Thread by @Artifexx

What is the simplest organisation tool for academics?

► Trello

Use boards to organise research, lab inventory or job applications.
Alone or as a team. It's free.

A beginner step-by-step guide 👇
#ScienceTwitter #AcademicTwitter

In Trello you arrange cards in lists (columns) by drag and drop.

The context defines a card/list.

Todo list: Card = Task, List = todo, blocked or done
Lab inventory: Card = Item, List = stocked, running low, depleted

Share boards with others as well.

Let's dig in!

Go to Trello . com and make a free account.

Click on the big blue button, top right.

You can use basic features, free forever.

Enter your email address.

You will have to confirm it within 14 days.

Choose a name for your project and possible collaborators

This is not important for now. You can change all of it later.

Adding and removing collaborators is easy afterwards too.

At the prompt to go Premium, click "Skip".

Trello's core features are free. Which will be enough for 90% of use cases.

So don't worry about payment.

You should now be in your workspace overview.

Trello is organised in "Boards".

A Board is simply a collection of To-Dos that are related.
Have as many as you like.

Click the button to create a first board.

You will be prompted to name your board.

Additionally you can select a background - just for looks.

Everything can be changed later on too.

This is your first "board". (I changed the background, so it is more easier visible)

Let's create a few tasks here.

The board is organized in columns or lists.

You start your tasks out on the LEFT in "To Do"
They "step" to the RIGHT to "Done"

Everything is drag and drop.

Here i have added 2 new columns: "Today" and "Blocked"
(button on the top right)

And moved some tasks to "Today"
As it is morning and I am planning what to do next.

If you click on any task, you can see some details.

Description : One per Task.

Comments: Many per Task. We will see how to use this in a few steps.

You can attach images and data to each card.

Often this will be a screenshot,
a document (like a paper)

The top image becomes a cover image.

Cover images are very useful to quickly distinguish tasks
in the board.

Now let's invite a colleague to one of our tasks.

They will see the board exactly as you see it. So every change they make you will see as well.

You will also get notified when changes are made.

You have now assigned the colleague "Charly" to the task.

They will get notifications when the card is moved or edited.

Assign cards to yourself and others only if you need to be notified about the progress.

Upload papers or any related data directly onto the card.

Invite colleagues directly to the whole board.

It makes it very simple to collaborate and communicate on one project.

Only members of one card get notified about changes.

This saves you from dozens of emails that do not concern you.

Trello is just one visual planning tool I use.

Here is another one you might enjoy!

Summary

► Create boards with tasks, applicants, lab items (top to down).
► Move these through a lifecycle (left to right).
► Comment on cards to talk to colleagues
► Keep an overview of the whole process / inventory / project.

I used it for a decade and still love it!

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Ask me in the comments how to use Trello for your challenge.
I value and answer all comments.