Adjusting dependent due dates in Trello
Use Bulk Actions to shift your due dates when your big event date changes
Ever set up all your cards in Trello for a new project or event, and then suddenly that event date changes and not to be dramatic but… it kinda ruins everything?
I’ve had so many people ask me about a way to solve this in Trello, and I haven’t had a great way to solve it. Yeah, some people have created some interesting workarounds with Butler/Automation, but honestly, nothing I’ve seen has ever really felt like a viable solution.
But the good news is, thanks to an update in the Bulk Actions Power-Up, you can quickly shift your due dates with a click.
You could always bulk change the due date of a card… that’s now new. But previously for all the cards you selected, if you changed the date, it would change that date to the new date on ALL of the cards. Not really helpful if you have a bunch of different tasks that need to shift by a certain amount.
But now with the shift option, you can! Let’s see this in action, shall we?
Create your cards with tasks for your project
I created this Trello template to demonstrate how this works. There are typically two ways people format their boards:
option a: each list is a project and the cards in that list are all the tasks related to that event/project
option b: kanban style (to do/doing/done) and labels used to indicate which main event/project a task belongs to
option c: a board is used for each event and all the cards are tasks related to that event
Don’t worry, I created both options A and B, and assigned due dates to the cards to demonstrate.
For the sake of example, I’ve only got a couple of cards for the “Super Big Presentation” event, but most of us have a bigger handful of tasks when we create all our dependent items. So just imagine this being your current project board.
You’ve got your “main event” - the date you present the project! And you’ve got a handful of tasks that need to happen before them. You need to research it about 6 weeks out, create the slides 4 weeks out, and then practice the presentation 2 weeks out. You add those initial dates to your card based on a January 1st presentation date, and you’re all set.
Your presentation date changed… don’t panic!
We’ve all been there… email from our boss saying the meeting got moved, or your working on a feature, and suddenly others have been prioritized. Or you’re planning a trip and plane tickets were too expensive so you had to move your trip out.
Previously, you’d have had to go into each card and manually change those due dates. My trip got pushed back a month? Let me go change the due date on each and every single card by one month.
Let me save you 20 or so minutes. Add the Bulk Actions Power-Up. It will open up a modal showing your board with checkboxes on each card and list.
If you have all the cards for a project in the same list, just click the checkbox to select all the cards.
Not all in the same list? Or don’t want all the cards in one list? Click where it says - - - all cards - - - and you can filter to show cards by certain labels. You’ll still have to check each list that has the cards you want but it will be quicker than seeing all the cards and having to sort which cards need to change.
Every card in the board needs to shift? Just select the checkbox on each list and you’re all set.
You can also hover over a card to show additional selection options, such as highlight all the cards above or below that card in a list. This is useful as there is a limit on number of cards selected (80 at once) so if you have 200 cards in a list this allows you to quickly add them in batches, without the need to click each card.
Click “due dates” in the top bar
Check the box next to “…date” and click “shift by”.
Just type how much your main event date changed by (pushing your trip out by one month? Type a “1” next to “mo”. The new campaign needs to get launched a week earlier? Type a “-7” next to “days”. You can preview the changes to be sure what you’re changing.
Then click “change due dates”, and viola! Your due dates have all been shifted by the same amount and anything that was due two weeks before your main event is still due two weeks before your main event!
Here’s it in live-action.
Try it out yourself!
You probably already have your own use case with using due dates in Trello, but if you need some more ideas, I can see this feature being most useful for:
wedding/event planning boards
shift scheduling boards
campaign planning boards
product launch boards
I believe Bulk Actions does have some paid plans but you can try it out for free and get an idea of how it works. You might also want to check out AxoApps (creator of the Bulk Actions Power-Up) and learn about their others apps. (I’ll have to do a write-up on the Wishlist Power-Up soon!)
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