WorkFlowy Will Change The Way You Work

If you’re new to WorkFlowy, you’re probably asking yourself how something so simple looking can have such a big impact on how you do business.
It looks like Notepad. That’s how incredibly simple it appears on its face. WorkFlowy doesn’t need to look cool. It’s how you use it that matters.

It’s all in the bullets

The key to WorkFlowy’s functionality are bullet points. But not just any bullet points. These little guys can do a lot and allow for a large amount of information to be stored in a seemingly basic document.
To illustrate, let’s go with something universal. Let’s say you’re planning an event with three other people.
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You make a simple list of things that need to be done:

• Guest list
• Invitations
• DJ
• Catering
• Beverages

The kind of list you could scratch out on a pad of paper with a pencil. But with WorkFlowy, you can assign bullet points to different planners using @username.
Zoom in and out to see the notes for each bullet on the list. To zoom, just click on a bullet point. When the DJ is booked, a planner can add a note by zooming in on the DJ bullet and sharing it with the group. The entire guest list can be added under the Guest List bullet and shared.
Invitations need to be mailed by Friday? Add the task under the Invitation bullet and tag it #friday. When you click the tag, you’ll see all of the Friday tasks listed, and only those tasks.
Sort tasks by importance by using priority tags like “urgent,” “important,” and “no rush.”
As tasks are done, mark them Complete to strike a line through them.

As you can see, WorkFlowy makes lists more functional and easy to manage. But the party example is just the tip of the iceberg. It allows you to create roadmaps of ideas, that branch out in all directions, without losing the focus of the task.

Making WorkFlowy work for you

WorkFlowy helps get things by keeping everything you need accessible, without cluttering up your to-do list.
Some useful ways business owners can use WorkFlowy include:

• As a weekly or monthly to-do list
• To outline and develop projects
• To propose and implement a new business strategy
• To organize advertising ideas
• To plan and organize upcoming blog and social media posts
• To create a timeline for a campaign
• To remind employees of tasks
• To organize meeting notes
• To create training plans
• As an inventory tool
• As an employee scheduling tool
• To integrate personal reminders with work tasks

Utilizing bullet points to their fullest potential

With WorkFlowy you can add as many sub-bullets as you need. This is especially useful when you’re working on complex projects, especially when more than one person is involved.

If you’ve ever had a project meeting that got way off track, but the ideas coming out of the detour were good, WorkFlowy allows you to save those ideas for later, without derailing the project at hand.

Using the simple event plan as an example, if, in your initial brainstorm, you start coming up with unique appetizer ideas when you haven’t yet done more pressing tasks like set the date or select the venue, you can add a sub-point to Catering, so your idea is saved, but the flow of the planning isn’t run off the rails.
When you’re ready to address catering, your notes will be there, and you can expand on them with your team when it’s the appropriate focus.
Each member of the team can drop little notes in sub-bullets for later at any time. With most other planning methods, this could lead to chaos. In WorkFlowy, it actually benefits the project, because good ideas don’t get lost (and, of course, ideas can be easily crossed out if necessary).

Tips and Tricks

While WorkFlowy is a very straightforward tool that doesn’t require time going over a manual before getting started, there are tricks that can help you get the most out of it that are easy to overlook.
The most important feature not to overlook is tags.

Tagging may seem unnecessary when you’re starting out, but the more extensive your notes become, the more vital they are.
Especially useful are the priority tags mentioned earlier. Searching for a tag like #today or #urgent cuts out all of the clutter and lets you focus on what you need to do now, and nothing else.
Some quick tagging tips and shortcuts:

• Adding an @name with any tags at the end of a note will allow a collaborator to zoom in on notes that pertain to them with just a click.
• To return to the list ‘home’ after a search, hit ESC
• Tag using single words rather than a long, harder to remember tag. #appetizer #ideas will make the note easier to find than #appetizerpartyideas, and will make it searchable if you want to isolate all of the ideas together.
• When an urgent task is finished, mark it complete and it will no longer show up in the tags.

One of the best tricks for using tags is to put your commonly-used tags at the top of the page, so you can narrow your list down with one click.
To add tags to the top of your notes, place your cursor at the end of the main title (under Home) and hit Shift+Enter. This will add a new line, rather than a new bullet point.
Type in your tags with a space between each. They will automatically become clickable.
You can also isolate a certain tag by clicking on a tag in the body of the note.

Control who sees what

With projects that involve multiple people who are not necessarily part of every step, WorkFlowy works beautifully to allow you to share certain notes with one person, but not others.
For example, if you’re planning future blogs and are working with a copy editor and a photographer. You can keep a bullet point for each as a sub-bullet under each blog title, each shared with the person doing that work only.
Then, if you want both the editor and photographer to take a look at the blog post before it goes live, you can create a Review bullet and share it with both of them.
And, of course, you can keep as many notes as you like that you don’t share with anyone.
To share a note:

• Hover your cursor over a bullet – Note that when you share a bullet, it automatically shares all sub-bullets.
• On the dropdown, click Share
• If you’re using a free account, you can share via a secret shared link. Private Sharing is available for premium users.
• Choose whether the people you’re sharing with can edit the notes, or just view them.
• Click the Share button. A unique URL will be generated.
• Copy and paste the URL into an email to the people you want to share with.
• Shared bullets will be highlighted in blue
• To cease sharing, hover over the bullet and click on Shared, then click the Stop Sharing button.

• You may re-share items if you want to change the accessibility option or change the URL.
• URLs will stop functioning after you click the Stop Sharing button.

WorkFlowy is one of those simple tools that needs no manual to get you started. It just works and just makes sense.
But, don’t take my word for it. The best recommendation is to go to the home page at www.workflowy.com and see what everyone else says. It’s quite impressive.
Has WorkFlowy changed the way you do business? Share your own tips in the comments.
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