Sometimes you just want to drop-kick that old saying, “Experience is the best teacher.” Sometimes you just want to be able to have things handed to you ready to go and complete them with minimal effort and not have to experience the entire process at all.
Especially when it’s your military retirement or transition. You’re going to do this exactly one time in your life and once is more than enough. So, when it comes time to transition you don’t want to have to spend hours learning all the things that you’ll never need to know again.
When your service member is near that transition and retirement stage of their military career they will come home with a long checklist of all the things they have to do to depart the military with a DD214 in their hand.
That checklist is the honey-do list specific to the military branch your service member has been a part of. But, what about all the OTHER things that the military isn’t requiring? What about job searching and moving and ceremonies? What about the things for YOU, the military spouse, or your children? Where do you get to add to and coordinate the to-do list of all those things that will make your life easier and your family’s transition smoother?
If You Love Lists You’ll Love This Trello Board Transition Planner
When I met Heidi Barker, another military spouse just a few months behind me in her own military retirement journey, I was frustrated with how little collaboration there was between my spouse and me during his retirement process.
After listening to my complaints and woes, Heidi had an answer.
Mike Barker, Heidi’s spouse, had documented his step-by-step retirement journey in a format that allowed military spouses to collaborate and add their own tasks, timelines, and input to the process. It was the missing piece for me and best of all, it was created in Trello, an organization tool that is free to use and easy to learn.
Your Transition Journey Map
If you’re not familiar with Trello, it’s a visual workflow or project management tool and yes, there is a FREE version! I have been using Trello for years to keep track of family trips, household projects, and small business management.
How Does it Work?
“An Agile Military Transition” Trello board contains lists of activities, including links to supporting information and agencies, that a service member will want to accomplish for their transition or retirement. The nice thing about Trello is that this board is completely customizable for every military family.
Notice that some of the items on these lists are marked RETIREMENT SPECIFIC. Transitioning families can remove those cards to make their lists to include only the information that applies to them.
Adding in Your Family’s Specifics
You’ll notice that the board template you receive is geared to the service member’s journey. That’s because we all know that my family’s list of needs is going to be very different from yours.
So, to make it your own, you simply add a category for the family or military spouse and include all the many transition tasks that are on your mind. You can even customize the color of the label that shows up on the card for easy visual identification.
Ready to Get Organized?
Let me guess – as a military spouse you often have to wear the label of the organizer. That means you are the one keeping track, creating lists, and making sure things get done.
We joke about having 10 different plans ready to go because we know that the first and best one is rarely what happens in the transient, ever-changing world of being a military family.
This is why I fell head over heels for the “An Agile Military Transition” Trello board.
- I get to be involved in the planning process
- I see my service member’s timeline right alongside my own.
- We can both add information, leave comments, and assign tasks for each other to collaborate on the details.
That all leads to better communication, a big-picture perspective, and a focus on what’s important to MY family during a stressful and really busy time of our military life.
Get “An Agile Military Transition” Board in Just 3 Steps.
Getting your own “An Agile Military Transition” Trello board is really easy.
- Create a free Trello account
- Once you have a Trello account and are signed into it click this link to access “An Agile Military Transition” Trello board
- Click the button at the top that says, “Create board from template”
That’s it! Now you can customize, review, and plan out an easy, smooth transition or retirement that is perfectly mapped out for your family. I can’t wait to hear how utilizing this incredible free tool makes your journey so much better!
Watch the replay of our live stream with Mike and Heidi Barker, An Agile Transition: Staying Organized During Military Retirement
Interested in watching the live stream with Mike and Heidi Barker talking about the “An Agile Military Transition” Trello board?
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