Retromat has a couple of neat features that are not exactly hidden, but not super obvious either. I’d like to share them with you, just in case there’s one you didn’t know.
0. Step through all activities in a phase with the arrows
For completeness sake, let’s start with the most obvious one. I won’t even count this as a trick – the arrows:
The arrows let you step through all activities in a given phase, because in the initial random plan the activtities will not all work together. Look for activities that fit with each other with the arrow. If you’re a beginner, try this plan.
1. Click on a phase’s name to see all its activities
The arrows are too slow? You want to quickly scan all activities in a phase? Just click the phase’s name.
2. Check out a single activity by clicking on its ID
Let’s say you want to share a single activity with a colleague: Click on its ID and voila 🙂
3. Click those buttons!
Noticed the row of buttons?
This one generates a new random plan:
It’s supposed to be a wheel of fortune, in case you were wondering.
And then there’s the search button:
It lets you search for a keyword or ID in titles, summaries and descriptions. If you enter more than one word any one of them is enough for a match. It’s an “or” search, not an “and” search.
As soon as you enter a number as part of your search term, you’ll get the activity of the same ID among the search results.
4. Change the ID to get the activities into a custom order
From the moment I first conceived Retromat I wanted plans to be easily shareable. That’s why each plan has an ID. And you can change the order of activities by changing the ID around. You can change the ID either in the browser’s URL field or by clicking into the Plan ID:
This comes in really handy, when you want to break out of the 5 phases. You see, Retromat is somewhat limited in that each activity can only belong to one phase, although many of them arguably fit into several. If you want to repurpose an activity for a different phase than the one I sorted it in, go ahead, change the IDs around and press enter!
5. Something completely different – An Easter Egg
There’s another way to forgo phases: Did you know that Retromat has a secret phase called “Something completely different”? You’ve got a 1 in 25 chance of getting a plan with just 1 single activity from this extra phase.
Wanna take a peak at these unconventional activities? Here’s a list of all activities in “Something completely different”. You’re welcome 😉
Were any of these new for you? Did I not mention something you would have liked to see? Tell me in the comments!