How to use monday com: What most people get wrong about their workflow

You've probably seen the ads. Bright colors, fast-moving buttons, and the promise that your team will suddenly become a productivity powerhouse just by clicking a few boxes. But honestly? Most people open the dashboard and feel like they’ve just been handed the keys to a 747 without a flight manual. Learning how to use monday com isn't actually about the software. It’s about your brain. If your internal processes are a mess, the software will just help you be messy faster.

Let’s get real.

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Most users treat it like a glorified Excel sheet. That is a massive waste of money. You’re paying for a Work OS, not a grid of cells. To actually get your ROI, you need to stop thinking about rows and start thinking about "pulses." That’s what they used to call items, and the name actually made more sense because a good board should feel alive.

Setting up your first board without breaking things

When you first log in, the temptation to use a template is overwhelming. Don't do it yet. Templates are great for inspiration, but they often include a bunch of columns you don't need, which leads to "data fatigue." Start blank.

Think about the one thing you’re trying to track. Is it a project? A CRM? A content calendar? Create a board and name it something specific. "Marketing Stuff" is a bad name. "Q1 Social Media Campaign" is better.

Now, columns. This is where the magic (and the headache) happens. You need a Status column. Obviously. But you also need a Timeline column if you care about deadlines. One mistake I see constantly is people using the "Date" column for everything. If a task takes three days, a single date won't help you. Use the Timeline tool so you can see the span of work in the Gantt view later. It’s way more intuitive.

Groups are your best friend

Groups aren't just for organization; they're for logic. Some people group by month. Others group by project phase, like "Planning," "Execution," and "Done." I actually prefer grouping by "Priority" or "Current Week." It keeps the most important stuff at the top so you don't have to scroll through a hundred items just to find out what you’re supposed to do before lunch.

Why automations are the actual secret sauce

If you’re manually emailing someone to tell them a task is done, you’re doing it wrong. This is the core of how to use monday com effectively. Automations are basically "If This, Then That" statements.

Here’s a real-world example:
You have a "Status" column. When someone flips that status to "Stuck," you can have the system automatically notify the project manager and move the item to a "Blockers" group. This happens in milliseconds. No meetings required. No "hey, are you done with that?" Slack messages.

I’ve seen teams save five to ten hours a week just by setting up three simple automations:

1. When a date arrives, notify the person assigned.
2. When a status changes to "Done," move the item to the "Archive" group.
3. When a new item is created, assign a default owner.

It sounds simple. It is. But most people ignore the "Automations" button because the little robot icon looks intimidating. It’s not. It’s just logic.

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The "Views" trap and how to escape it

The default table view is fine for data entry. It sucks for managing.

If you're a visual person, click the plus sign at the top and add a Kanban view. This turns your board into cards you can drag and drop. It’s basically Trello but inside a much more powerful system. For managers, the Dashboard view is where you’ll spend your time. You can pull data from ten different boards into one place.

Imagine seeing a pie chart of every "Stuck" task across your entire company. That’s how you spot bottlenecks before they turn into disasters. Roy Mann, the co-founder of the company, has often talked about "transparency" as a core value. The views are how you get that. If everyone can see the Gantt chart, no one can claim they didn't know the deadline was Friday.

Dealing with the "Monday.com is too complex" complaint

I hear this a lot. "It's too much."

And yeah, it can be. If you turn on every feature, it looks like a cockpit. The trick is to hide columns you don't use. You can literally "collapse" them or change the permissions so only certain people see certain things.

Also, the mobile app. Use it for notifications, but don't try to build boards on it. It’s like trying to paint a mural through a keyhole. Keep the heavy lifting for the desktop and use the phone to check off tasks while you're standing in line for coffee.

A word on integrations

Monday doesn't live in a vacuum. It plays nice with Slack, Gmail, Zoom, and even Adobe Creative Cloud.

If you use Slack, connect it immediately. You can make it so that whenever someone mentions a specific word in a channel, it creates a new item on your board. This prevents those "oh yeah, I forgot we talked about that" moments.

Common pitfalls to avoid at all costs

• Over-engineering: Don't create 50 columns. You won't fill them out. Start with five.
• The "Everything is High Priority" lie: If everything is red, nothing is. Use the priority labels honestly.
• Ignoring the "Update" section: Each item has a little speech bubble. Use it! This is where the conversation about that specific task should happen. Stop burying task details in long email chains.
• Not cleaning up: Once a project is done, archive the board. Don't let your workspace turn into a graveyard of finished projects.

Actionable steps to get started today

Don't try to move your whole company over in one afternoon. That’s a recipe for a mutiny.

1. Pick one small project. Maybe it’s your personal to-do list or a small team’s weekly task tracker.
2. Define your "Done." Decide exactly what columns signify a completed task.
3. Build your first automation. Make it simple: "When status changes to Done, notify me."
4. Invite one person. Get feedback. Ask them if the board makes sense to them without you explaining it.
5. Set a "Monday Audit" once a week. Spend 15 minutes every Friday cleaning up the board. Delete duplicates. Update dates.

The software is just a tool. It won't fix a broken culture, but it will make a functional one move a lot faster. Once you stop fighting the interface and start using the automations, you’ll realize why people get so obsessed with those colorful little boxes. It’s not about the colors; it’s about the feeling of actually being in control of your workload for once.