIRST thing I ever outsourced in my business and if you’re a serious blogger, I believe you should outsource it too.

First, you need to create a system that is easily replicated.

For me, what worked really well was to write my blog post in my phone or on my computer. Using Trello, you can then easily copy and paste your blog post copy into your corresponding post idea card (as shown in this video below). You can also attach all of the images that you would like your virtual assistant to publish with this post. I am kind of a picture and brand snob… so I like to be able to pick the pictures that go with my posts, but I don’t want to spend tons of time formatting them into the posts. This is a GREAT job for a VA!

So, after pasting the copy and uploading images (you can totally skip the images step if you want your VA to choose images for you!), my VA would paste the copy into a new blog post on my Squarespace site, format the post to look nice and pretty, include branded images, and then schedule the post for a future date. She would then go into my ConvertKit account and create a broadcast to go out to my entire email list letting them know about the new post with a link to the post.

In this video I show you how you can add blog post images and copy… making sharing your posts with your VA a breeze!

It’s a great process that helps boost my SEO and provides regular, helpful resources to my existing list. Win-win! Well, that’s pretty much it. What do you think about this process? What have you found that works for you and your blog post creation, organization, and streamlining?

Always cheering you on,