You may or may not have heard of the Kanban Method - here’s an article that delves deeper. In short, your tasks are all visualized and move through a pipeline (To Do, Doing, Done), and it allows you to see the progress. Of course, that is a SUPER condensed version, but it’s the basic premise. Put another way: As you all know, I use Todoist to manage my tasks. Unfortunately, Todoist isn’t designed to work well with the Kanban method. There IS a Windows beta app, but I don’t use that platform. So, for this experiment, I had to move everything over to Trello. First, a few words on Trello. Trello is a project management site that relies on the Kanban method. You create a Trello board, which contains lists. Lists contain cards, and then cards can hold attachments, checklists, labels, can be assigned, etc. I very much enjoy Trello for a few uses - I use it as an editorial calendar for this blog, and for other projects that have lots of moving pieces. For this blog, for instance, I have a few lists, each representing the stage in the process a blog post goes through before you see it. Idea, then research, then writing, then editing & graphics, then scheduling to post, then social media, then done. The calendar function gives me a way to keep my blog posts on my calendar and to view right within Trello. Other project boards may have lists for pieces in research, in progress, waiting on client feedback, etc. I really like the visual layout, and that it doesn’t have a ton of bells and whistles. In fact, Trello is a free app and while they do offer paid versions, I’ve never found a need for anything past the free version. So, while I had used Trello before, I had not used it as a task manager. FULL DISCLOSURE: I was NOT excited to research this method and use it for every day tasks. In fact, I reconsidered more than once. I knew Kanban works wonders for projects, but for everyday tasks, well, I wasn’t seeing it. So, while I tried to go into it with an open mind, I also knew I had to stick with it. To set-up this method, I first created a Trello board, then added lists: To Do, Doing, Done. As I worked, I ended up adding two lists, Waiting and Recurring. Some items on my to do list I couldn’t do because I was waiting on others, and some tasks, when done, would need to actually go BACK to the To Do list. I also wasn’t about to move all my tasks from Todoist to Trello, so I needed IFTTT to help me out on this one. First, I set-up an applet so I could label a task and send it to the board (NOTE: when I first wrote of IFTTT, I called applets recipes, but IFTTT went through some major upgrades lately, and recipes are now called applets. You can read more about that here). I only labeled tasks that would be coming due during the time I was using this method. I then paused my Karma and turned off my badge notifications so I wouldn’t feel the need to keep multiple apps open. The second applet I set up was for any task added to the recurring list, a card would be created back on the to do list. This was for things I do every day or week; I like the sense of accomplishment of moving something to a Done list, so I didn’t want to just move it back to the To Do list. Setting up an applet takes two seconds, so it was worth it. Now that you know how I did it, let’s talk about how it worked for me. The first task I had was to call some local businesses to see if they had an item in stock. I had a picture of the item, so I added that to the card. Admittedly, I liked the visual aspect. The next thing I did was add a few of my original to do’s to the Waiting list - mailing a birthday card to my uncle, sending out invoices, announcing a new service…all things I just wasn’t ready to do yet. I sent an email to a company with a question, and moved that “Project” to the Doing list while I waited for a response. Then, I had to write a new contract for one of my clients. So, I moved that card to Doing, then got to work. When I finished, I moved it to the Done list. PROS
CONS
Overall, the Kanban method is worthwhile, and one I recommend if you’re a visual person. Some of the features I used in Trello also exist in Todoist, but I just hadn’t used them - I will be, moving forward. I do like it for project management, so I’ll stick to that, but I’ll be using something else for task management. Have you used the Kanban Method? Do you think I hit the nail on the head or did I miss something? Let me know! You can subscribe to my mailing list here. You can also follow me on Twitter or Pinterest. If you’re in need of a virtual operations manager, check out my FAQs or available services, then head over to my consultation page so we can connect.
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