Order Lists By List's Card's Due Dates (not sorting cards)
Asked by richieboo:

It seems that if nobody answers in a few weeks that a question here gets buried and never seen again. I really am hoping that someone here can either lead me to an answer, or where to better ask this question, or confirm that this is a limitation that has no solution so I can stop hoping.

I am trying to find a way to sort my Lists on a Board by the due date of the cards in each list. I am not trying to sort the cards within a list. But if the due date on a card in the 10th list is the next due date of all cards in all lists on a board, I would want Butler or a Board button to click to move that list to be the first list on the board.

Looking for feature to "arrange lists by due dates of cards in their list"?

Thank you for reading! Hopeful for a solution.


Answers:
author: milynnus
body: [@richieboo](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/2357056)

A current project started with sorting cards by the earliest checklistitem due date and bumping the overdue items today. This allows user to ensure that no task is missed since she works mainly in Planyway Calendar and not on the Trello board.

The sorting is no longer need but you can always do what you want with http request to an endpoint that will do the above for you. You can call the endpoint from either a board button or calendar. **Updated : DONE**


author: Hannah Humbert - Simpla Workflows
body: Hi [@richieboo](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/2357056) ! I'm not sure it's possible to arrange lists on a board based on a card's due date. I think the only way to automatically arrange lists is based on the list title. I've never seen Trello used in this way - are you able to explain a bit what your overall goal is with this? Maybe there's another way to approach it that achieves the same goal?

comments: author: richieboo
body: I have 20 lists on a board, one list for each client who is recently active. I want to focus on the client who's task(s) \[cards\] are due next, so want that client's list to move to the left -- this way I am always focused on the left most list.

MAYBE what I can do is have Butler rename the list, prefacing with "YYYYMMDD" by the lowest due date of it's cards?

I'm surprised to be the first one looking for this, so wonder if I am just doing a real bad job at explaining my need.

Thank you for replying!


author: Hannah Humbert - Simpla Workflows
body: There might be other people using Trello in this way, I just personally haven't seen it. I would suspect it would open up some complexity with lists moving around the board dynamically. e.g. let's say a card is due tomorrow, so the whole list moves to the far left. What happens if that card's due date changes to a later date? Should the list stay put, or does it move somewhere else on the board? What if you have multiple lists that contain cards due tomorrow? You could have all these lists move to the left, but does that mean you might miss something that's due tomorrow because it's in the 3rd position? What happens with cards past due?   

With the other alternative you mentioned around renaming lists, it is possible to rename lists using butler, but I'm not sure it's possible to have it dynamically updating based on card due dates.   

How set in stone is your board structure? If you're open to shifting things around, and the goal is to stay on top of upcoming cards, one way to structure the board is to have lists like "Today" "Upcoming" "Later" etc. Butler can then dynamically move cards to the respective list based on due date. Clients can then be tagged using labels so you can filter the board if you just want to focus in on one particular client.   

Another option could be to create a separate "Focus" board or "Active Sprint" board. When a card is almost due, it auto-moves to this board. If you want to push it back to a later date, you can auto-move it back to the main client board.   

If you're not keen on mixing up the structure, another way to stay on top of upcoming cards is to use the calendar view - that way you can see what the focus is from one day/week to another.   

Sorry I can't help provide a solution for the specific thing you're trying to do, but I hope this helps! Maybe someone else can provide some better solutions :)


author: richieboo
body: Thank you for all the suggestions! I am going to unlock my tunnel vision and see about using tags instead of lists or along with lists with Butler to move the cards, thanks.