Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life

The TODAY column shows us the difference between what we want to do each day and what we can actually achieve. It shows us how we fall short of our daily goal. Once we understand our actual daily capability, we can set more realistic goals at the beginning of the day, and end the day feeling we’ve been effective.

Life is not like that. It is variable. It changes whether we plan for it or not. Our systems need to be flexible to adapt to this variation.

As existential overhead mounts, our effectiveness diminishes. Visualizing work reduces the distractions of existential overhead by transforming fuzzy concepts into tangible objects that your brain can easily grasp and prioritize.

Each time we move a sticky note, we receive kinesthetic feedback: the tactile action is both a data point and a reward. A regular succession of these movements creates a cadence, a rhythm of work.

To-do lists: the last bastion for the organizationally damned. They’re the embodiment of evil. They possess us and torment us, controlling what we do, highlighting what we haven’t. They make us feel inadequate, and dismiss our achievements as if they were waste.

“We find outstanding professionals, and we give them the freedom and support to do what they do best”

It lurks behind every accomplishment, insisting No time to celebrate, you’ve got so much more to do!

The only way out is “through.” Often, you can’t delegate, procrastinate, or ignore personal work.

Without visualizing our work, we don’t see the number of incomplete tasks we’ve amassed. This makes it nearly impossible to understand just how many incomplete tasks remain. Our brains hate this because our brains crave closure. No really, they do! Soviet psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik found that the human brain needs closure. This phenomenon—known a

It’s helpful to feature a RETROSPECTIVE column as the final column of your Personal Kanban. As tasks are cleared from DONE, put them in the RETROSPECTIVE column. At the beginning or end of each week hold a retrospective and quickly examine completed tasks. Acknowledge what went well and what could be improved next time. Celebrate victories. Learn f