A Life-Changing Time-Management System
Many systems have been create to save us from endless to-do lists, which turn jobs into a soulless assembly line.
One such system is the “Personal Kanban”.
Kanban (from Japanese: “billboard”) uses tickets that move with each product through a plant. Only a certain number of one type of ticket can be on a line at one time, and it must correspond to one specific car part.
James Benson adapted the system to reduce the “too many tasks on my mind” feeling, the biggest downside of our attempts to multitask. It works on two principles: visualize your work and limit your total number of “works in progress.”
Setting up a system is simple:
Set Up the Board Find a board with which you can use magnets, post-it notes, or thumbtacks. On it, create three columns: Options, Doing, and Done
Write Your Tasks Write your individual tasks down on separate cards. You might customize these tickets by urgency or type (perhaps personal or business) with colors or symbols. Post all of these cards in the “Options” column
Move the Cards In the “options” column you can see everything that’s on your list and assess what’s manageable or not. From that column, choose no more than three to move into the middle “Doing” column. These are the works in progress you will focus on in a timeframe of your choosing
Restart the Cycle When a task is complete, move it into the “Done” column, and choose a new option to pull into “Doing.” Studies have shown we get a dopamine kick from just saying the word “done.” “The act of completion is affirming in and of itself