The art of Kanban-ing for your life

For some odd reason, Kabnban-ing the things that I have to get me productive. I tried to understand why is that.

Here’s how my basic kanban-ing process work

• Gathering: There is a column (called backlog) where I put every idea I have and everything I want to do.
• Picking: From time to time (weekly/bi-weekly/monthly) I select a couple of things that I want to doing that period and move it to the Todo Column
• Executing: I focus on working on tasks that Are in the todo column during the period set
• Cleaning up: At the end of the period, from the new information I have, I clean up the backlog removing unnecessary tasks

Here are some notes on them

Gathering - A Continuous Process | Passive

• Every stupid idea that I have is always added.
• I used Google Keep to get quickly jot down any idea that I may have at a moment
• I have scheduled a timeslot in my calendar to move things to do from Google Keep to Notion

• Try and minimize adding additional things directly to Todo Column. You need to balance spontaneousness worked and organized work.
• Eg: If a new task can be done in the same context of the tasks that you have, then add it to todo. If it requires a different context, put it back into the backlog.
• Eg - You want to visit a new place in the same city that you are in, do it now. If it’s a completely different location then it needs to wait

Picking & Cleaning

• Usually picking and cleaning is done after an interval (ideally a set interval)
• Reflect on your past pickings, and understand what went write in your planning and what could have gone wrong in your planning. This is quite important as the art actually lies in the way you pick the things that you want to focus on
• In the task list, you should have only tasks - Not Goals (Maintain a separate board for this)
• Eg: Learning to draw - This is a bad task

Spending 1 hour learning to draw - This is a good task

• Your tasks need to be achievable. It can be challenging, but it shouldn't be too much challenging. if it’s too much challenging, break them into phases
• Break down the tasks as much as possible.
• You should be able to see continuous progress.
• If it’s a task that can get stuck, make sure to have more tasks set up to feed your momentum of executing
• Make sure to keep at least 50% of the tasks to be comfortable and easy to do. This is to feed in the momentum
• There should be enough challenging tasks too (requiring extra effort) - Having this balance ensures that you feel challenged on your tasks. This way, you’ll get a grip to continue the kanban process. If everything is simple and easy, then you’ll feel bored

Executing

• When you have a small list of things you need to do within a small period that you can mostly control (day/week/month) you can now focus on only those tasks.
• Any new tasks that you want to do belong to backlog if it would affect your task completion for that period.
• Monitor your progress. See if you are progressing or getting struck. If you are getting struck allocate some to get clarity. I would advise to write things down
• I am also mindful about getting into the state of flow when working on. a laptop. I’ll write about this in different note.
• When you get your mind not to focus on backlog and focus on todo you are drastically reducing the anxiety about the things that you want to do. This adds up a lot to your productivity
• When you progress continuously, getting small wins, you get into the momentum that will give you a big win in long run. This feeling of winning also adds a lot to your productiibty

Why Kanban Works

• It reduces distraction
• It reduces anxiety
• It gives you dopamine
• It easily gets you in a state of flow

Happy Kanban-ing 🔥