Using a Trello Board for Your Hobby

[#1]

A couple of months ago, I've shared how I use Trello as my public portfolio. This time, I want to go a little bit on the geeky side and share one of my absolute favorite boards: the Middle-earth Calendar.

I'm a big fan of JRR Tolkien's work and I volunteer for a website called Middle-earth News where I run a weekly column called This Week in Middle-earth sharing what happens in Middle-earth each week according to Tolkien's detailed calendar that can be found in the Appendices of The Lord of the Rings.

In order to organize my work and gather all the right information to write my posts, I created this board that works as a perpetual calendar. It covers specific dates for particular events of the time period of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit and it's based on Appendix B of The Lord of the Rings, The Tale of Years (Chronology of the Westlands) and The Atlas of Middle-earth by Karen Wynn Fonstad.

Each card contains the events for the day:

• the number at the beginning corresponds to the day
• the number at the end corresponds to the year
• the lists start in April (rather than January) because it's when The Hobbit starts

I added a yellow label to highlight the events that take place during The Hobbit.

I'm not sure how many people would find it interesting but I decided to make it public in case someone wants to copy it: https://trello.com/b/KHUuN3m6/middle-earth-calendar

[Devon Henderson]

I'm a big fan of JRR Tolkien's work

UNDERSTATEMENT.

But seriously, this is great! I'm in the middle of a LOTR re-read, and I'm going to use your board as a reference as I go. 🧝‍♀️🧙‍♂️

[Alice Causarano]

@Devon Henderson haha! This makes me so happy! <3

[Jimmy Seddon]

Woah! @Alice Causarano that seems like A LOT of work.  Thank you for making it public, I'm totally going to check it out!

My wife and I have actually started using Trello for grocery lists.  That allows us to both access the list for when we are at different stores at the same time and we can get live updates of what has been collected with check lists.

It's really cool to see how aren't are finding interesting ways to make use of this product as well!

[carrie.eandm]

@Alice Causarano This is awesome! As a casual LOTR fan, I appreciate you sharing this! There's so many little details to keep track of.

[Jodi LeBlanc]

This is such an incredible hobby @Alice Causarano - I love that you made your board public (and your portfolio board as well). I actually just got the Hobbit out from the library, and was challenged on the Friday Fun Thread to read the Lord of the Rings Trilogy next (yes I know I think I am the only one on the planet who hasn't read it) :)

In retrospect, not sure if I should read your full board until I complete the books, or if your board will be like cole's notes to help me long the reading journey. 

[carrie.eandm]

@Jodi LeBlanc You're not the only one who hasn't read it. I haven't either. ;) But my group of friends did hold a LOTR movie marathon last winter. Yes, a marathon. We watched them all back to back, with themed food and costume as well!

[Jodi LeBlanc]

Wow @carrie.eandm the movie marathon sounds fantastic! I may have to do that when I read the books - sounds so fun! Please post photos of your costumes for inspiration :)

[Alice Causarano]

@Jimmy Seddon you're very welcome! I used to keep everything in a Google Doc just written in chronological order but then I decided to put a little more effort and create a perpetual calendar on my most used app and I have to say it simplifies my life a lot when I have to write the articles! Trello is the best.

@carrie.eandm  So glad to hear that!

@Jodi LeBlanc  no needs to feel guilty, there are plenty of books I haven't read myself! And I recognize that Tolkien's writing is not for everyone. :) You can use the board whenever you want, the calendar itself is placed in the Appendix so people usually read it at the end of the book. The story is plotted a bit differently from the movies, meaning that, when the Fellowship splits, you follow the journey of the various members one after the other, not at the same time like you see in the movies. The calendar starts to be very useful around The Two Towers, in my opinion. Hope it makes sense!

[Jodi LeBlanc]

That's great advice @Alice Causarano I am still waiting for my copy of the Hobbit to arrive at the Library so I can dive right in. I will be travelling a tonne in September, October and November so I am hoping to ready all four books this fall :) I did watch the movies years ago, but hoping that won't ruin my experience with the books.

[Alice Causarano]

@Jodi LeBlanc I watched the movies before reading the book but they are a bit different so I think you won't have any issues! :)

[Davin Studer]

@Alice Causarano That's a pretty awesome hobby. I just checked and the Calendar power up works all the way out to 2491+. : ) So, if you put due dates on the cards you could also see it on a calendar!!

[Karan Verma]

My favourite hobby 😎

[A.C. Ivory]

Nice, @Alice Causarano ! You know your stuff about Lord of the Rings!

I have several Trello boards for my hobbies. One of my favorite Trello boards is for my genealogy. 🌳 I use it to keep track of all the ancestors I am currently researching, records I need to find at libraries and archives, and long-term projects I am working on.

I created an "inspiration board" for anyone interested in how I use (one) of my genealogy Trello boards. You can view it here and copy it, if interested!

https://trello.com/b/5f5H3PS9/genealogy-trello-inspiration-my-genealogy

If anyone else here is a genealogy geek 🤓 like me, let me know!! 👋

[Alice Causarano]

Thank you, @A.C. Ivory !

Your genealogy board looks amazing. I never got into it but it looks very interesting!

[carrie.eandm]

@A.C. Ivory I'm into genealogy too! Currently using Ancestry.com to track down leads (I took over my mother's account when she passed away). I've been working with my grandparents now to fill in and verify content - and slowly started to track down my husband's side of the family!

[Deepanshu Natani]

Wow! this is really interesting.

[Dean Rowntree]

I'm working on a system where I log my bicycle rides into Google Sheets via Strava via Zapier and then based on how many miles each bike has covered, create cards in my bicycle maintenance Trello board to check chain wear, replace brake blocks etc.

It's a work in practice and isn't perfect yet, but I'm getting there. 

[LarryBrock]

@Dean Rowntree - I love this idea!  Please post on Community again when you have things up and running.  I'm sure there are many other cycling folks who would love to see this too!