All Entries in the "Primers" Category
Boosting Productivity and Learning with Spikes
Is there something you don’t know? Almost everyday it seems we are faced with having to learn something new. Some of those things are trivial and easy to accomplish, while others are important and a more than a little daunting to master. There are some easy steps to make learning less overwhelming. On the Lean [...]
Rapture – Training Your Mind for Completion
Don’t strain your brain, paint a train You’ll be singing’ in the rain… – Blondie Your brain is a muscle. As we repeat certain actions, our “muscle memory” becomes comfortable with those actions, and programs itself to anticipate them. As it trains itself to anticipate them, it optimizes for them. This is the basis of [...]
Save the Date! Jim Benson Featured Guest on Yi-Tan Call
Save the date! Monday, January 4th at 10:30 PST/1:30 PM EST for the weekly 40-minute Yi-Tan Tech Community call hosted by Jerry Michalski and Pip Coburn. The topic? Personal Kanban, of course! Call, listen, and chat with Jim Benson (@ourfounder on Twitter) as he discusses: Why we stress over the tasks we are confronted with; [...]
Tools Talk: Julia Child Understood the Nature of Work
While expertise, good humor, humanity, and care are words that immediately come to mind when describing Julia Child, the iconic chef personified something else – she understood the nature of her work. She recognized the role it played, the value it brought, the actions involved in creating it, and the opportunity costs in choosing certain [...]
Towards a Leaner Santa: Holiday “Do” Date-ban
Chalk it up to a decade with the nuns and my time as a Girl Scout (always be prepared!), but I obsess over details. Having my “stuff” in one bag or my proverbial ducks in a row is how I delude myself into thinking I can make sense of my universe. Still, I spend many [...]
WIP can be Imposed
Please don’t feel bad if you find you’ve lost control of your WIP. The two rules of Personal Kanban: 1. Visualize Your Work 2. Limit WIP With a little practice, #1 becomes easy…second nature, even. Number 2 is, well, pretty much a bitch to master. It is better stated as a goal. On a good [...]
InfoPak 3 – Personal Kanban Design Patterns: Inspiration to Discover Your Flow
Info Pak3 Personal Kanban Design Patterns View more documents from Jim Benson. Modus Cooperandi is pleased to announce the release of its third Personal Kanban InfoPak. In Personal Kanban Design Patterns: Inspiration to Discover Your Flow we present a series of patterns for individuals as well as for small “teams.” Among the topics discussed: approaches [...]
Undertow and Churn: Workflow isn’t Always Linear
In Personal Kanban, our primary step is to define our workflow. Workflows tend to be linear, and often look like this: Waiting –>Doing–>Done or Outline –> Pre-writing –> Draft –> Edit –> Final Draft or Backlog –> Coding –> Testing –> Integration –> Release Unfortunately, life isn’t always that straightforward. A few weeks ago on Twitter, [...]
Getting “Personal” with Your Kanban
So why call it “personal” if I can use it with my family, in the classroom, or with a team at the office? In life and in business, we create value. For Personal Kanban, “personal” relates to personal value. Personal Kanban tracks and visualizes items of personal value – tasks, work, and goals. Industrial-style kanban [...]
Save the Date…for a Tweet-a-ban!
When: November 17, 2009 Where: Twitter Hashtag: #pkflow Save the date because Modus Cooperandi is hosting a “Tweet-a-ban.” Whether you’re a Personal Kanban practitioner or just have an interest in improving your productivity, join in on the asynchronous, 24 hour long global conversation. For details click here. Share this postBloglinesDiggdel.icio.usFacebookFurlStumbleUpon
