Transforming Ideas Into Blog Posts Using Todoist Boards

Todoist is an incredibly versatile to-do list app I've used for years.

I use Todoist to plan pretty much everything.

But:

There's this one aspect of running this blog that I relied on other tools like Notion or Trello was housing, refining and prioritising blog post ideas.

A Kanban board view and moving items across lanes make it easy to visualise my content planning in a way that a simple to-do list can't.

But then:

Todoist introduced a new project view called Board view, and it changed how I planned my content creation.

In this blog post, I'll show you how to use Todoist's fantastic board view and how I use it to plan content for this blog.

Let's start by:

Switching a project to board view

Every project in Todoist can be viewed either as a regular list or in a Kanban board view, like this:

And, Todoist offers two ways to turn a project into a Kanban board:

1. While creating the project
2. Switching the project view later

Here's how you can choose to view a new project as a Kanban board while creating it:

And if you want to convert an existing project into the board view, here's how to do it:

Open any project in one of the Todoist apps, and locate this View option:

You can then use this setting to change how your project is displayed like this:

But, here's the thing:

Whether you're creating a new project or changing the project view of an existing one, Todoist will always group all tasks into a temporary section called No Section, like this:

Okay, what are sections?

Sections help group tasks in Todoist into logical compartments.

In the list view, having sections will divide your task list like this:

Whereas in Board view, it'll create columns-like sections.

If you're familiar with a Kanban board or have used apps like Trello or JIRA, you'll feel right at home with the board view.

Each section in your board can represent the current progress of a task or act as a funnel to pick what task to work on next.

To understand this better, here's:

How I plan my blog posts in Todoist

I have an Articles project in Todoist to house all article ideas that randomly pop up in my head, like this:

If you look closely, I have three different sections on my board:

• Ideas: Houses any new article idea that I get
• Selected: Contains article ideas that I'm keen to work on
• Next 5: Ideas for my next five blog posts

This is how the entire workflow runs:

Anytime I get a new blog post idea, I note it down in the Ideas section of my article board, like this:

Now:

I don't usually open the Articles board to add new ideas. I use this handy /Ideas shortcut to add a task to the Ideas section directly from any screen in the Todoist app:

Once I've got plenty of article ideas sitting in the Ideas column, I do an audit now and then to sift through my ideas.

I take this opportunity to remove ideas from my list that I don't think will be valuable blog posts.

Or move some of them that I want to work on to the Selected column.

Now, here's the thing:

Picking an idea from the Selected section to write can get overwhelming since this section usually contains a staggering number of ideas.

That's why I have an additional section on my board called Next 5, like this:

The Next 5 column only contains up to five blog post ideas I will work on next.

So, my board sections act like a funnel:

Ideas → Selected → Next 5

Ideas get refined and pruned with each step in the funnel.

Also:

With a handful of article ideas in the Next 5 section, I can start collecting resources and formulating outlines for this batch of blog posts before I start writing them, like this:

Think of it as prep time before a delicious cook.

Now, here's a thing to note:

Based on the type of article or content, my boards may or may not have another section called Written.

But, before we jump into the Written column, let's understand:

How I process ideas from my content board

Right now, my content publishing strategy is to write and publish one long-form blog post every week.

And to follow that schedule, I use this technique:

1. After publishing a blog post, I look at the Next 5 section and pick the next blog post I want to write
2. Once picked, I assign a due date to that blog post idea for when I want to write that post

Assigning a due date helps me schedule an article idea for writing beforehand and not have to spend high-energy time sifting through the list to find one.

Also:

With a due date assigned, the article writing task pops up in the Today view for the scheduled date like this:

This saves the trouble of creating an additional task like "Write article" and then going through the content board to find what to write.

Additionally:

Having an article idea scheduled helps me look at my upcoming week and plan better since I can limit the no. of tasks I aim to do on days I have to write an article:

This is where the board view in Todoist shines.

I don't have to juggle multiple apps like Notion, Trello and Todoist to plan my content in one place and then execute them in another.

Everything's neatly sorted within a single app.

Now:

Since I don't usually write and publish on the same day, I don't mark the article task as done once I'm finished drafting it.

I reset the due date on the task like this to remove it from the Today view:

The task stays in the Next 5 section until I publish the article on the blog.

But:

For short-form articles and Twitter content, I have a separate section on the board called Written.

The Written column houses the articles that are written and ready to be edited and published.

Now:

This column only applies when I have multiple drafted articles waiting to be published.

So, I keep this column only on the content boards where I can write content in bulk, like Firesides:

Then, after publishing the blog post, I finally mark the article idea task as done.

This process transforms what was once a random thought into a full-fledged blog post without any overwhelm.

And, you can extend this same funnelling technique to other projects.

Here are some examples of:

Using boards for everything

You can think of board columns as stages in any planning or workflow.

As you move through each section, the idea is to funnel a large volume of tasks into manageable portions.

For example, a traditional project management board would have sections like this:

• To do: Tasks that you need to do. Probably 10+ things here.
• In Progress: Task you've picked and are currently working on. Down to around 2–3 items.
• Done: Completed tasks from your project.

Whereas a travel planning board can be made of sections like this:

• Looks Good: Hotels, places, activities that look interesting for your trip
• Selected: Things and places that you've selected
• To Book: Flights, hotels or any activity that you need to book
• Booked: Flights, hotels or any activity that you've already booked

Where a super long list of things or ideas creates chaos, a board view helps you arrange these tasks accordingly and focus your attention on only a select few at a time.

So:

Try visualising how your project would look on a board the next time you're starting one.

But, keep this in mind, a board is suitable for:

• Ongoing projects that don't have a finish date, like content creation, personal finance management, etc.
• Complex projects with 20+ tasks that need prioritising, like software development, travel planning, etc.

A simple project like revamping the landing page on your website containing 5-10 tasks is still better off as a list.

For small projects like these, doing the ceremony of viewing it as a board, creating sections, and moving tasks is mostly a waste of your time.

It's easier to prioritise from a small list of tasks and get things done in such cases.

So:

How are you planning to leverage this handy Todoist feature?