The one about Kanban
How many of us wake up in the morning and think of all the things that need to get done?
A long to do list will ensue: drop the kids at school, get the garage door repaired, fill the car’s gas tank, grocery shop, learn a new programming language, prepare for a work or school presentation, and so on.
And how many of us get frustrated at the end of the week and realize that we could only complete some of the tasks?
Maybe we got busy with something important at work or new priorities came up or worse, we completely lost track of what we thought about at the beginning of the week.
We then aim to do a better job the following week and for the most part we do and feel accomplished. But this cycle of failure returns again some weeks later and we try other ways to keep things on track like creating to do lists or setting reminders.
What if we could become more efficient by adopting an easy to use approach that doesn’t let tasks feel like chores and brings active engagement by all team members or family members.
Let us introduce you to Kanban. Although it’s introduction was to improve the throughputs of processes in a Toyota Production System (TPS), it can be used anywhere. And we mean ANYWHERE.
Traditionally it’s a whiteboard (but could also be a chalk board or chart paper) with post-it notes with items categorized as:
- To Do
- In Progress
- Done
Kanbans provide a clear visual representation on where we are on the things we . To use it well, follow these basic guidelines:
- Create a flow of your activities: By writing activities on colorful post it notes (yellow for low priority, red for high priority, etc) and categorizing them, you will not only be better organized but also remember the tasks well. Also the Kanban can be the input into your iCal or family calendar for improved productivity.
- Setting limits: This is about defining thresholds on how many activities should be in a single category (ie: column). This is critical as you probably don’t have cycles to complete every activity in a single day so you should be realistic on what can be accomplished.
- Managing the flow: Tracking and updating the activities with deadlines and moving them across the categories will help identity any issues that need to be taken care of.
That’s all there is to it!
In our home we are big into digital Kanbans! There are many free online Kanbans boards you can use. Try a few here, here or here.
Have you used a Kanban board before?
What productivity tools do you use at home, school or work?
…let us know in the comments!
