I use a large 36” x 24” whiteboard to keep track of all my work projects – I use the personal Kanban Method to manage this. Actually, the personal Kanban is a pattern – there is no set method and it is highly customizable.
It is simply a (highly organized and effective) management system to take care of your to-dos. The reason why it works so well for me is that it gives you a visual representation of your running tasks and your progress – kind of like a “tasks at a glance” system. It has its roots in the Kanban method used by lean manufacturing industries, specifically the auto manufacturing industry, which was developed by Taiichi Ohno, an industrial engineer at Toyota.
Let me show you how to do it:
First of all, you need a place to layout and arrange your tasks. You can use a wall, a window, a board, anything that you can quickly refer to. Keep in mind that this has to be in a spot you can easily see and access.
Then you divide the board into “actions”. A basic board has three actions: To-do, Doing, Done. You can get creative on the titles…here are some suggestions:
● To-Do: Backlogs, plans, to execute etc.
● Doing: In-progress, on-going, etc.
● Done: Finished, Ended, Completed
To-Do:
These are the set of tasks that you aren’t currently working on but need to get done at some point. Move them to the doing list once you start on them.
Doing:
These are the tasks you are actively and currently working on. If you want to level up your personal Kanban skills, you can color code them according to project or according to priority. When you finish a task, you have the satisfaction of moving them to your done list.
Done:
This is obviously where you move your completed tasks to. Seeing how much you’ve accomplished is the most gratifying part of the personal Kanban method. I use a color-coded post-it system and it gives me great fulfillment to see how many cards I was able to move in a given time frame.
Two “rules”
The personal Kanban method is highly customizable but there is a framework to it – rules if you might say.
1. Visualise your work – this is why I highly recommend that your personal kanban space be a space you can easily see and access. My board hangs on a wall right beside my office desk. Post-its, magnets, and whiteboard markers are easily accessible in an organizer right beside it so that I can easily write down important points like notes, deadlines, and other needed assets.
2. Limit your work in progress (WIP) – Don’t try to do too many things all at once. The personal Kanban is all about prioritization. If everything is a priority, then nothing is…you get me?
You can set up a personal Kanban manually by using whiteboards and other surfaces (walls, windows, cork boards, etc) or you can use web apps (Trello, ZenKit, Asana, Plutio, etc.)
If you want to implement the personal Kanban, here are some further readings to check out:
● The Personal Kanban Blog
● Personal Kanban 101
● Personal Kanban on Facebook
● Personal Kanban In a Nutshell by Jurgen de Smet and Erik Talboom
● Udemy: Getting Started with Personal Kanban
● The Evils of Multi-Tasking and How Personal Kanban Can Help you
● Personal Kanban Gallery
Do you use this method? Care to share your success story using the personal Kanban method? Stay humble, hustle hard!
Written by Jaie O. The Help