How to Use Monday.com: A Practical Guide That Skips the Fluff

Monday.com looks simple until you actually try to build something useful with it. Then you're staring at boards, columns, automations, and wondering why your "simple project tracker" turned into a confusing mess.

This guide cuts through the marketing speak and shows you exactly how to use monday.com effectively—whether you're setting up your first board or trying to figure out what automations are actually worth your time.

Already know you want to try it? Start your free monday.com trial here.

Understanding Monday.com's Structure (The 2-Minute Version)

Before you start clicking around, understand how monday.com is organized. Everything flows from workspaces down to individual data points:

• Workspaces: The highest level—think of these as filing cabinets for different departments or major projects
• Folders: Organize related boards within a workspace
• Boards: Where your actual work lives—these are the spreadsheet-like views you'll spend most of your time in
• Groups: Color-coded sections within boards to categorize items
• Items: Individual rows representing tasks, projects, clients, or whatever you're tracking
• Columns: The data points for each item (status, date, person, etc.)
• Subitems: Nested tasks within items for additional detail

Monday.com offers three board types with different access levels: main boards (visible to all team members), shareable boards (for external collaborators), and private boards (invite-only).

Creating Your First Board: Step-by-Step

Here's how to actually set up a useful board:

Step 1: Create the Board

Click the "+ Add" button on the left panel. You can start from scratch, import from Excel/Google Sheets/Trello, or use one of their 200+ templates. Templates are decent starting points—just expect to customize heavily.

Step 2: Set Up Groups

Groups help organize your items into logical sections. They can represent project phases, weeks, priorities, clients—whatever makes sense for your workflow. Drag and drop to reorder them as needed.

Step 3: Add Your Columns

Click the "+" icon next to your last column to open the Column Center. Here are the columns you'll actually use:

• Status: Track progress with color-coded labels (Done, Working on It, Stuck, etc.)
• Person: Assign team members to items
• Date/Timeline: Set deadlines and date ranges
• Numbers: Track budgets, hours, quantities
• Text: Add notes and details
• Dropdown: Create custom selection lists
• Files: Attach documents directly to items (not available on Free plan)

Monday.com's AI feature can actually suggest columns based on descriptions you type—just enter what you need in the search bar and it'll recommend appropriate column types.

Step 4: Customize Your Columns

Resize columns by clicking and dragging between column headers. Pin important columns to freeze them while scrolling. Hide columns you don't need cluttering your view.

For status columns, customize the labels and colors to match your workflow. Red for blocked, yellow for in progress, green for done—or whatever system works for you.

Step 5: Add Items

Type a name and hit enter. That's it. You can also set default values for new items by clicking the three-dot menu on your board and selecting "Item default values"—saves time when adding lots of similar items.

Want more details in our full review? Check out our monday.com review for the complete breakdown.

Views: See Your Data Different Ways

Same data, different visualizations. Monday.com offers multiple views depending on your plan:

• Table View: The default spreadsheet-like view
• Kanban: Card-based board for visual workflow management
• Timeline/Gantt: See items arranged by date (Standard plan and up)
• Calendar: Monthly/weekly view of dated items (Standard plan and up)
• Chart: Visualize data with graphs (Pro plan and up)
• Workload: See team capacity at a glance (Pro plan and up)
• Files: View all uploaded files in one place

The catch: Timeline, Gantt, and Calendar views require the Standard plan ($12/user/month). Chart and Workload views require Pro ($19/user/month).

Connecting Boards: Cross-Project Visibility

Once you have multiple boards, you'll want them talking to each other. The Connect Boards Column links items across different boards—useful for:

• Connecting a high-level projects board to detailed task boards
• Linking a clients board to related projects
• Tracking dependencies across different workflows

To set it up: Click the "+" icon to add a column, search for "Connect Boards", select which boards to link, then click any cell in that column to connect specific items.

The Mirror Column takes this further by pulling data from connected boards. Once you've connected boards, add a Mirror Column to display information like status, dates, or numbers from the linked items without switching boards.

You can add up to 60 Connect Boards Columns per board—plenty for complex workflows.

Automations: Save Time on Repetitive Tasks

This is where monday.com earns its keep. Automations handle the boring stuff so you don't have to.

How Automations Work

Every automation has three parts:

• Trigger: The event that starts the automation (status changes, date arrives, item created)
• Condition: Requirements the trigger must meet
• Action: What happens when triggered (notify someone, move item, update column)

Setting Up Automations

1. Click the "Automate" button in the top right corner of your board
2. Choose from pre-made templates or build your own
3. Click underlined text to customize parameters
4. Hit "Create Automation" when done

Common useful automations:

• "When status changes to Done, notify project owner"
• "When date arrives, move item to This Week group"
• "When item created, assign to specific person"
• "Every day, create a new item" (for recurring tasks)

Automation Limits by Plan

Heads up on action limits:

• Standard: 250 automation actions per month
• Pro: 25,000 actions per month
• Enterprise: 250,000 actions per month

Each action (sending a notification, updating a status, creating an item) counts against your limit. If you exceed it, the overage gets deducted from next month's allocation.

If you're building complex automation flows and hitting limits, check our comparison of best project management software options.

Integrations: Connect Your Other Tools

Monday.com integrates with external tools like Slack, Gmail, Outlook, Google Calendar, and dozens more. These follow the same trigger-condition-action format as automations.

To set up: Click "Integrate" on your board, choose the app, select a template, connect your account, and configure the parameters.

Popular integration examples:

• Create monday.com items from Gmail emails
• Post Slack messages when status changes
• Add Google Calendar events for dated items
• Sync with Microsoft Teams for notifications

Integrations share the same action limits as automations, so factor that into your planning.

Dashboards: High-Level Reporting

Dashboards aggregate data from multiple boards into visual displays using widgets. Choose from 30+ widget types to build custom reports.

Dashboard limits by plan:

• Free: Data from 1 board per dashboard
• Basic: 1 board per dashboard
• Standard: 5 boards per dashboard
• Pro: 10 boards per dashboard
• Enterprise: 50 boards per dashboard

If you need cross-project visibility, you'll want at least Standard.

Quick Tips to Avoid Common Mistakes

• Don't over-complicate boards: Start simple, add complexity as needed
• Use templates as starting points: They speed up setup but always need customization
• Archive completed items: They don't count toward your item limit on the Free plan
• Pin important columns: Keeps critical info visible while scrolling
• Use conditional coloring: Apply colors to cells based on criteria for quick visual scanning
• Document your automations: Create a reference item listing what automations exist and what they do

Monday.com Pricing: What You'll Actually Pay

Before going all-in, understand the costs:

• Free: Up to 2 users, 3 boards, 200 items max, no automations or integrations
• Basic: $9/user/month (annual) or $12/user/month (monthly) — unlimited boards/items, 5GB storage, but no automations
• Standard: $12/user/month (annual) — adds Timeline, Gantt, Calendar views, 250 automation/integration actions
• Pro: $19/user/month (annual) — adds Chart view, time tracking, private boards, 25,000 automation actions
• Enterprise: Custom pricing — advanced security, 250K automation actions

Minimum purchase is 3 seats for paid plans, jumping to 5 seats, then multiples of 5 after that. So a 4-person team pays for 5 seats.

For detailed cost breakdowns, see our monday.com pricing guide and cost analysis.

Is Monday.com Worth It?

Honest assessment:

Monday.com works well for:

• Teams who want visual, flexible project tracking
• Organizations with multiple interconnected projects
• Teams willing to invest time in setup and customization
• Companies needing cross-department visibility

It might not be right if:

• You need heavy automations on a tight budget (Standard only gives 250 actions)
• You're a solo user (the Free plan is too limited, paid plans require 3+ seats)
• You want simpler task management (consider alternatives like Trello or ClickUp)

Wondering how it stacks up against competitors? Check out our monday.com vs Asana comparison or browse monday.com alternatives.

Get Started

Ready to give it a shot? Start your free 14-day monday.com trial to test the Pro features before committing. You can downgrade to the Free plan when the trial ends if you're not ready to pay.

For more tutorials and guides, check out our monday.com tutorial page.