[253] How to Use Trello to Organize All Your Mom Life Tasks

If your brain is constantly running through grocery lists, appointments, school events, and “Did I switch the laundry?” reminders… you’re not alone. In this episode, I’m sharing how Trello has become my go-to tool for organizing all the moving parts of mom life—from meal planning and home tasks to managing your week and actually remembering your goals.

Whether you're brand new to Trello or gave it a shot and didn’t get the hype (same here the first few times), I’ll walk you through why this tool works so well for busy moms and how to use it in a way that finally sticks. Plus, I’ll share a free Trello template to get you started today—no overwhelm required.

Key Takeaways:

1. Moms struggle to stay organized because of mental overload, scattered tools, and trying to remember it all
2. Trello is visual, flexible, customizable, and perfect for real-life mom schedules (plus—it’s actually fun to use!)
3. You only need one board to get started—focus on what’s stressing you out most and build from there

Links Mentioned in This Episode:

• Weekly Planning Trello Board (Free Template)
• Real Happy Mom on Instagram

Transcript

0:00

Have you ever felt like your brain is constantly running through grocery lists, school reminders, birthday gifts, doctor's appointments, and whether you actually switched on the dryer or not? Well, this episode is for you. Hey there. My name is Tony Ann. I am the podcast host of The Real Happy Mom podcast. The podcast for busy working moms who need help with getting more time and achieving their big goals without. Pulling their hair out. So in this episode, I'm gonna be breaking down exactly how you can use cello to keep all of your mom life tasks organized from meal planning, to managing your home, to tracking your goals. And yes, you get to have goals too, and whether you're brand new to Trello or you have a few of some of my favorite boards. I want to show you how to make this tool work for your life. So I'll be honest with you, there was a period of time when I was solely relying on my paper planner, which works out very well most of the time. But this particular time, I had forgotten my best friend's birthday again. I had also forgotten about. My son's spirit week and double booked a meeting, which made me look really, really bad. So I realized that it had to be a way to make things easier and not harder, and I knew I needed a system that would work for me. Now, I had heard about Trello before, and I'll be honest with you, the first few times I had tried Trello, I just didn't see what the hype was. I couldn't get on board with it. And then I tried it again after using a few templates, and that is when things clicked and became a total game changer for me and my mom life. Now, the reason why I feel like Trello is my secret sauce is because it is visual. And flexible, the perfect combination for how my brain works, and I'm sure your brain works pretty similar too as well. It works whether you are a digital planner fan or you're just starting out, and it helps to get stuff out of your head so you're not running on brain fumes because one thing that I have learned, and I have learned it very well, is that our brains are really great at processing things, but not with storing information. So having a project management tool or just a tool in general like Trello helps to make things so that you are not utilizing. So much of that brain power on keeping all of those things in your brain. There's a few reasons why moms struggled to stay organized. The first one is moms just have too many pieces moving around at one time. You're juggling everything from work schedules, to school events, meals, errands, appointments, permission slips, dentist visits, and don't forget trying to sleep. Have your own life too. It's like running multiple tabs in your brain that never stop refreshing and without a system, it all starts to blend together and then things start slipping through the cracks. The second big reasons moms struggle to stay organized is they are mentally overloaded. Moms tend to carry the invisible task, like remembering birthdays, scheduling checkups, and knowing who likes sandwiches Also tracking bills, plan, vacations, and so much more, and it's not just what needs to be done, it's managing the thinking behind all of it, and the load gets heavier and heavier without a place to put everything outside of your brain, which makes it easy for your brain to be overloaded. The third reason why moms struggle with staying organized is the traditional tools don't always fit. Mom. Life planners tend to be forgotten. Sticky notes go missing from reminders. Get snoozed as I have snoozed them to death. And most of these systems aren't built around someone who gets interrupted. 105 times a day. So you need something that's flexible for giving and can be updated quickly, like while you're waiting to pick up the kids in the school line. The fourth reason why mom struggled to stay organized is they're trying to remember it all. if you're always trying to remember to remember. Your brain stays in overdrive. This leads to a lot of anxiety. Decision fatigue and feeling like you're always behind and writing things down helps out a little bit, that's not always enough. You need a way to organize it and see it, and also prioritize it. So this is why Trello is such a lifesaver and why I think Trello works so well for mom life. First of all, it is visual. Moms need to see things. You can lay everything out in one place, no flipping through planners or digging through notes. Trello boards give you a bird's eye view of what your week, your task, or even your meal plan is gonna look like. Next. It is so simple to drag and drop. You don't need a tech degree to figure this out. You can move things around easily when plans get changed because you know, life happens and things will change. It's easy to rearrange priorities, just as easy as it is to drag around a car to a new list. So there's no rewriting or erasing anything. Next. It is customizable for your life. You can create a board for anything from chore charts to family schedules, to packing lists. You name it, whether you're a stay at home mom working full time, or juggling both Trello flexes with all of your needs, and you can build things from scratch or you can use templates, which I have many of those that you can get to get you started fast. The other big thing that I love about Trello is that it's accessible anywhere. You can use it on your phone, your tablet, or your computer. Your boards go wherever you go, which is perfect for updating things in real time while you're at work or in the pickup line, or at Target. So no more. I'll write it down when I get home. You can update it right then and there. Also you can share boards. You can share boards to your partner, to your kids. So you're not the only one managing everything. This is really great, especially if you have older kids so that you can help them, um, see what chores need to be done or what's going on in the week. And it shifts the mental load by making the invisible visible by sharing things with the entire family. And lastly, you can make it fun and personal for you. I love, love, love using emojis, car covers and customizable backgrounds, as well as some other common colors to make my boards fun and beautiful to look at. You can also add checklists, labels, and even due dates without feeling overwhelmed. This is your space and you want it to feel like yours, so you can. Customize things and make it so that it's nice and fun to look at, which will make it more likely for you to consistently use it. So I wanna share with you three ways you can use Trello in your everyday task. The first one is a weekly planning board, which is one that you can find a template for in the show notes. So make sure you check out the description in the show notes. You'll find a link to get a weekly planning board so you can see it in action and customize it just for you. So this weekly planning board, you wanna think of it like your command center for the week. It can include things like your weekly priorities, whether it be errands, appointments, or top task. It can also include meal plans, your to-do list, grocery shopping, anything else that you find that you wanna make sure you keep top of mind. And you can add checklists each day like packing, lunch, return library books, all of the different things that you need to do so that you can stay on top of everything. This Trello board can help you go into the week with a clear plan and know exactly what is going on and when and how to get things done. The second way that you can use Trello for your Everyday Mom task is by creating a home management hub. This is perfect for keeping track of reoccurring tasks that always seem to sneak up on you like daily chores, weekly or monthly task. Like for me, I seem to always forget to change the air filter out. On the air conditioning unit, or maybe it's home projects like painting the bathroom or organizing the garage, and then also with home maintenance, with like, maintaining the car and other seasonal things that need to be done throughout the house. So you can add due dates, labels, assign tasks to your partner if you share a award. All of these things, um, can be done to help you with managing your house and having a central hub for all of the reoccurring things. Next you can have a meal planning or grocery list board. This really helps to streamline dinner time and cuts out the question of what's for dinner, and the stress that comes with it. So you can create a board that has your go-to meals that you create on a regular basis, even a list of different recipes you want to try, and then also creating a meal plan day by day, so you know exactly. What you are having on which day. And then don't forget about having a grocery list so you know, what things you need to get. And you can put labels on things that may be even store specific. Like, oh, you like that Starbucks, non-dairy coffee creamer at Target. Or maybe you want a certain type of seasoning that is at Trader Joe's. You can put labels on your grocery list so you know. Where to go for specific things. And then lastly, I love having favorite recipes and attaching links or pictures, to really make things fun to look at, and then also make it easy to access those recipes that I want to go back to. So, like I said in the beginning, when I first started using Trello, it didn't really stick and I wasn't really excited about it. But I have a few tips that will help you with making Trello. Your number one tool of choice. So first you wanna start with one board that solves a real problem. Um, it's easy to wanna go and try out different templates like having five boards at one time, but all this is gonna do is cause more stress. So pick out the thing that is causing the most stress in your life, whether it be meals, schedule, or housework. I want you to pick one and start there. The success with One Board builds momentum and confidence to add more that you can add later. I always like to suggest if you have no idea, start with the weekly planning board. And like I said, you can go in the description and you can get a link to get a free template so that you can start planning out your week with Trello, and then also get a tutorial to show you how you can use and customize the board for your life. The second to, to making Trello a system actually stick is keeping it simple and easy to use. You want to avoid over organizing with a million labels and all the checklists and color coding everything. If it takes you more than a few clicks to update, you're probably not gonna use it consistently. So remember to keep it simple so that it can be sustainable and you can always build on it later. The next tip is to use a weekly Trello check-in. This is one that I have to remind myself to do on a weekly basis. This is just checking in and just blocking out a few minutes, the same time each day of the week to reset and review your board. You want to move task around, archive completed cards or task, and then update things as needed, especially if you have like a meal plan or a grocery list, you wanna keep things up to date. So make it a part of your weekly rhythm or routine, whether it be on Sunday nights, Friday afternoons, or even Monday morning. Go ahead, check in and update things. Next tip is to make it fun and visual. Like I said, I love, love, love making my Trello boards pretty and fun to look at. You can use emojis, you can add headings and tasks, so it is easy to scan, like putting emojis for laundry or for school. And you can also pick some really cool backgrounds to make you want to look at things even more because you're more likely to use it if you're actually excited to look at it. So make it your happy space and make it fun and exciting to look at with, um, customizing the backgrounds, adding some cover cards, and even using a little emojis. My next tip is using checklists and labels and due dates, but only if they help. So checklists are great for routines like daily chores or packing lists, and labels can really help organize tasks by categories. So like say for instance, you have a label for work, home, or errands. And then due dates really, really work well when you have deadlines, but know that not everything needs a due date on it. And these features are only there to support you, not to add pressure. So only use these things if they help. So hopefully these hopes are helpful for you. If setting something up from scratch feels like too much, don't worry. Like I said, I have a Trello board that you can use to get started with Trello to today. Remember that Trello isn't just for business, it's also for busy moms just like you who can't seem to remember everything because our brains aren't meant to do that. So check out Trello and keep things small and simple and build it from there. And check out the description for the Trello board that I want to share with you to help make things easier for you to and to get you started with Trello. If this is your first time. So that's it for this episode. I hope to see you back again next week for another full episode. Make sure you connect with me on Instagram. Let me know if you are a Trello lover just like myself. And if you want more help with organizing your mom life with Trello, you can send me a message and I can send you even more resources to help you with that. So that's it for this episode. Take care, and with lots of love.