A breakthrough system to improve focus, develop productive habits, and maximize willpower—in 5 minutes a day
Visualize your work and limit your workin-
progress (WIP)
Kanban—or a kanban board—is a visual and kinesthetic representation
of your work.
Kanban is superior to traditional To-Do lists because it:
provides context.
visually highlights tradeoffs between choosing one item over
another.
lets you physically “move” items throughout your workflow (instead of
just checking them off a To-Do list, never to be seen again).
Kanban is also excellent for identifying bottlenecks—so you can
constantly improve your processes.
A simple kanban includes four columns:
Backlog
To-Do
Doing
Done
Let’s review each column.
Backlog: This is your brain dump. The goal is to empty your mind—a
tactic David Allen uses in his book, Getting Things Done—and get every
idea in your backlog. Don’t worry if your idea seems ridiculous; if you’re
thinking about flinging custard at a duck, just add it your backlog—and
empty your mind.
To-Do: This is stuff you’re going to do, just not right now. Cards in your
To-Do column are items you’ve pulled from your backlog that you plan to
complete in the near future; think of your backlog as your “maybe” pile,
and your To-Do column as your “someday” pile.
Doing: These are items you’re currently working on. In Kanban terms,
this is referred to as your work-in-progress (WIP). It’s good to limit your
WIP; I suggest starting with 2–3 items. So, if you move another item into
your “Doing” column (and exceed your limit of three), move one of the
existing items back to the “To-Do” column. This is subtle, but powerful:
limiting your WIP forces you to see what you’re working on, what
you’re not, and the tradeoffs of doing so.
