Want to get more done with less stress? Try Personal Kanban!
It’s not only more fun than a to-do list, it’s also more effective!
Personal Kanban is a really simple to use system that will help you get more done. It’s based off of the Kanban System, which was originally used by Toyota to increase efficiencies in automobile manufacturing, but is now used in technology and software development. Kanban is not just for businesses though. Personal Kanban can be used to organize your personal to-do’s, and you can even use it with your family to organize household chores. Personal Kanban can also be used to break down big projects into manageable chunks, so you can focus on the small steps to get a big project done.
In their book Personal Kanban, Jim Benson and Tonianne DeMaria Barry identify two basic rules for Personal Kanban.
Rule #1 — Visualize Your Work
Get your to-do list out of your head, because it’s easier to manage what you can see.
Rule #2 — Limit Your Work in Progress
Limit the number of tasks you do at one time to avoid overload.
What happens if you don’t setup Work In Progress Limits?
Rule #2 is essential for Personal Kanban to work. If you exceed the number of tasks you can handle at one time, you increase distractions, decrease focus, and end up leaving tasks unfinished. By trying to do more, you end up getting less done.
Why does Personal Kanban work so well?
- It helps you avoid trying to do too much at one time
- You get to experience a feeling of satisfaction when getting something done
- You are able to easily visualize all of your work, while not letting it overwhelm you
Here’s how you PREPARE for Personal Kanban.
Step 1 — Prepare Your Kanban Board
Grab some sticky notes and a marker, and find a prominent place to put your board. You can put it on a wall, a whiteboard, or just a large sheet of paper. Just make sure your Personal Kanban board is in a place that you are going to see it often.
Step 2 — Create Three Columns
Create a To-Do, In-Progress, and Done column.
Step 3 — Decide on your Work In Progress (WIP) Maximum
Write the number of tickets you will work on at one time on your In-Progress column as a reminder to not over-schedule yourself. A best practice is to limit your WIP to 3.
Now you are READY to starting using Personal Kanban.
Step 1 — Write down everything you want to accomplish on sticky notes
Don’t worry about limits here…just write down everything you can think of. You can always remove sticky notes later and add more as necessary. Put these sticky notes in the To-Do column.
Step 2 — Move some sticky notes to the In-Progress column to begin working on them, but do not exceed your WIP limit.
Step 3 — When you finish a task, move the sticky note to the Done column.
This is one of the cool things about Kanban. You get to physically move your To-Do from In-Progress to Done, and that actually gives you a dopamine rush. Dopamine is known as a “feel good” neurotransmitter because that’s what it does, it makes you feel good. That’s what makes Kanban fun, and encourages you to get the work done.
Don’t forget to reflect on how things are going
Everyone once in a while, look at your DONE column and reflect by asking yourself what went well, and what didn’t go well, and what would you do the same or differently in the future. This is called a retrospective. Retrospectives help you make small adjustments over time to improve how you are using Kanban and how you are getting the To-Do list done.
Other Tips
Break Down Bigger Tasks into Smaller Pieces
Write your bigger project on a big sticky note, and then use smaller sticky notes to break it up into smaller To-Do’s. You can then move one smaller To-Do at a time to In-Progress and eventually Done.
Recurring or Ongoing To-Do’s
Create sticky notes for habits or recurring to-do’s. As I’m training for a half marathon I have a schedule of runs I need to accomplish over time. I’ve fit that into my Personal Kanban system by creating a big sticky for the half-marathon goal, and then little sticky notes for each individual goal (# of miles to run) to prepare. I just move over each little sticky note at a time to the done column until my training is completed.
Personal Kanban is easy to setup, and it’s easy to get started. If you prefer to manage your Personal Kanban online, you can also try tools like Trello and KanbanFlow, that let you follow the Kanban principles in an online format. The great thing about Personal Kanban is that you can do it anywhere.
Resources
- Personal Kanban by Jim Benson and Tonianne DeMaria Barry
- Modus Institute — Personal Kanban
