The post 6 Tips for Working From Home From a Full-Time WordPress Freelancer appeared first on Learn WordPress with WPLift.

What is a Kanban Board?

A Kanban board is a workflow visualization tool that helps you optimize your processes and track progress of each task, no matter how complex they are.

Simple Kanban boards consist of three columns labeled To Do, In Progress, and Done. Each column represents a different stage in the workflow process. You can add individual tasks in the respective column.

The individual task item moves horizontally across the board as each stage is performed until it reaches the Done column. This is where the workflow ends and the project is considered complete.

Why Use a Kanban Board in WordPress?

There are several reasons why you might want to add a Kanban board to your WordPress website. For example, they offer an easy way to organize workflows, boost productivity amongst teams, and create a way for people to focus on what needs to be done and in what order.

More specifically, you might consider using a Kanban board in WordPress for the following reasons:

• Project Management. If you work with a team and each member is responsible for separate tasks, then using a Kanban board helps organize those tasks and keep everyone productive. You can visually see the status of every project, at every stage, at any time.
• Track Sales Goals. If you run a business that relies on sales revenue, then using a Kanban board allows you to work smarter, not harder. You just need to determine individual steps for attracting new customers, pitching sales, and securing transactions. From there, watch your sales team perform and see where improvements are needed.
• Editorial Calendar. Publishing consistent content on your WordPress website is crucial for driving traffic to your site, engaging visitors, and converting readers into customers. You can plan ahead with a Kanban board and assign tasks to your team so content is ready to go when you need it.
• CRM (Customer Relationship Management). Staying on top of existing customer relationships, as well as garnering new ones, is important for any business to succeed. You can add a Kanban board in WordPress with tasks related to reaching out to old customers, addressing questions and concerns of potential customers, and generating more leads that can help close additional sales and boost revenue.

As you can see, using a Kanban board for your WordPress website is a great way to become more productive all around, no matter what your end goals are.

While there are several third-party Kanban board solutions available like Trello, Jira, and Asana, some people prefer to keep everything in their WordPress site.

It helps keep things centralized and saves money on third-party services.

Having that said, let’s take a look at how to create a Trello-like Kanban board in WordPress.

How to Add a Kanban Board in WordPress

The first thing you need to do is install and activate the Kanban Boards for WordPress plugin. For more details on how to do that, see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you will be prompted with an option to choose which type of Kanban board you plan to set up.

You have the option to choose from Project Management, Editorial Calendar, Job Applicant Tracking, Sales Pipeline, Basic, and Custom. Each option comes with their own set of statuses, which can be customized to your liking.

Once you decide which one you would like to use, select Set it up!. For this example, we are going to use the Basic Kanban board option which has the statuses of To Do, Doing, and Done.

Configure Your General Settings

After you choose which pre-designed Kanban board you want to use, you need to navigate to the Settings tab to configure your plugin settings.

Under the General tab, you will have the option to determine which increments of time you want users to track their progress in. For instance, we have chosen to track hours.

In this section, you will also decide things such as:

• Whether to hide the time tracking
• If you want to display task IDs
• If you want all columns to display
• Whether to use the default login screen or not

Configure Your User Settings

Under the Users tab, you will first define who is allowed to make changes to the Kanban board. In addition, you need to determine who you want to assign new tasks to.

For example, assign tasks to the user that creates the task, the first user to move the task, or a single user. You also have the option to assign new tasks to no one.

Once configured, go ahead and click on Save your Settings.

If you scroll down a bit, you will notice the section for creating new users. You can create a user by adding information such as their username, email, and first/last names.

Once you have entered the information, click on the Add a user button and they will be immediately added to your Kanban board.

Configure Your Statuses Settings

Next, under the Statuses tab, you will customize your Kanban board in terms of column title, color, WIP, and whether to auto-archive.

WIP or Work in Progress, is the allotted number of tasks in each column on your Kanban board. By pre-setting how many WIPs you want allowed per column, you prevent bottlenecking of work into one column and keep the workflow moving smoother.

For instance, if you would only like 3 new To Do tasks assigned at any one time, then you would configure that column’s WIP to be 3. Until one of those tasks is moved to the next column on the Kanban board, no one will be allowed to add another To Do task to that column.

Once you are done, click on Save your Settings.

Configure Your Estimates Settings

Lastly, under the Estimates tab, you will decide the set points users will be allowed to choose from when deciding how long a particular task will take.

For instance, the default estimate settings include 2 hours, 4 hours, 1 day, 2 days, and 4 days.

You can, however, change those estimates to whatever you want. You can also add another estimate by selecting Add another estimate.

Keep in mind, all estimates you define will show in your Kanban board in the order they are set.

After making any necessary changes, click on Save your Settings.

Add Tasks to Your Kanban Board

After all of your plugin’s settings have been configured, click on the Go to your board button.

Since your Kanban board is brand new, it will look very empty at first. That’s because you need to start the workflow process by defining tasks in the To Do column.

You will also be able to estimate how long each task will take the assigned user.

From there, team members assigned tasks will be able to move them into the appropriate column labeled Doing, track the time it takes to complete the tasks, and lastly, move them into the Done column, signaling the task as complete.

We hope this article helped you learn how to easily add a Trello-like Kanban board to your WordPress website. You may also want to see our list of must have WordPress plugins for every website.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook .

The post How to Add a Trello-Like Kanban Board in WordPress appeared first on WPBeginner.