Bringing Clarity and Intentionality to Our Work

Neglect scales. It's all too easy to find ourselves drowning in tasks, emails, meetings, and general cognitive chaos. Even Tonianne and me. We will find, not infrequently, that work has snuck up on us. A task here, a commitment there. The next thing we know we are frustrated and snapping at each other.

Even years after writing Personal Kanban, we find ourselves having to stop, write down everything on our plate, and adjust. Is it because we are flawed? No. Is it because our tools don’t work?

No.

It’s because we are humans. The world will always change faster than we do. The difference is, Toni and I have strategies to quickly notice when we’ve taken on too much and readjust. Every time we do it, every single time, we feel the same relief and … embarrassment.

We are Human

The thing is, we fall into other traps that people do. We think we have more work than everyone else. We think other people’s work is easier than ours. We know this is flawed thinking, but it is a natural tendency.

That's why we’ve been so passionate about Personal Kanban and being able to see our work and our team’s work. We’ve had wonderful calls over the last few weeks, people coming to classes that we haven’t talked to in years. They are coming with stories of success we never even knew about. Unique and wonderful ways they and their teams have reclaimed focus and agency over their work.

They, too, had stories of starting to visualize their work, things getting better, then they hit a snag, and then they regrouped. There is a desire for the PK board to just work. As if it were some totem or magic object that would make everyone pay attention to everything all the time. But nothing can give you this power, what the boards and visual management do is increase your understanding of the underlying issues causing our overwhelm and lack of clarity.

The Personal Kanban board doesn’t stop you from needing to improve. It doesn’t magically improve you. It shows you where improvement or adjustment is necessary.

When We are Apart We Can Still Be Together

In our case, when we start to get edgy, we know there is something we are not visualizing. We cannot see our own Gemba.

The "gemba" - the actual place where the work happens - for us, because we are distributed across the planet, is our PK and our Obeya (where the PK and our other visualizations live). Creating visual models of our work, like the PK board with its "today" column for setting daily intentions, surfaces bottlenecks and constraints we may have been blind to before. Only by observing how people truly operate can we design systems that harmonize with reality rather than fighting against it.

At the heart of it all is bringing intentionality to how we take on work and spend our most precious resource - our undivided attention. We have near-daily collaborative working sessions that keep the team aligned on real problems, agree on immediate next steps, and get work done together. We use the PK and the visual tools to avoid getting mired in abstract conversations and stay focused on the work's true context.

Ultimately, our use of PK instills a sense of calm, creative flow in our daily efforts. By making our work tangible and limits visible, we can curb cognitively-destructive multitasking and enjoy focused progress. Instead of reacting constantly to new distractions, we become conscious choreographers of how we spend our time and energy.

Because, right now, our time and energy are seriously under attack.

If you haven’t already, I invite you to check out the Personal Kanban book ​or the PK class on Modus Institute. ​We also have several live classes scheduled in the upcoming months. Come join the conversation.

The Power of Personal Kanban: Achieving Work-Life Balance in Remote Work

hoto by Sebastian Pandelache on Unsplash | Commercial use allowed

Introduction: The Relevance of Personal Kanban in Remote Work

The rise of remote work has become a prevalent trend, especially with recent global events. As more individuals embrace this flexible work arrangement, it is crucial to address the challenges it presents, such as maintaining work-life balance and managing stress. This article explores the effectiveness of Personal Kanban in mitigating these challenges and improving productivity in remote work environments.

Remote work offers various benefits, including flexibility and increased autonomy. However, it also comes with its own set of challenges. Without the structure of a traditional office setting, it can be difficult to separate work and personal life, leading to longer working hours and heightened stress levels. Personal Kanban provides a practical solution to these challenges by helping individuals prioritize tasks, manage time effectively, and maintain a healthy work-life balance.

Understanding Personal Kanban

Personal Kanban is a visual system that originated from Toyota's production system and has been adapted for knowledge work. It is a method that focuses on making work visible and limiting work in progress (WIP) for individuals. By visualizing tasks on Kanban boards, individuals gain clarity and control over their work.

One of the key benefits of Personal Kanban is increased productivity. By limiting the number of tasks in progress, individuals can focus on completing one task at a time, reducing the tendency to multitask and increasing overall efficiency. Personal Kanban also improves focus by providing a visual representation of tasks and priorities. This visual system allows individuals to see their progress and identify any bottlenecks or inefficiencies in their workflow.

Personal Kanban also helps individuals manage their time effectively. By visualizing tasks and their respective deadlines, individuals can prioritize their work and allocate time accordingly. This prevents tasks from being forgotten or overlooked, leading to better time management and increased productivity.

The Impact of Personal Kanban on Work-Life Balance

Achieving work-life balance in a remote work setting can be challenging due to blurred boundaries and longer working hours.However, Personal Kanban can help individuals prioritize tasks, manage time effectively, and avoid multitasking, leading to a healthier work-life balance.

One way Personal Kanban promotes work-life balance is by encouraging individuals to set boundaries. By visualizing tasks and limits on the number of tasks in progress, individuals can better manage their workload and avoid overcommitting themselves. This allows for more realistic expectations and prevents work from spilling over into personal time.

Personal Kanban also facilitates the adoption of healthy habits and breaks. By visualizing tasks and their progress, individuals can better gauge their workload and identify opportunities for breaks. Taking regular breaks is essential for maintaining focus and preventing burnout, ultimately contributing to a healthier work-life balance.

Another key aspect of Personal Kanban that promotes work-life balance is the concept of limiting work-in-progress (WIP). By setting a maximum number of tasks that can be in progress at any given time, individuals are forced to prioritize their work and avoid becoming overwhelmed.This not only helps preserve thinking ability but also increases awareness of workload, allowing individuals to make informed decisions about their time and energy allocation.

Implementing Personal Kanban in Remote Work

Implementing Personal Kanban in a remote work environment requires careful consideration of various factors. Practical tips for successful implementation include determining the right tasks to work on, managing interruptions, and handling the expectations of others.

Determining the right tasks involves understanding priorities and aligning them with personal and professional goals. This requires a clear understanding of what needs to be accomplished and the impact it will have on work-life balance. By selecting the most important tasks and focusing on them, individuals can avoid becoming overwhelmed and maintain a healthy balance between work and personal life.

Managing interruptions is another challenge in remote work environments. With increased flexibility and autonomy, individuals may face more interruptions than in a traditional office setting. It is important to establish clear communication channels and boundaries with colleagues, clients, or family members to minimize interruptions and maintain focus on tasks.

Collaboration and transparency facilitated by Kanban software play a crucial role in remote work settings. Kanban tools allow individuals to collaborate with team members, share progress, and receive feedback in real-time. This not only enhances productivity but also promotes a sense of connection and teamwork, which is essential for maintaining motivation and work-life balance in a remote work environment.

Additionally, Personal Kanban can be combined with other productivity strategies, such as the Pomodoro Technique or the Getting Things Done method, to further enhance work-life balance. By incorporating these strategies into the Kanban workflow, individuals can optimize their time management and productivity, ultimately leading to a healthier work-life balance.

Case Studies and Success Stories

Real-life examples of individuals who have successfully implemented Personal Kanban in remote work can provide valuable insights. These individuals have experienced positive impacts on their work-life balance, stress management, and overall productivity. Their testimonials and quotes can serve as inspiration for others looking to implement Personal Kanban in their own remote work environments.

One such example is Sarah, a freelance graphic designer who struggled with work-life balance due to the unpredictable nature of her workload. By implementing Personal Kanban, Sarah was able to visualize her tasks, set priorities, and manage her time more effectively. That was the easy part. But the board also her to see the separations between work and personal life and the overlaps. Sara is a graphic designer and loves to design. She could see where her overwork was due to being enthusiastic, this allowed her to recognize the balance between that enthusiasm and the need for rest and recuperation (and paying attention to family).

Another example is John, a neurodivergent software developer who found it challenging to stay focused and avoid distractions while working remotely. By using a Personal Kanban board and limiting his work-in-progress, John was able to stay on track and complete tasks more efficiently because the definition of done and the definitions of what was required to be done were more apparent. This not only improved his work-life balance but also greatly improved his communication and collaboration with his team..

These case studies highlight the effectiveness of Personal Kanban in remote work environments and demonstrate how it can positively impact work-life balance. By implementing this visual system and adopting its principles, individuals can achieve a healthier balance between work and personal life, leading to increased productivity and overall well-being.

Tools and Resources for Personal Kanban in Remote Work

Various tools and resources are available for implementing Personal Kanban in remote work environments. Kanban software provides features that facilitate task management, reporting, and collaboration, making it an ideal choice for remote work settings. Project management platforms like Smartsheet can enhance Personal Kanban by offering additional functionalities, such as Gantt charts and resource allocation.

In addition to dedicated Kanban software, there are also digital tools and apps specifically designed for Personal Kanban. These tools offer a range of features, such as customizable boards, task tracking, and integration with other productivity tools. Individuals can choose based on their preferences and needs, whether they prefer a more minimalist interface or a comprehensive project management platform.

When selecting tools and resources for Personal Kanban in a remote work environment, it is important to consider factors such as ease of use, compatibility with existing systems, and scalability. It is also essential to prioritize data security and privacy, particularly when working with sensitive information.

Overcoming Challenges and Adapting Personal Kanban to Remote Work

Implementing Personal Kanban in a remote work setup may come with its own set of challenges. Effective communication, time management techniques, and flexibility are key strategies for overcoming these challenges.

Effective communication is essential for remote teams using Personal Kanban. Clear communication channels and regular check-ins can help team members stay aligned and informed about progress and priorities. This fosters collaboration and ensures that everyone is working towards common goals, ultimately contributing to a healthier work-life balance.

Time management techniques, such as setting realistic deadlines and breaking tasks into smaller subtasks, can help individuals better manage their workload and avoid becoming overwhelmed. By breaking tasks down into manageable chunks, individuals can maintain focus and make steady progress, ultimately leading to a healthier work-life balance.

Flexibility is also important when adapting Personal Kanban to remote work dynamics. Remote work often comes with unpredictable schedules and interruptions. Being flexible and adaptable allows individuals to adjust their Kanban practices to suit their unique circumstances and maintain work-life balance.

Conclusion: Empowering Work-Life Balance in Remote Work with Personal Kanban

Personal Kanban offers a practical and effective approach to enhancing work-life balance in remote work environments. By visualizing tasks, limiting WIP, and improving productivity, individuals can achieve a healthier balance between work and personal life. Prioritizing work-life balance and utilizing tools like Personal Kanban are essential for remote workers to thrive in their professional and personal lives. By implementing Personal Kanban and adopting its principles, individuals can navigate the challenges of remote work and achieve success while maintaining their well-being.

The Negative Weight of the Undone

Even though I have been using Personal Kanban for a number of years, even though I am fully aware that I have a limited amount of time to do stuff each day, even though I know overplanning each day is exactly what I am not supposed to be doing. I do that… pretty much every day.

And, like most people who keep a backlog or a ToDo list of some kind, I carry stuff from one day to the next. One of the reasons I bailed on GTD and switched to Personal Kanban was that I found I was spending so much time each day just changing due dates in Things for all my unfinished work.

BRING THE SHAME

So now I have this stuff and it just sits, in the backlog. For a while I used Trello and stuff would start to change color if it sat too long. Some kind of subtle visual cue to let me know I just wasn’t getting it done. <SHAME=”on”>  So, I’d just move the card up or down in the list and BANG! It’s like a shiny brand-new thing that hasn’t actually been sitting there for six weeks.

TASK BLINDNESS

Visualizing work is a big reason Personal Kanban works. Those visual cues can be very helpful. I noticed early on that there’d be stuff on my board that just sat. Sometimes things just sat because even though they seemed important enough to add, they ended up apparently not being compelling enough to spark action. (This includes the action of removing them from the board.) These cards end up just sitting there, taking up space. I stop noticing them when I look at the board.

But there were other things on the board. They started out as totally neutral, keep the lights on kinda stuff. They would bring me neither joy nor pain. Just stuff I had to do. And the longer those neutral things sat there, the less neutral they became. And the less neutral they became, the more ways I found to not be able to have time to do them.

YOUR BACKLOG IS MOCKING YOU

It’s kind of like that paper you had to write in high school. When the assignment was given, it wasn’t a big deal. It was something you figured you could knock out in an evening. And so you blew it off for a bit and let it sit, and the more it sat, the more it stressed you out. Like it was just sitting there mocking you and your total inability to get it done. And you start thinking if it is such a trivial thing, why haven’t I done it yet? And then “OMG IT MUST BE HUGE AND I DON’T HAVE TIME!” and then “I AM GOING TO TOTALLY FAIL” and then, you resign yourself to the fact that you will spend the rest of your days alone and unemployed… in Greenland!

And then it’s really hard to get started.

THE NEGATIVE WEIGHT

The longer I let those little innocuous things sit on my board, the more negative weight they have. The more negative weight they have, the more time I spend making sure I don’t get them done… which adds to the weight. It’s a nice little vicious circle of psychological anti-productivity.

THE QUESTIONS TO ASK

So, even though it is not a visual cue, I do have to question myself about this each day when I look at my board.

• Where are the term papers I am avoiding?

• How am I avoiding them?

• Why am I avoiding them?

PRIORITIZATION BY RESISTANCE

This has led me to one of my prioritization patterns. Prioritization by Resistance. Some days (especially Sunday), I have to prioritize to do the things I want to do the least first. That way, each thing done offers two rewards. The first is a decent reduction in stress because I have one less negative weight thing to worry about. The second is that because I am doing the thing I want to do the least first, everything I am about to do is always going to bring more joy (or just suck less) than what I am doing now.

The Other Side of Focus

The “Focus” I wanted

When I started using Personal Kanban what I was looking for was a system to help me get more things done. I wanted something to focus my time and energy so I could DO MORE THINGS and squeeze more productivity out of every single minute. We’re all only on this planet for a short period of time… I felt like my job was to get as many things done as I possibly could. 

When I started, I asked a colleague of mine to act as my coach. What I was looking for was someone I could trust to hold up the mirror when need be and someone who be willing to call me out on stuff when I cheated because I know myself well enough to know that there was a 100% chance that would happen. 

The “Focus” I got

Maybe If I had started following other productivity systems with the aid of a coach they would have worked better for me, but maybe not. I can say that having someone act as a coach for me as I got started with Personal Kanban was a big part of why it had such a huge impact on me. In addition to creating a board and working the items on it, the person coaching me asked me to do a few other things. One of the things he asked me to do was to sign up for a happiness tracking tool that would ping me throughout the day to ask me what I was doing and assess how much joy it was bringing me.  He also asked me to make notes about how I was working. I started keeping notes about what things I was getting done each day and what I was not getting done each day. 

What I found was that the things I felt I needed to “focus” on the most were often not really that important and were being done at the expense of things that were either more important (like things that had a deadline or dependency) and things that didn’t look important but were critical to self-care and maintenance (like playing guitar and meditation). 

I think this was maybe the first massive epiphany I got from using PK… learning that it wasn’t really that I wasn’t focused… I’m actually pretty good at being focused. The issue was that I was focused on things that were not the most important things. 

The “Focus” I have now

I’ve been working with Personal Kanban for almost 10 years.  I tend to think of this as a practice, not a thing I do. In the same way that I have a meditation practice. There is no end goal… just an evolving, learning engagement. The way I practice Personal Kanban has changed a lot over the years and the way I do it now is very different from how I started. At some point along the way, my idea of “focus” changed as well. While I started with a “focus” on getting things done, what  I am focused on now is deepening my understanding of how I work, the choices I make, and why I am doing what I do. Instead of “how do I get more done?” I’m curious about why certain things do and don’t get done. Little by little, I am getting better at letting the board teach me ways to be better at working.

The Collaboration Equation Pre Sale is Out!

Ready for Presale!

After years in the making, I’m proud to announce the newest book The Collaboration Equation is currently in pre-order and fully ready for a September 2022 release!