Planner v Calendar (and PowerUp)

[Nils Geylen]

[Updates in comment]

Ten years into Trello but now I'm confused.

Since it's here, I'm trying the new Planner (w/Inbox) and I might find some use for them. I created a specific To-do board to collect and test. [<--This isn't working out really...]

What confuses me though is:

• adding a due date to a card on my (To-do/any) board does not reflect in the Planner
• adding a "Focus" (?) item in the Planner does not add that to my board
• dragging a Focus item from the Planner to a list isn't possible
• reversely: dragging a card to the Planner works, but
  • if the card had a due date, it disregards that
  • if the card did not have a due date, it does not copy the Planner date as due on the card

I suppose that's all expected behaviour?

I've also...

• enabled my Trello calendar URL and imported it into GCal. That now shows up there;
• and to get GCal items into my Planner, I've also enabled that integration

I'm currently still struggling to discern between

• creating an event in GCal,
• creating an Inbox item,
• dragging that into the planner or not,
• creating a card,
• and dragging that into the planner or not,
• adding a Focus to the planner... [??]

And then there's my board's calendar view...

That shows cards with a due date, but not items in the Planner, whether

• a created Focus
• a dragged card
• and obviously not a GCal read-only item.

I've watched Trello's Tour video but I'm not too sure I'm doing this right.

It all seems very complicated, and currently I'm not seeing how this improves anything--for me at least. I'm no doubt missing some practical use case or still have to achieve a deeper understanding. 

I've not even started looking at Atlas or Confluence; does any of this show up there?

Oh, and what about the Power-Up? I think I used to have that enabled once, but did it get integrated in Trello a couple years back? Would it still do something for me today, on Premium? The Power-Up seems to be mainly for Free (or Standard?) plans and it's gotten less features even there. With Premium I don't see why I'd need it...

It sure is "figuring things out time" now.

Would love to hear new ideas and how people have changed or expanded their planning workflow now.

[Nils Geylen · Accepted solution]

This post clarifies a lot about the purpose of Planner and Calendar: https://community.atlassian.com/forums/Trello-questions/Re-New-Planner-and-Calendar-Power-Up-not-able-to-merge/qaq-p/3058190/comment-id/117053#M117053

New Calendar feature - Personal Calendar view unique for your individual activities
Board Calendar view/powerup - Team Calendar to visualise all tasks

I may not be the right target for Planner per se; I rarely have urgent/immediate to-do's for the day, certainly not at a specific hour.

I benefit more from a wider view across weeks, months even and that's not what Planner is for. [That is possible by 'disabling' the Board view in the Switcher but it's still limited to 7 days.] I'm used to either a continuous Schedule and/or a full 7 days ahead view.

[Theodoro Reato]

Hi Nils,

I think you'd benefit from the Calendar View instead of the Planner.

The post you sent is helpful. Planner doesn't aim to replace the Calendar View; it's designed to help your productivity.

Planner allows you to add a Google or Outlook calendar to your Trello (on the Planner) to see your appointments and schedule some Focus time (which is not a card).

You can drag cards to your Planner, but this doesn't link your due dates to the time booked in the Planner. You can test that by dragging a card to the Planner and changing the due date of the card, but this will not change anything on the Planner. 

If you want to see the cards and their due dates, you need to rely on the Calendar View or the Calendar Power-Up, not the Planner. 

This article contains more information about the Planner and might be helpful to understand the differences. 

[Nils Geylen]

Thanks. Am still on the fence, but eager to see "what-how-if' it can be of benefit.

Like I said, I do live in my boards for my core workload, but our projects are the opposite of daily to-do's and deadlines.

Which is why I'm so ill-at-ease having these forced into my field of view all the time; optional or in the top-nav just seems to make much more sense. 

I see a board itself as a place of focus, so having my focus shifted all the time from content to action, feels very distracting.

It's as if Atlassian wants its app suite to integrate to SharePoint levels where people never leave the environment. Could be, we'll see. 

Thanks again for the responsiveness and attention though! That is where Trello has always outdone any other service I've used.

[Theodoro Reato]

Thank you, Nils! You're too kind.

I totally get it. Having too much on your screen can be disruptive, but you can hide the Planner and Inbox using the shortcuts g+p and g+i. You can also click on the bottom bar to hide/show the features. 

I believe you knew, but I thought it'd be nice to comment about it.

I hope this helps you, but I'll pass your feedback to our Product team! 

Cheers