How I Use Trello to Keep Track of Movies and TV Series

Hi, everyone.  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in today's video, I'll share how I use Trello to keep track of the movies and TV series that am watching and that I‘d like to watch in the future.

In my previous video on using Trello to keep track of the books I'm reading, I mentioned that my mind is a bit of a whirlwind and it's nice to have my thoughts on a topic written down and visually available rather than just floating around in my brain or on little separate notes filed somewhere.  This is even more true for movies and TV shows.  I don't know about you, but I jump around a bit as I'm watching things -- particularly if a series is gruesome or dark.  I cannot binge watch those series in the way that some people seem to be able to.  I need breaks.  And if you are even slightly ADHD like me, any distraction means -- you may never be back!  I have dozens of series that I've watched portions of.  And only some of that is deliberate.  Most of it is just me forgetting and starting something else.  Plus, after a while I can't remember which episodes I've seen and which I haven't.  And I don't have a lot of patience for rewatching stuff just to figure out where I am after months off.

Enter Trello to save the day.  Trello is a task management website and app that is based on the Japanese kanban system -- I have an introductory video on Trello for those who are new to it.  I use a different app for task management, but Trello is so flexible and appealing that I still use it to manage projects and information.  This falls into the latter category -- unless you consider watching TV a project of course.

Okay -- none of this is rocket science, but I always like to see what other people are doing before tailoring a solution to fit my needs.  As I said, Trello is infinitely customizable, so you can make whatever lists, checkboxes, and labels work best for you.  So, my biggest board is 

Watch - TV Series - I put the word "watch" in the title to group all of these boards together.  Unlike my other Trello boards, I keep my finished lists over the to right.  That's because I have three different lists: series that I have watched and have no additional seasons coming (like The Sopranos), series that I have watched but do have more seasons (like The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), and ones that I have watched and don't need to watch any more regardless of whether there may be new series.  For the ones with more seasons, I either enter each season in as a checklist with each episode as a checkbox OR to simplify, I just enter each season as a checkbox.  This is the sort of information that I just don't want using up space in my brain, so it's nice to be able to see that I've only watched 2 seasons of Goliath and there is a third season out.  The first 2 lists in my board are what I'm watching, but I have a list of mindless watching, which means I can be doing other cognitive activities when I'm watching it -- I don't have to pay too much attention.  The other list is one that I at least have to pay some attention to.  You can see I have a bunch that I'm watching at the same time.  This allows me to bounce back and forth between series without totally forgetting where I am or what I'm watching.   I have a list for mystery series and a list for other recommendations.  The cards usually represent a series, but sometimes represent a list of recommended shows.  When the card is a list, if I'm lazy, I just put a link to the list in the description, but if I'm doing it right, I paste each of the shows that are being recommended in as checkboxes.  The labels I use are genre based (so like Historical Fiction, documentary, thriller, etc.) and I try to put the network or the streaming source in the title of the card.  I have another board called

Watch - Other People - this contains all of the movies and TV shows that I'm watching with my husband (who has really different TV taste than I do).  Our Venn Diagram intersects at crime thrillers and interesting documentaries.  Plus the shows I'm watching with my daughter are also on this list.  Finally, I have my board named

Watch - Movies - I confess I'm not great about watching new movies.  Somehow it feels like less of a commitment to turn on a TV series despite the time involved.  But we have so many streaming services that I feel like I should have some options lined up whenever I have the time to commit to a movie.  So, this is where I keep all of the movies that I definitely want to see.  In this case, instead of labeling by gendre, I have them in lists by gendre starting on the left with documentaries and going to crime/suspense.  Again, I try to put the streaming service in the title.  

And that's it.  Using Trello to keep track of all of this information has really helped me clear out my head, determine what I really want to watch, and generally be a little less scattered in my watching.  Plus, it’s a really nice visual tool for decision making.  Let me know what you think. Comments are always appreciated and thanks for watching.