Do you like wasting time? No, I didn't think so.
So why do we waste so much time when we're managing all of our cards and lists within Trello?
Well today I'm gonna help you save time by showing you some of my favorite Butler automation tips.
But first, I'd like to thank today's sponsor, Pipedrive! Pipedrive is the easy-to-use CRM system that integrates directly with Trello. To learn more, go to Pipedrive.com.
When it comes to saving time in Trello, using Butler automation, we want to look at things that we do most frequently or most often.
Make Trello Due Date complete when moving into a List
And so my first tip for you has to do with dragging something into your final list.
In many cases your final list will have a title such as "Completed" or "Done" or "Finished" and when you drag something into that list you often will have a due date remaining and isn't it time consuming for you to not only drag it over there, but then we have to open up this card, then we have to come over here and check off this due date so we can get into this green state as we see with these other cards below.
Why don't we just have that happen automatically?
Well, let's do so with Butler.
What we're gonna do is that when this gets dragged over into my completed list I wanna have that due date checked automatically.
So let's open up Butler and we are gonna select Rules and we need to hit that Create Rule button and add our first trigger.
We're gonna stay on this first option which is Card Move and we're gonna actually look at the second choice down below.
When a card is and we're gonna select moved into, we have to pick a particular list when a card is moved into the Complete list and I'm gonna say by anyone, not just by me, but in case I'm working with a team or if I happen to add other individuals to this board.
So when a card is moved in the list Complete by anyone I have to make sure to hit this green button.
So that's my trigger at the top.
Now I have to tell Butler what is going to happen.
So in this case we actually want to select the Date field because although it is a checkbox, it's attached or it's associated with that completed field or with that due date.
So the very first option here is mark the due date as complete. That's exactly what we want.
Come over here, hit that green plus button.
We can scroll to the top just to review both the trigger and the actions, and let's make sure we hit that Save button.
So now, if we come back to my board, let's take a look at that exact same card, remember it's unchecked.
It's due in a few days.
I'm gonna drag it over here into complete and boom!
There it is. It's changed to green.
It has been completed for me.
So, I don't have to go
Move Trello Card to a List when Due Date is complete
And open up that card anymore.
But how about something else?
Here's another one that we have with a due date attached and what if I'm inside this card and I see that everything has been completed and I want to come up here and check off this due date?
Wouldn't it be great by just checking this box? It would automatically move this card into the Complete list.
Well let's make that happen.
Once again let's open up Butler and we are gonna stay with our Rules.
Now in this case we're gonna create a new rule and we have to pick a new trigger.
So we're gonna say add a trigger and this time we're gonna come down to Dates.
And we are gonna say when a due date, the second one here, when a due date is marked as complete in a card, once again, I'm gonna select by anyone.
That is gonna be our trigger. I'm gonna hit that plus button and now we need to tell it what is going to happen.
And what we wanna do is we wanna select this first option here under the Move tab.
Move the card to the top of the list or the bottom of the list, that's up to your personal preference.
I'm gonna say to the top of the list and we are gonna select that complete list.
Don't forget to hit that green arrow at the end because some of these have multiple options.
You have to choose multiple choices here, but make sure you hit that green plus button that will actually add it to your automation.
So, when the due date is marked as complete in a card by anyone, we wanna move that card to the top of the list Complete.
Let's hit Save and we'll close out our Butler dialogue.
So here we go.
Here is this one. Instead of dragging it over into Complete, what I want to do is I'm gonna come in here and I'm gonna check off this Due Date box.
And what's gonna happen?
It's not only completed, but you can see up top here, it's already moved us into the list Complete.
I don't even have to close out this card yet.
We've already been moved into Complete and if I do close it, here you can see we are moved to the top of the list.
It has been moved to the top of the Completed list.
Add Trello Due Date and Member when Custom Field is checked
Just by hitting that checkbox sorry, within that due date.
All right, let's go one step further here and let's take a look at how we can add some automation to our custom fields because one of the great things about using custom fields within Trello is that you can add some specific information such as Client Name.
Here I have a checkbox called Approve.
I can even add a particular Start Date or have multiple dates or due dates here in addition to the main due date within a Trello card.
But let's take a closer look at this Approved checkbox.
Perhaps you have a Trello board where there's a process where it gets to a particular stage, a particular part of your workflow, and then you want some specific actions to be taken.
So in this case what I wanna do is that when this Approved checkbox is checked I want the due date to automatically go to 72 hours from now and I want to assign myself to this particular card, okay? And we wanna do that all with just a single action, just by checking this box.
So let's close down this card and let's go back into Butler.
We are gonna stick with Rules. This is gonna happen under our Rules and we’re gonna select Create Rule once again.
Now we wanna add our trigger.
Now when it comes to custom fields within the Butler dialogue or within the Butler interface, don’t be confused, we are not going to Checklist. This is a checkbox. It is not a checklist.
Custom fields will appear under this last option here labeled Fields. So we’re gonna select Fields and we might have to scan down here just to see which one best suits us.
Now in this case, we wanna come down to about the fifth or sixth one here which says when custom field, blank Field name is checked by me or of course, we can choose anyone. We can choose different options here. But let’s select the proper field name.
Now since it’s the only checkbox, it’s the only custom field checkbox I have it’s gonna be my only choice here. So when custom field Approved is checked by anyone.
Now, don’t forget, you can actually have different rules for when things are unchecked. But in this case we wanna say, when the Approved checkbox is checked by Anyone, let’s hit that plus button, that is the trigger.
Now, what do we want to have happen?
Well, let’s start with the due date. We’re gonna come down here to Dates and we’re gonna set that due date not to now. We wanna open up this dialogue and give us a few more options here.
Now I could choose three days if I wanted to. I can change the duration or the scheduling value here, but in this case I’m gonna say 72 hours. I’m gonna be really specific. 72 hours from when that checkbox is selected.
I’m gonna hit this plus button here which is only gonna add it to this level here. Don’t forget to hit the green plus button. Set due date in 72 hours which is actually gonna add it as an action.
But we’re not done just yet. We wanna go to Members because I wanna add someone specifically to this card. The third one down says add member @.
Now this is great if you have other members of your team. Maybe you have a sales associate. Maybe you have a support team member that needs to address these cards when a particular checkbox is selected.
Now in this case I’m just gonna select myself, but don’t forget, you can choose specific people if you like. So, I’m gonna say add member myself to this card as well. Hit that green plus button and now both of those actions are going to take place.
Don’t forget, if there is a specific label you also want to add. If there’s a comment you would like to add, you can do that here as well. But in this example we’re just gonna leave it for these two.
I’m gonna hit Save and let’s close out our Butler dialogue and see what happens.
So we’re gonna come up here to this Contact client about meeting and let’s say it is Approved.
So I’m gonna select this checkbox and let’s see what happens.
Up top, first the date quickly jumped in at 72 hours from right now and I have been assigned to this card, all by a single action, just by checking a single box.
This is a great automation to add to some of those processes where again, you need multiple things to happen and you don’t want to waste your time clicking all over that card or even moving things around within your Trello board.
Next, let’s look at something that’s perhaps.
Add new Trello Lists on a regular schedule
A little more advanced, and that is adding new lists to your board along with adding some variables.
If I scroll over here to the left hand side of my board, you can see that I've had an automation working for me over the last few days.
I've been adding a new list with a very specific title for each of these days.
So how this particular automation is working and I had a great question just a week ago about someone who is using Trello for their own personal to-do list and the way they like to manage it is that they have a new list that they create for each and every new day.
But they want that to happen automatically.
Well, we can do that here within Butler.
Here you can see each morning at a time that I specify I am getting a new list created at the beginning of my board, but not only is it just a new list, but it has a very specific title with actually that date attached to it.
So how did I do it? Well let's go and create it for ourselves.
Once again we're gonna come into Butler, but unlike the other rules that we looked at we are not going into Rules.
Or I should say other automations.
We are not going into Rules because this is happening on a scheduling basis, we want to select Calendar this time.
So once we're in Calendar we want to select Create a Command.
We start with our trigger as always and this one's pretty straightforward. We're gonna just do this one every day.
It's gonna be the first one here, every day.
Now what you might want to do is click on this little clock icon and specify when this is going to happen. So, let's say I'd like this to happen pretty early in the morning.
I'm gonna say every morning at 5:00 a.m. That’s when I want this new list to appear. So I’m gonna hit that plus button. That is our trigger and now we have to determine what is going to happen.
So in this case, I wanna choose the third option over which is titled Lists.
And what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna use this first option which says create a new list, okay?
So I wanna create a new list named.
Now here is where we’re gonna give it a specific name. Now in many cases, if you’re creating a new list on a regular basis you probably don’t want to use the exact same name, right? It’s gonna become confusing. Especially if you’re creating other automations or other rules to have lists with the exact same name.
So what I’m gonna do is I’m gonna say Tasks for and so I can get the accurate date, so I can get that day’s date, what I’m gonna do is I’m gonna insert a curly bracket and I’m gonna say date, d-a-t-e short. S-h-o-r-t. All one word, no spaces. Dateshort and then I’m gonna close it with another curly bracket.
This is what’s called a Butler variable. So what it’s gonna do it’s gonna put in that day’s date in a somewhat shortened or abbreviated month format as you saw on my board before.
So that’s all we need to do. This is the action. Tasks for, and it’s gonna put in the date for that day.
I’m gonna hit that plus button over here to the right and don’t forget to hit Save.
Now this one’s a bit harder for me to show you live because it’s not gonna happen until tomorrow morning at 5:00 a.m., but what I’ve already shown you is this is how it’s going to look. It’s dateshort because as you can see it’s only giving me the three letter abbreviation of the month, instead of the e on June it’s just giving me J-u-n.
But let’s take a closer look at where you can find out how to add these variables and many more
Full list of Trello Butler Command Variables
to your Trello board.
On the official Trello support website you can find a full list of all of the variables that you can include within your Butler automation.
Now you can also simply do a quick Google search for Trello Butler variables, and you'll come directly to this page or I should say it'll be the first option in those search results.
Once you're here you will see the full list of all the variables in which you can include.
So here under Time related, if we scroll down here you can see that dateshort, which I just included in my Butler automation. If I wanted datelong I could just input that and then I could get the full month, maybe I just want the datenumber format, I can do that as well.
But whether it's time related, and yes you can do the day before or weeks after or number of days after. You can give it board data. You can even include card data.
In fact, this is some of the variables that I will use if I'm creating a custom email notification or adding a comment within a particular card. I can actually add specific links or I can add other information about that card.
But you can scroll and find the full list of all the variables in which you can add here, within your Trello Butler automation data.
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