How to Limit Daily Context Switching Using Trello Swimlanes

Table of Contents

What context switching feels like in Trello

When I first started using Trello, I thought it would save me from my chaotic task-switching problems. I’d open it up in the morning all bright-eyed, thinking, “This is the day I only work on one thing!” but within ten minutes I was clicking between boards, reading three unrelated cards, answering a Slack thread about none of them, and then forgetting what I was doing. Trello wasn’t the problem—it was me. And tabs. Tabs are evil.

The real chaos started when I tried color labels to separate types of work—writing, editing, meetings, admin-y stuff. But it was too easy to mislabel cards or skip the labels altogether, and I still had everything jammed into one overwhelming column called “Today.” So I ended up creating a mess of half-colored cards like a bad board game no one wants to finish playing ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

Eventually, I stumbled across something less obvious—swimlanes. Not Trello’s core swimlanes (which don’t really exist out of the box), but vertical lanes built using subtle hacks: horizontal separator cards, automation, checklists used as fake swimlanes…it got weird. But it worked.

How to create swimlanes manually in Trello

Trello doesn’t officially support swimlanes, so you have to get a little creative. The basic idea is to use a horizontal visual break between cards in the same column to represent a different “lane” of work. Here’s what ended up working for me:

1. **Use separator cards**: I create a new card, name it something obvious like “— WRITING —”, and then use a cover image (you can just use a solid color from the built-in Unsplash options) to make it stand out. That card stays pinned to the top of its section.

2. **Group actual task cards beneath**: Any tasks related to that type of work go under the swimlane heading. I segmented mine into WRITING, MEETINGS, COMMUNICATIONS, and MAINTENANCE.

3. **Don’t rely on sorting**: Trello likes to shuffle cards around when you drag too fast or try to sort by due date. Which is super annoying if it messes up your swimlanes. You’ll need to manually move new cards into their spot beneath the right header. Not great, but more predictable than smart-sorting (which often made things worse).

I tried power-ups like List Layouts and Card Priority, but they either had weird bugs or cost more than I wanted to spend monthly. So yes, DIY separators are dumb, but they’re also weirdly reliable when everything else breaks 😛

Using card covers versus emojis in swimlane headers

One mistake I made early on was using just emojis instead of card covers to create visual breaks. Like this:
– 🖋 Writing
– 💬 Calls
– 🧹 Admin

It looked cute but didn’t stand out enough on a dense board. All the cards basically blurred together, and I found myself reading every title just to figure out what was where. When I switched to full-size colored covers, I could scroll the board quickly and *feel* the separation. You literally can’t miss a giant red rectangle that screams “WRITING.”

Here’s a rough comparison of how it feels:

Don’t overthink the colors—just pick high contrast ones. Warm colors for loud stuff (calls, meetings), cool colors for focus (writing, planning).

How swimlanes reduce switching between tasks

The biggest shift came not from visual clarity but **behavioral nudging**.

When I collapsed a whole day’s worth of tasks under just three visible headers, something clicked. I stopped bouncing between five Slack threads and a notion doc and a Google Sheet just because I “felt like it.” If I was working within “WRITING” swimlane from 9am to 10am, then even though a call invite popped up or someone @mentioned me, I stayed in my lane. Not physically, but mentally.

It wasn’t perfect. Sometimes I cheated. But I could feel the resistance to switching being higher. Kind of like muscle memory—it trains your brain to expect a context boundary, instead of blending everything into one long task soup.

That actually matches how our brains prefer to work: one mode, one set of tools open, one problem space. If I’m writing, I have VS Code or Notion open. If I’m prepping for meetings, I open Calendar and Notion docs. I don’t have to reconfigure everything on the fly if the board already reminds me what my current mode is.

Why automations break when you reorganize swimlanes

This was a weird one. I had a Zapier automation that moved any card labeled “urgent” to the top of my “Today” list. Seemed simple.

But once I started using swimlanes (those separator cards), everything went sideways:
1. The automation moved urgent cards *above* headers, confusing the flow.
2. Sometimes the automation fired twice and shuffled the card back and forth, especially when multiple labels triggered similar rules.
3. I couldn’t keep urgent tasks inside the right swimlane, because automation doesn’t “see” fake categories like mine—it just sees a flat list of cards.

My fix: I rewrote the Zap so it *added a checklist item* called “URGENT ☠” instead of moving the task. That way I could still see what was urgent without destroying swimlane layout.

Also worth noting: any Butler automation inside Trello that moves cards conflicts heavily with manual swimlane layouts. One time I had Butler sorting “Today” by due date every night, and it shoved all my swimlane cards to the middle of the pile. Chaos. I turned off all movement-based automations after that and only let Butler edit tiny things like due dates and labels.

Filtering swimlanes with Trello search

If you’ve never used “f” to filter cards, try it right now. Trello has a great built-in filter tool.

I started naming all my separator cards consistently, like:
– — WRITING —
– — MEETINGS —

So now, when I hit **f** and type “WRITING”, it filters to just that swimlane. Since all related cards use similar tags or contain that header above them, it’s basically a fake list segmentation. No need to switch boards or use multiple actual lists.

This works way better than trying to filter by label alone, since labels are often inconsistent (especially if multiple people touch the card). Naming conventions are a bit more stable because I control those headers myself.

I also occasionally use the filter view to pull out all cards with specific checklist items like “Review due” just to scan upcoming things without tweaking the layout.

Using a topdown daily flow instead of columns

Most Trello setups lean on vertical columns: To Do, Doing, Done, etc. But I found that *columns do not match how my brain works through a day*. I don’t really need “Next” and “Soon,” I just need to know what headspace I’m supposed to be in right now.

So I switched it around:
– One column called “Today” with swimlanes inside
– One called “Backlog” for the pile of everything else
– One called “Archive” where I throw stuff I don’t want to delete

This makes it way faster to onboard into the day. Instead of asking, “What should I do next?” I ask, “Which mode am I in?” The first question invites chaos. The second one nudges alignment.

I still miss things. But at least I know *where* the thing missed me 😅

What to avoid when adding swimlanes

Here are a few gotchas that wasted hours:

1. **Don’t lock swimlane cards**: I once used Trello card covers AND a background image that used the same blue hue… completely invisible header.
2. **Don’t automate card position unless you’re okay breaking lanes**.
3. **Don’t use emojis alone as structure** — too easy to skim past.
4. **Don’t combine work modes in one task unless it truly can’t split**. I had “Write & send newsletter” in WRITING. But the actual send part lived in MAILING context. It felt off. Splitting the tasks helped.

Also—avoid calling these “fake swimlanes” to yourself. Silly as it sounds, framing it as a real layout makes you treat it with a bit more discipline. Your brain will resist switching lanes if they feel defined.

I learned that one the hard way, watching my task list collapse into a colorful but meaningless staircase of cards. I took a screencap, closed Trello, and went to make another coffee 🙂