I’ve tried every productivity app under the sun. Trello’s boards, Airtable’s tables, Google Docs for drafts, all great in isolation, painful together.
I needed one home for ideas, drafts, edits, and deadlines. ClickUp gave me that home, and now I plan, write, and ship without juggling three different tabs.
Below’s the full walk-through of how I use ClickUp to corral writing work. Each feature scales from quick blog posts to compliance-heavy procedures, so you can adapt the setup to any documentation stack.
Why ClickUp Won Me Over
- Unified view: tasks, docs, and deadlines share one calendar; no extra sync with Google Calendar.
- Flexible hierarchy: Space, Project, List, Task, you zoom out or drill down without losing context.
- Example: I keep one space named Content. Inside it live projects for Blog, Newsletter, and Course Materials. Each project holds lists such as Drafts, Edits, and Published.
- Cross-platform: web, desktop, and mobile behave the same, so capturing a 3 a.m. idea takes two taps rather than five clicks.
Five Features That Keep My Workflow Running
1. Views
What it solves: switching tools just to see tasks in a different layout.
- Calendar view: plot every deadline in one place; open slots and overloads appear instantly.
- Board view (Kanban): columns match my flow, Idea, Draft, Review, Scheduled, Published; dragging a card forward triggers an automation that pings the editor.
- List view: filter by content pillar, keyword, or reviewer when I need a raw data look.
One workspace, three perspectives, zero copy-paste.
2. Docs
What it solves: idea capture and version control.
ClickUp Docs sit inside the same space as tasks. I store:
- Idea Dump: half sentences that appear in grocery lines.
- Content Strategy notebook: pillar topics, keyword clusters, reader questions.
- Swipe file: headlines and phrases worth remixing.
Docs link to their tasks; when the task moves to Review, the linked Doc moves with it.
3. Custom Fields
What it solves: tracking details that do not fit default columns.
I add fields like:
- Stage owner: Writer, Editor, Designer.
- Content type: Blog, FAQ, Procedure, Release note.
- Compliance status: Needs review, Approved, Archived.
Custom Fields turn a plain task list into a lightweight CMS, perfect for teams that answer to marketing, legal, and engineering at the same time.
4. Automations
What it solves: repetitive clicks that drain focus.
On the free plan I run rules like:
- change status to Ready for Edit when the word count meets target;
- send an email twenty-four hours before any task labeled High Priority;
- add a Legal tag when a task enters the Compliance list.
The rules keep projects moving while I write.
5. Whiteboards
What it solves: messy brainstorming across note cards and sticky notes.
Whiteboards give me a blank canvas for:
- mind-mapping an article outline before it becomes a linear Doc;
- sketching a content calendar for next quarter;
- building a quick user-journey diagram for stakeholders.
Drag tasks onto the board, rearrange them, then jump back to List view without losing data.
Why These Features Help Technical and Healthcare Writers
- Single source of truth: drafts, references, reviewer comments, and final PDFs live in one workspace; no more digging through shared drives.
- Audit trail: Custom Fields and Automations record who approved each version and when, trimming audit prep time.
- Reviewer focus: Views let subject-matter experts filter tasks tagged Needs review, so they see only what requires attention.
ClickUp puts ideas, drafts, reviews, and deadlines in one place.
By leaning on Views, Docs, Custom Fields, Automations, and Whiteboards, you move from juggling three separate apps to running a single, visible workflow.
The payoff for you? Less time hunting files or nudging reviewers, more time writing clear, accurate content that ships on schedule.
Try building one ClickUp Space with these five features. Give it a week and watch your scattered projects line up.
