How to Automate Trello with Butler! (5 Workflow Examples)

[Music] if you use Trello you may already know that power-ups are a fantastic way to add additional features to your Trello boards now power-ups come in a number of different flavors and interact with a large number of third-party applications now some are better than others but one of my absolute favorites is Butler Butler allows you to automate so many different processes within your Trello boards so in today's video I want to show you five of my favourite rules and schedule commands which is going to make your life so much easier now this video is not for Trello experts but I'll warn you you're going to look like a Trello expert after you watch this video so let's jump in now the first Butler rule I want to show you has to do with setting card defaults here I have an example board where I have a fairly simple to-do list I have ideas on the far left I've got two different to do columns to do this week and to do next week and I've also got a pending column and a complete column now you probably have at least one step in your Trello process where when you move a card from one list to another you would like a few things to happen for example maybe when I move a card from this list into my pending list I would like a particular checklist to be added and maybe I would like it to have a due date added as well because I don't want it to exist in pending forever well that seems like a lot of clicks right first I'm gonna have to drag it over then I'm gonna have to open up the card I'm going to have to add that checklist and then I'm gonna have to add that due date we'll watch this I've just created a butler rule and when I drag this card over into my pending list give it just a second first there's a checklist and now there's a due date exactly two days from today what is going on well this is the power of Butler when you create customized rules you can have these behaviors in play when I open up this card there is the due date which is exactly 48 hours from right now and down below I have my follow up checklist these are certain things that I want to accomplish that I want to do when any card is added to this list so let's see how we can create this recipe within Butler when the Butler powerup is enabled you will have this little Butler link or icon in the top right hand corner of your screen by opening it up we have a few different options we have card buttons and board buttons but we also have rules and we also have scheduled commands I'm going to go over to rules and you will see this first rule that I just showed you when a card is added to the list pending add the follow up checklist to the card and set the due date to 48 hours I'm going to click on the edit button just so you can see how easy it is to set up one of these rules all I have are three components first you need to select a trigger and the trigger in this case is when a card is added to that particular list remember I could add a trigger to any one of my lists and they could all be unique if I wanted to then I've got a couple of different actions the first is to add that follow up checklist to the card and I could add multiple checklists and other features I could add other things to this card if I wanted to and I also want to set the due date to 48 hours and I don't have to stop here if I scroll down I can add even further actions to this trigger if I wanted to but that's the rule and that's how I can move things over and have this happen automatically let's see it one more time in action I'm going to drag this card over to the pending list and as soon as I let go there's the checklist there is the due date so automatic functionality with this default rule now the next rule I want to show you is one of my favorites because not only is it going to automate something within this board it's actually going to affect an additional board so let me set the scene for you if you use Trello there's probably a good chance that you are collaborating with others for example maybe this board is a team board where several members of your staff are managing different cards and different tasks and you are assigning different cards to different individuals sometimes you may assign it to yourself and other times perhaps others are assigning you to those particular cards well one effective way of working in Trello is if you have your own personal to-do list you can create relationships between cards but let's see how we can have Butler automate that process for us so let's take a look at this card here it says write year and marketing report let's say I would much rather spend more of my day in my own personal Trello to-do list rather than the team board so I've created a butler rule that's going to do something special let's say my manager comes in here and she assigns me to this particular card she's gonna select me in this case now you get a notice on the front of the card something is going to appear look at that I've got a Trello attachment it took it just a few seconds but let's explore what this Trello attachment means now this is different than a file attachment such as a PDF or an image what it's done is actually created a link to my own personal tasks and project list so now I've created a link between these two cards I'm going to click on this to go to that board and look at this at the top of my to-do list I have the exact same card now I can come in here with my own personal projects and work on this task I don't have to be notified by anyone someone else maybe the assignment and now it automatically shows up in my own personal to-do list now it's not a sink of the same card it is actually a copy or a link between two cards but when I'm finished working on this task and I can put it in two different lists I can put it through my own process when I'm finished all I need to do is come back and select this connection which will take me back to the original board and I can mark it as complete or I can add additional comments whatever else that I would like but yes Butler even has the power of automating rules amongst more than one board let me just show you what this recipe looks like again it's under rules and I'm going to select the edit button here the trigger in this case is when I am added to a card and the actions are as followed copy the card to the top of this particular to-do list this particular list within this particular board and on top of that link those cards together so another very powerful rule from Butler next let's take a look at how Butler can help us to keep our Trello boards neat and tidy you know one of the complaints that I hear from many Trello users is that they have a list like this one it may be labelled complete or finished or done and over time they get a long long list of all the cards that finish up here as you're working through your processes they all end up or tend to end up in that final list but what do they do do they come in here and archive them one at a time do they have to remember to click on here and say archive all the cards in this list well Butler allows you to automate this process not too long ago this particular list was quite lengthy but something happened that Butler did on my behalf and that was a scheduled task so here I'm gonna select scheduled and I'm gonna select calendar and here you can see I have an automated task every month on the first archive all the cards in this list and I've chosen the list complete now I can get much granular if I want I don't have to do it monthly I could do it at the end of every day or maybe every Sunday night and I could have this apply to multiple or have different triggers for different lists but using Butler to schedule certain tasks at a regular interval is a fantastic way to keep your Trello board neat and tidy now here's a scheduled task that I use quite frequently with Butler especially when I have a relationship between two or more lists like this here you see I have a to-do this week but I also have a to-do next week in my this week list these are all of the tasks that I want to be focusing on right now however things that appear in my next-week list will have to be moved over to this list and of course that's going to be some type of manual process or is it not with the help of Butler let's open up Butler and I'll show you what I have set up now this is a scheduled due date command because I'm basing it on a day of the week or perhaps it could be a day of the month so if we look at the trigger in this case the trigger is on the Sunday before a card is due this is the action I want to take place move the card to the top of this list and in this case it's my to do this week so if we go back to my Trello board here you can see these three cards actually this coming Sunday is going to be the last Sunday before their due date so I know on Sunday all three of these cards are going to automatically move into my this week column which is exactly what I want to happen now if I have other cards in this list which are do much further out in the future the same rule is going to apply but it's only going to look if that due date is with that very next Sunday so if I have something out in July or a few weeks out it's gonna remain in my next week or maybe this is listed as my future to-do list only the things that are in that coming week are going to be moved over to this list so another powerful way of using automation within Butler now the last Butler tip I want to share with you just might make you look like the hero of your team think of the number of processes that you've tried to agree upon when it comes to managing a Trello board with other people for example maybe when someone assigns themselves to a particular card you would also like them to assign a particular due date add a specific comment and maybe move it to a particular list well what if you could do all of this with just a single click I'm gonna start off by showing you the butler recipe and in this case we are looking at a card button you can add customizable buttons to your Trello cards let me open up the recipe to show you all the actions that are gonna happen if I or someone else on my team selects the take task button and yes you can even customize the name of all of your buttons when someone selects this button they will join the card a comment will be posted with this text tasks started the due date for that card will be set one week in advance and in addition this card will be moved to the top of this particular list all of these actions just in a single click so let's see how it works let's say I'm browsing the ideas list and I come across this contact client about meeting and I say to myself you know what I'm gonna take this on I'm going to take this task well here is my butler button all I need to do is select this button and I'm assigned a due date one week from now it's already been moved to the to do this week list and if I scroll down it's even added that comment tasks started on top of that remember that earlier rule that we created that if anything is assigned to me I also want it to show up on my own personal task list well of course that rule is in play as well so I'm going to close this card and here you can see with just one click it's moved to the correct list it's assigned me it's added the comment and the due date all with a single button pretty powerful stuff huh so I'd love to hear from you how are you going to use Butler to optimize your Trello boards be sure to leave a comment for me down below I also want to thank Butler for sponsoring today's video you can try Butler absolutely free simply click on the power ups option within your Trello menu and if you haven't subscribed be sure to do so right here to the simple tivity youtube channel remember being productive does not need to be difficult in fact it's very simple

Channel: Simpletivity

Views: 107,183

Keywords: How to Automate Trello with Butler, trello workflow, trello workflow automation, butler for trello, trello automation, trello automatically move cards, trello butler, trello scheduling, trello power up tutorial, trello power ups, how to use butler for trello, trello tricks, trello tips, trello tips & tricks, advanced trello tips, trello automate, trello custom button, trello board, trello board tutorial, how to use trello, how to use trello 2018, Scott Friesen, Simpletivity

Id: r2_H2tW2eK0

Length: 14min 27sec (867 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 14 2018