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Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life
Individuals work in teams to create value. This is the Collaboration Equation. Professionals act with confidence . The By their very design, the organizations we work for destroy confidence. They run on systems and processes that starve professionals of information, direction, psychological safety, and purpose, causing even the most talented individuals to question themselves and their decisions. They drift and become alienated, inevitably turning to structures that force competent and thoughtful people to wait for direction which never comes. Whether virtually or in real life, we isolate workers in cubicles, teams into silos, and decisions into oblivion. This way of working…is not working. The The Collaboration Equation draws from a lifetime of building collaborative systems, helping individuals be professionals, teams take pride in their work, and companies be resilient. This dynamic guide to working together shares insightful case studies, practical coaching, and helps readers build a real culture, design real processes, and to create real collaborative systems that people enjoy working in. You will be able to build visual systems where people can see their work . You will be able to create cultures with a “Right Environment” so they can mind their system . And you will create an organization where your individuals truly work in teams to create value . Your professionals, your company, and you will act with confidence.
Without fail, every well-run endeavor has involved collaboration . Every real collaboration creates and maintains its own clarity. Every real collaboration has psychological safety. Every real collaboration has fearlessly shared leadership. Every real collaboration has the guts to work for real success. Individuals in teams create value. Every successful team I have ever seen operated as a team . Every successful team I have ever seen had individual professionals behaving professionally. Every successful team I have ever seen knew what success looked like . They made their quest for success visual, they talked about it regularly, their opinions were respected, and their actions were appreciated. Practical collaborative work creates its own rewards, its own psychological safety, its own agency, and its own quality control. Intentional collaboration creates a right environment where all professionals can operate to their highest potential. Professional collaboration abhors defects, hidden issues, and poor communication. In business, we have a choice; we can make things better or we can languish is costly mediocrity. Sometimes the paths to better look blocked by immovable objects, but there are no immovable objects in the universe. Everything has a lever, everything has a button. Collaboration finds the irresistible force. The fact is most businesses today are in the business of making just enough money to sustain their internal waste and maybe a little bit more. They make terrible decisions, build structures that invite bickering and impedance, and bring in new professionals with great promises that have poorly attempted delivery. Most businesses, but not all.
Without fail, every well-run endeavor has involved collaboration . Every real collaboration creates and maintains its own clarity. Every real collaboration has psychological safety. Every real collaboration has fearlessly shared leadership. Every real collaboration has the guts to work for real success. Individuals in teams create value. Every successful team I have ever seen operated as a team . Every successful team I have ever seen had individual professionals behaving professionally. Every successful team I have ever seen knew what success looked like . They made their quest for success visual, they talked about it regularly, their opinions were respected, and their actions were appreciated. Practical collaborative work creates its own rewards, its own psychological safety, its own agency, and its own quality control. Intentional collaboration creates a right environment where all professionals can operate to their highest potential. Professional collaboration abhors defects, hidden issues, and poor communication. In business, we have a choice; we can make things better or we can languish is costly mediocrity. Sometimes the paths to better look blocked by immovable objects, but there are no immovable objects in the universe. Everything has a lever, everything has a button. Collaboration finds the irresistible force. The fact is most businesses today are in the business of making just enough money to sustain their internal waste and maybe a little bit more. They make terrible decisions, build structures that invite bickering and impedance, and bring in new professionals with great promises that have poorly attempted delivery. Most businesses, but not all.
216 pages, Paperback
First published January 3, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 227 reviews
June 28, 2012
My wife is a life-long devotee of Franklin Planners and that has worked well for her, but I've never done well with to-do lists. Since reading this book I've started using a personal Kanban to manage my work at the office and after 3 weeks I now understand why to-do lists never worked for me. My problem is that I can think of 10 things I want to do for every 1 thing I have time to do. With a simple to-do list I soon become overwhelmed by tasks and eventually give up. The Kanban approach allows me to enter all of my tasks in my backlog, and then helps me focus on those tasks that are truly a high priority right now. It also gives me the opportunity at the end of each week to see that I really have accomplished something.
If you only have time to read a little bit, read Chapter 2 and then try creating your own Kanban. The remaining chapters are helpful but not critical, and you can scan them as needed when you have a specific problem you want help with.
If you only have time to read a little bit, read Chapter 2 and then try creating your own Kanban. The remaining chapters are helpful but not critical, and you can scan them as needed when you have a specific problem you want help with.
October 15, 2015
This book describes how the practice of kanban can be applied to personal projects and small teams. I would highly recommend that you look into kanban and to start experimenting with it.
Kanban is simply the visualization of your tasks, and commonly uses a whiteboard with post-it notes. A very basic structure is to divide your whiteboard into 3 columns:
Backlog | Doing | Done
(The book replaces "Backlog" with Ready, and suggests keeping a separate backlog elsewhere)
Using post-it notes, you populate your backlog with tasks you need to get done. When you decide to work on a task, you move it to Doing and work on it (I have a post-it note with "Review Personal Kanban book" in my Doing column as I write this).
Once you've completed your task, you move it to Done and work on the next task.
The book stresses on the importance of keeping your kanban practice flexible and that the system has only 2 rules:
1- Visualize your work
2- Limit your WIP (work in progress, i.e. what you put in your Doing column)
This helps you focus on the task you're currently working on, prevents you from feeling overwhelmed, and can see your accomplishments at the end of the day (with all the post-its populating the Done column). You can add additional columns for greater clarity (such as This Week and Today). You can even map out an entire workflow, if the work you do requires the same process (e.g. Design > Develop > Test > Deploy).
There are lots of useful insights in the book, but it loses a star for being unnecessarily verbose.
I would also recommend you check out the following 2 Slideshare presentations to get you started quickly with kanban:
1- Personal Kanban 101 (by the author of the book): http://www.slideshare.net/ourfounder/...
2- Kanban Boards Step-by-Step (lots of great examples of different boards and elements you can add to your board): http://www.slideshare.net/ourfounder/...
I started using a kanban board yesterday, and it feels incredible. I've customized my board and will continue to experiment with it in the days ahead.
So far I've added to Doing: Now (the single task I'm doing right now) | Next | Today | This Week | Routines.
I've also added a table to Done that indicates the number of pomodori (i.e. 25min work sessions) a task took: < 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | > 3
I'll be dividing my Backlog based on different life areas, projects, and activities, but I'm keeping the structure simple for now, and will develop it with time so I don't allow tinkering with my systems to get in the way of actual work.
Looks like it's time to move another task to the Done column. :)
Kanban is simply the visualization of your tasks, and commonly uses a whiteboard with post-it notes. A very basic structure is to divide your whiteboard into 3 columns:
Backlog | Doing | Done
(The book replaces "Backlog" with Ready, and suggests keeping a separate backlog elsewhere)
Using post-it notes, you populate your backlog with tasks you need to get done. When you decide to work on a task, you move it to Doing and work on it (I have a post-it note with "Review Personal Kanban book" in my Doing column as I write this).
Once you've completed your task, you move it to Done and work on the next task.
The book stresses on the importance of keeping your kanban practice flexible and that the system has only 2 rules:
1- Visualize your work
2- Limit your WIP (work in progress, i.e. what you put in your Doing column)
This helps you focus on the task you're currently working on, prevents you from feeling overwhelmed, and can see your accomplishments at the end of the day (with all the post-its populating the Done column). You can add additional columns for greater clarity (such as This Week and Today). You can even map out an entire workflow, if the work you do requires the same process (e.g. Design > Develop > Test > Deploy).
There are lots of useful insights in the book, but it loses a star for being unnecessarily verbose.
I would also recommend you check out the following 2 Slideshare presentations to get you started quickly with kanban:
1- Personal Kanban 101 (by the author of the book): http://www.slideshare.net/ourfounder/...
2- Kanban Boards Step-by-Step (lots of great examples of different boards and elements you can add to your board): http://www.slideshare.net/ourfounder/...
I started using a kanban board yesterday, and it feels incredible. I've customized my board and will continue to experiment with it in the days ahead.
So far I've added to Doing: Now (the single task I'm doing right now) | Next | Today | This Week | Routines.
I've also added a table to Done that indicates the number of pomodori (i.e. 25min work sessions) a task took: < 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | > 3
I'll be dividing my Backlog based on different life areas, projects, and activities, but I'm keeping the structure simple for now, and will develop it with time so I don't allow tinkering with my systems to get in the way of actual work.
Looks like it's time to move another task to the Done column. :)
June 6, 2012
As a consultant, I want the flexibility to adapt my work to take advantage of opportunities that might arise in a given week–to write an article or blog post, or to propose a project to a new client. And, while I try to plan a week’s worth work, I need the flexibility to adapt my work on the fly. I work in small chunks, finishing work. I like seeing completed work. I have a great sense of accomplishment when I see completed work.
Sure, if I have the flu or a tough vertigo attack that lasts a while where I don’t have enough slack to absorb too many “incomings,” I become overwhelmed. But I can generally manage my work. I can maintain a sustainable pace.
I tried to explain to my system to some of my executive coaching clients, but it wasn’t until I read Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life by Jim Benson and Tonianne DeMaria Barry that I had the words, and clearer definitions for what I was doing. Before I read the book, I didn’t know about “The Pen.”
The Pen is the place where you corral all those call-backs that can pile up. IMNHO, The Pen is a magnificent invention! It gives me the transparency I need to see that the people I need to talk to are–or are not!–calling me back, so I can decide what to do about it. If the plumber is not calling back, I might make one decision. If a potential client is not calling, I might make another decision. What’s key is that I have all the data literally at my fingertips.
What’s great about personal kanban is that I see all my work. I use it along with one-week iterations so I can track the work I don’t do. That’s how I knew it was time to ask for help in redoing my web site. It was clear to me that “redo my site” was going to stay in “ready” and never move into “doing”.
When I read this book, I kept nodding, saying, “Yes, that’s exactly how I work! That’s how I think! Why are Jim and Tonianne in my head? At least, they are doing a good job there.”
Jim and Tonianne have written a conversational, wonderful book to help you understand how to move away from todo lists to a system that helps you see your context, your work, and your work in progress.
Personal kanban has two rules: visualize your work and limit your work in progress. That’s it. Personal kanban is the way I manage my personal project portfolio. Try it for yours.
Sure, if I have the flu or a tough vertigo attack that lasts a while where I don’t have enough slack to absorb too many “incomings,” I become overwhelmed. But I can generally manage my work. I can maintain a sustainable pace.
I tried to explain to my system to some of my executive coaching clients, but it wasn’t until I read Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life by Jim Benson and Tonianne DeMaria Barry that I had the words, and clearer definitions for what I was doing. Before I read the book, I didn’t know about “The Pen.”
The Pen is the place where you corral all those call-backs that can pile up. IMNHO, The Pen is a magnificent invention! It gives me the transparency I need to see that the people I need to talk to are–or are not!–calling me back, so I can decide what to do about it. If the plumber is not calling back, I might make one decision. If a potential client is not calling, I might make another decision. What’s key is that I have all the data literally at my fingertips.
What’s great about personal kanban is that I see all my work. I use it along with one-week iterations so I can track the work I don’t do. That’s how I knew it was time to ask for help in redoing my web site. It was clear to me that “redo my site” was going to stay in “ready” and never move into “doing”.
When I read this book, I kept nodding, saying, “Yes, that’s exactly how I work! That’s how I think! Why are Jim and Tonianne in my head? At least, they are doing a good job there.”
Jim and Tonianne have written a conversational, wonderful book to help you understand how to move away from todo lists to a system that helps you see your context, your work, and your work in progress.
Personal kanban has two rules: visualize your work and limit your work in progress. That’s it. Personal kanban is the way I manage my personal project portfolio. Try it for yours.
June 14, 2018
Wish I had checked the reviews more thoroughly:
Go read a blog post, people.
waaaaaay too long - could have been condensed to 5 pages ..maybe 6 if they wanted to go into details - Radu
Not a bad technique but feels like a blog post with lots of filler - José
A quick, not upleasant read.
If you're basically familiar with the idea of a Kanban board for managing work, the entire content of the book could fit on one good 8.5 x 11" page.
- Alex French
Go read a blog post, people.
June 20, 2017
2.5 stars
November 26, 2017
This book did not work for me. I had recently become interested in Kanban and read this book along with a selection of others on the subject. I like to immerse myself in a subject and get a well rounded view. Also, as a GTD user of over 10 years I could see that Personal Kanban could plug a few holes in GTD. so far so good.
Unfortunately the execution of this book missed the mark for me.
Firstly it seems bizarre that a book that constantly pushes the benefits of visualisation does so little to show us what the technique looks like. Early on there is a lot of philosophising but very little to show you what Kanban can and might look like. Theres a lot of sell, sell, sell but very little tell, tell, tell. Examples are shoved to the appendix and the illustration of one in particular is so small and useless (and badly explained) that I found it very frustrating.
Secondly there’s the rather irritating instances where ideas are introduced only to be shot down. If you don’t think Covey’s Urgent/Important quadrant is useful then why are you wasting my time with it? If you think a study on students deadlines is nonsense (without a similar study to refute it, by the way) why are you talking about it? There is a place for this kind of thing, but how about getting me on board with your argument before shooting down other people’s work?
All the way through this I just kept thinking - why won’t you get to the point?
I think the technique is interesting, and I intend to use it. But coming out with a book with large amounts of padding and little in the way of practical advice isn’t helping anyone.
Unfortunately the execution of this book missed the mark for me.
Firstly it seems bizarre that a book that constantly pushes the benefits of visualisation does so little to show us what the technique looks like. Early on there is a lot of philosophising but very little to show you what Kanban can and might look like. Theres a lot of sell, sell, sell but very little tell, tell, tell. Examples are shoved to the appendix and the illustration of one in particular is so small and useless (and badly explained) that I found it very frustrating.
Secondly there’s the rather irritating instances where ideas are introduced only to be shot down. If you don’t think Covey’s Urgent/Important quadrant is useful then why are you wasting my time with it? If you think a study on students deadlines is nonsense (without a similar study to refute it, by the way) why are you talking about it? There is a place for this kind of thing, but how about getting me on board with your argument before shooting down other people’s work?
All the way through this I just kept thinking - why won’t you get to the point?
I think the technique is interesting, and I intend to use it. But coming out with a book with large amounts of padding and little in the way of practical advice isn’t helping anyone.
August 2, 2015
This is the best personal productivity book I've read since Getting Things Done. It is my new favourite. I really like the emphasis on sticking to a few simple principles and designing and continuously improving your own system around them.
November 1, 2014
I have been experimenting with the Personal Kanban approach for a few months now. All in all it constitutes an important improvement over my previous to-do list-driven routine. I feel I am now managing the balance between short term and longer term goals much more effectively. This book was a lucid and rousing introduction to the approach. I found the authors’ tone of voice very sympathetic: informal but not brazen, inspirational but not overblown. Some reviewers are of the opinion that the book could have been much shorter. But I find there is very little fat in this book. It is important to understand the principles behind the approach in order to implement it effectively. Also the book is only a starting point. As experience with the method grows one can shape it according to one’s own needs. I keep returning to this guide to verify whether my evolving practice adheres to Personal Kanban’s core principles. Recommended without reserve to all to-do list aficionados.
March 12, 2023
Quick to read and interesting in many ideas it explores and cites, but also the type of productivity philosophy book that tries to sell its product at all costs.
I very much liked its perspective in its foundational ideas on recognizing the human need of slack time and the examples and comparisons were easily relatable and understandable. On the other hand, it lacks (on purpose) specific guidance on certain crucial topics, like how to prioritize your work or how to track different projects at a time — instead, it provides examples of how some people have approached these things and possible "variations" of the Personal Kanban approach. Also, I didn't like the buzzword-oriented discourse it sometimes has (all those mentions to kaizen are pretty much irrelevant to me) but still it's a book you can learn a lot from.
I recommend this book as an inspiration on how you could approach organising your work in a mentally healthy manner.
I very much liked its perspective in its foundational ideas on recognizing the human need of slack time and the examples and comparisons were easily relatable and understandable. On the other hand, it lacks (on purpose) specific guidance on certain crucial topics, like how to prioritize your work or how to track different projects at a time — instead, it provides examples of how some people have approached these things and possible "variations" of the Personal Kanban approach. Also, I didn't like the buzzword-oriented discourse it sometimes has (all those mentions to kaizen are pretty much irrelevant to me) but still it's a book you can learn a lot from.
I recommend this book as an inspiration on how you could approach organising your work in a mentally healthy manner.
November 21, 2014
This is a decent read on how to apply the Kanban system to your personal workflow, especially considering that when I first heard about Kanban and went to look for books on it, all I could find came out of lean manufacturing. Most helpful in this book are the two simple rules - visualize your work and limit your work-in-progress.
The second most useful part of the book are the examples of how people have made personal Kanban work for them.
Less useful were the chapters trying to make Kanban different from Covey or to-do lists. The authors attempt to villainize both, perhaps in an effort to make you think their system is the only system, but I use Kanban alongside Covey thinking and to-do lists and don't find them to be in conflict at all. Those two chapters were unnecessary, as were several others that merely repeated the concepts and the fuzzy illustrations found earlier in the book.
Still, I'm a fan of Kanban and use it to manage my group of Outreach librarians, and wanted to see what they had to say about using it for personal workflow.
In the end they do dip into group workflow as well, especially near the end. I liked the idea of using Kanban to handle an emergency situation, and that is something I'll file away for the next situation that damages library materials.
The second most useful part of the book are the examples of how people have made personal Kanban work for them.
Less useful were the chapters trying to make Kanban different from Covey or to-do lists. The authors attempt to villainize both, perhaps in an effort to make you think their system is the only system, but I use Kanban alongside Covey thinking and to-do lists and don't find them to be in conflict at all. Those two chapters were unnecessary, as were several others that merely repeated the concepts and the fuzzy illustrations found earlier in the book.
Still, I'm a fan of Kanban and use it to manage my group of Outreach librarians, and wanted to see what they had to say about using it for personal workflow.
In the end they do dip into group workflow as well, especially near the end. I liked the idea of using Kanban to handle an emergency situation, and that is something I'll file away for the next situation that damages library materials.
March 11, 2021
Great book on Kanban. Very accessible and approachable. Nothing is too jargon heavy or jargon specific about kanban, or software development. I think some of the metaphors, while applicable, didn't merit the best writing (like giving your dog chocolate cereal?) but the metaphor itself holds up as a solid explanation of WIP.
April 2, 2020
Really good ideas to decrease the level of stress and lift happiness.
February 5, 2017
Good stuff! I prefer lightweight frameworks to the Franklin-Covey behemoth, so a flexible system with only 2 hard and fast rules (1: visualize your work; 2: limit work-in-progress) is appealing to me. The appendix lists a few variations people have applied to the basic framework, but I would've liked more detail on those.
January 9, 2019
Personal Kanban is a board that could help you plan, monitor and execute tasks that are in front of you.
Merging personal and work plans could be useful because items on plans could be dependent. Like living healthy, what could be item from personal plan, but “reducing stress” could be part of work plan that will help you achive living healthy.
Board could be physical or virtual with at least three columns Ready, Doing, Done. “Doing” column have limit on number of items under it (Work in progress) that will be determined during the time.
Perform occasionally (once per month) retrospective to check what was done so that you could inspect is there any place for improvement of flow or anything else that will improve your productivity.
Merging personal and work plans could be useful because items on plans could be dependent. Like living healthy, what could be item from personal plan, but “reducing stress” could be part of work plan that will help you achive living healthy.
Board could be physical or virtual with at least three columns Ready, Doing, Done. “Doing” column have limit on number of items under it (Work in progress) that will be determined during the time.
Perform occasionally (once per month) retrospective to check what was done so that you could inspect is there any place for improvement of flow or anything else that will improve your productivity.
August 23, 2012
Personal Kanban is the McGuffy Reader for anyone wanting to work effectively in the current age. If you take on the practices offered in this book, and *practice them* in your personal and professional life, you'll be taking the first step to transforming your approach doing the greatest work you're capable of.
The gems within this book are the simple practices that make the central concepts real. "Visualize your work" and "limit your work in progress" make a lot of sense, but they're worthless ideas without a set of practices by which you can apply them to your own world. Personal Kanban gives you practices to get working more effectively right now, and puts you on the path to improving how you work every day.
The gems within this book are the simple practices that make the central concepts real. "Visualize your work" and "limit your work in progress" make a lot of sense, but they're worthless ideas without a set of practices by which you can apply them to your own world. Personal Kanban gives you practices to get working more effectively right now, and puts you on the path to improving how you work every day.
Read
November 2, 2016I have started using Kanban for my personal life after using it professionally, and I have to say it is a system that works. There are so many small things I have remembered to do that were on my list that I would have forgotten. Kanban works for your personal life because it is a low-friction planner. You don't put a lot of work into maintenance of your to-do list. You can have any number of items in your to-do list without feeling overwhelmed by it. You simply bring over the things you are going to work on immediately, and prioritize the rest.
July 30, 2015
As I progressed reading this text, I had a question gnawing away in my mind. Isn't all this common sense? Why do we need a textbook to explain these to us? But then common sense isn't that common. And as the book itself rightly suggests, we often loose sight of the bigger picture. It almost always puts things into perspective and puts us back on track. Well done Benson & Barry!
September 4, 2020
There was lots of good material here, and I learned a bunch, but most of it was too vague and far too much space was spent branding Personal Kanban promising amazing results without really explaining how or why. The book would have benefited from far more examples like the ones in the first appendix.
July 19, 2016
A little too hard on the persuasive and emotional aspect of kanban... Strong introduction nonetheless.
I was familiar with kanban already and learned several new approaches with it. Check it out If you're looking to kickstart some old skills or learn a new one.
I was familiar with kanban already and learned several new approaches with it. Check it out If you're looking to kickstart some old skills or learn a new one.
July 11, 2017
I had been introduced to Kanban before reading this book. I had been intrigued and tried to use it for my personal life. The concepts made sense to me - figure out what is important and how to get things done, populate the list of things to get done, limit the amount of work I am doing at once, and pull work when I need more. It worked pretty well, I was productive and that little dopamine hit every time I moved something to Done felt awesome. Combined with the Pomodoro Technique and I thought I could take on anything. For me though, this started to break down rapidly when I tried to add too many tasks to a single board, or when tasks would be too large and would get stuck. Which was disheartening to say the least, here I thought I had the holy grail of the Matrix and it stopped working for me after I had drunk the Kool-Aid. To some degree this could be argued that this was something Kanban was identifying for me, and I would agree. But at the same time it did not help me solve it either. I searched for answers. I even tried to come up with my own solutions.
The closest of which was to create a roll-up task. The issue I had with this was the double management of two boards and not knowing how to move this roll-up task through my value stream. Another idea to mitigate this was to create completely separate boards which would be switched through when I had completed what I needed to on the current board. This lost me visibility and introduced the possibility of introducing the same task on multiple boards without even knowing it. And my final issue was with repetitive tasks - since they were filling up my board but were also something I wanted to track. These were exactly the kinds of problems I was looking for resolutions to from Personal Kanban - as well as reinforcing and rebuilding the habit of using a Kanban board correctly. You know, from the people who created it.
The first chapter explains the basics of Kanban, how it came to be realized, and why it operates the way it does. Interesting information, but nothing theoretically ground-breaking for me. Except perhaps, that the authors are not going to tell you how to use Kanban. That it has to be customized for every need. Well that complicates things.. but at least the next chapter builds a Kanban board with you to give you an idea of how that should work. The next few chapters go back to explaining things about Kanban. The more advanced things. Things like flow, work-in-progress, cadence, productivity, efficiency, effectiveness, prioritization, and how to measure these values. It tries to explain why these things are beneficial and key parts to Kanban. It even has a section explaining how to-do lists are the devil. Useful information to be sure. But the real gold-mine, at least for me, showed up in Appendix A which covers various Kanban Design Patterns used for different projects. All of the approaches in the Appendix acknowledge the issues I had with Kanban and tried to provide a means to overcome them. I still struggle with it a little today, but at least I have a resource I can reference that gives me a reminder that firstly I am not the only person experiencing these growing pains, but also reinforcing the design patterns that can help overcome them. After all, there are only two set rules in Personal Kanban.
The closest of which was to create a roll-up task. The issue I had with this was the double management of two boards and not knowing how to move this roll-up task through my value stream. Another idea to mitigate this was to create completely separate boards which would be switched through when I had completed what I needed to on the current board. This lost me visibility and introduced the possibility of introducing the same task on multiple boards without even knowing it. And my final issue was with repetitive tasks - since they were filling up my board but were also something I wanted to track. These were exactly the kinds of problems I was looking for resolutions to from Personal Kanban - as well as reinforcing and rebuilding the habit of using a Kanban board correctly. You know, from the people who created it.
The first chapter explains the basics of Kanban, how it came to be realized, and why it operates the way it does. Interesting information, but nothing theoretically ground-breaking for me. Except perhaps, that the authors are not going to tell you how to use Kanban. That it has to be customized for every need. Well that complicates things.. but at least the next chapter builds a Kanban board with you to give you an idea of how that should work. The next few chapters go back to explaining things about Kanban. The more advanced things. Things like flow, work-in-progress, cadence, productivity, efficiency, effectiveness, prioritization, and how to measure these values. It tries to explain why these things are beneficial and key parts to Kanban. It even has a section explaining how to-do lists are the devil. Useful information to be sure. But the real gold-mine, at least for me, showed up in Appendix A which covers various Kanban Design Patterns used for different projects. All of the approaches in the Appendix acknowledge the issues I had with Kanban and tried to provide a means to overcome them. I still struggle with it a little today, but at least I have a resource I can reference that gives me a reminder that firstly I am not the only person experiencing these growing pains, but also reinforcing the design patterns that can help overcome them. After all, there are only two set rules in Personal Kanban.
June 13, 2020
This is a very good book. It shows you how apply the "kanban board" style of project tracking more generally, beyond the primary use-case of tracking software projects for a team.
With the tips and tricks in this book, you can apply to all of your projects, personal and professional, to replace a myriad of to-do lists which, as the author states, are "spawns of the devil" and "must be stopped."
The most useful aspects are the real-world examples as well as showing variations of the standard value stream (see Appendix A - Personal Kanban Design Patterns) to customize the approach for various situations.
I would have rated this a 5-star. However, the tone at times shifts a bit into over-selling. It wasn't off-putting enough to undermine the more powerful and useful overall message and practical tips but at times, it did make me say to myself, "OK, I get it ... " or "Yes, true, but what is the point?" and that took me out of the book enough to not give it perfect marks.
Overall, I strongly recommend it for anyone looking for a better way to manage daily tasks in all spheres of their life. There are many computer tools available that allow you pull virtual cards into a stream of categories from if you don't have the physical space or inclination to use the low-tech sticky notes and a whiteboard method.
With the tips and tricks in this book, you can apply to all of your projects, personal and professional, to replace a myriad of to-do lists which, as the author states, are "spawns of the devil" and "must be stopped."
The most useful aspects are the real-world examples as well as showing variations of the standard value stream (see Appendix A - Personal Kanban Design Patterns) to customize the approach for various situations.
I would have rated this a 5-star. However, the tone at times shifts a bit into over-selling. It wasn't off-putting enough to undermine the more powerful and useful overall message and practical tips but at times, it did make me say to myself, "OK, I get it ... " or "Yes, true, but what is the point?" and that took me out of the book enough to not give it perfect marks.
Overall, I strongly recommend it for anyone looking for a better way to manage daily tasks in all spheres of their life. There are many computer tools available that allow you pull virtual cards into a stream of categories from if you don't have the physical space or inclination to use the low-tech sticky notes and a whiteboard method.
December 28, 2022
Personal Kanban, a book written in 2011 was my third and last book on productivity this year (2022). It is about organizing your life and your work and striking a balance between them to maximize your efficiency. It then helps you track and maximize your efficiency and provides insights into your life patterns. Admittedly this is a very visually oriented book, and I am not a visual person – more of an audio kinesthetic one – but that should not stop me from enjoying this book.
I have started with a simple to do list, went on to work on GTD for a few years and came back to Google tasks. In the end concepts are more important than the tool, and to me it’s immaterial to argue the benefit of one against the other. I thought GTD was too process heavy, but it had some advantages – my simple tasks make me very effective and plan my day better, and I have access to it in my work, personal computer and phone. Thus, a system where I need a physical (or a software) board won’t work for me – but the concepts are surely useful. The idea of visualizing done tasks (to give you a mental closure as well as dopamine kick) as well as doing retrospective does makes sense. Maybe a software Kanban would solve many of my issues, but my current system works, and I see not urgent motivation to move to this because of it.
I have started with a simple to do list, went on to work on GTD for a few years and came back to Google tasks. In the end concepts are more important than the tool, and to me it’s immaterial to argue the benefit of one against the other. I thought GTD was too process heavy, but it had some advantages – my simple tasks make me very effective and plan my day better, and I have access to it in my work, personal computer and phone. Thus, a system where I need a physical (or a software) board won’t work for me – but the concepts are surely useful. The idea of visualizing done tasks (to give you a mental closure as well as dopamine kick) as well as doing retrospective does makes sense. Maybe a software Kanban would solve many of my issues, but my current system works, and I see not urgent motivation to move to this because of it.
January 19, 2018
I had a hard time with this book. For a personal kanban book, I would expect it to not look like a dreary, unattractive business book (not that business books should look that way either), and I would also expect that the writing would be warmer and friendlier; terms are used and not explained. I sometimes had to read sentences more than once to figure out what the authors were getting at. The photos of post it notes and hand writing on a white board are illegible and unattractive, so they fail as examples of what the authors are suggesting - you have to figure some concepts out from the sometimes inscrutable text. The text is so dry and awkwardly written it just doesn't inspire. There are supplemental tips or statements at the bottom of some of the pages, but the typeface was unreadable so I skipped those. The typeface, design, and layout are unattractive and make for difficult reading - no money was put into the production of this book.
I think personal kanban sounds like a good method, so I don't disagree with the authors - it's just that I'm not sure I fully understand it, and I'm not inspired by the uninspired text and weak examples. This is frustrating, as it does sound like a good method. I would expect and hope there are better personal kanban books out there.
I think personal kanban sounds like a good method, so I don't disagree with the authors - it's just that I'm not sure I fully understand it, and I'm not inspired by the uninspired text and weak examples. This is frustrating, as it does sound like a good method. I would expect and hope there are better personal kanban books out there.
October 19, 2021
Ever since I found out about Kanban and started using it more than a decade ago, I was amazed with the amount and speed of tasks that you can get done. Raising the effectiveness of the job you are doing to a new level.
Over the years I was (and still kind of am) using a variant of SCRUM to organise the business side of things, and within the sprints we use a kanban board to monitor our process.
However, personally I struggled with finding a way to organise my own tasks, that range from creative stuff to the not so creative chores that need to be done in almost any household. I tried with GTD but "something" didn't fit there. I gave it a shot with a kanban board to manage one big personal project 5 years ago, and it worked perfectly. This book made me rethink whether I can try to organise my whole workflow around it. Not all tools and philosophies work for all people, in se4arch for kaizen (constant state of self improvement) you have to be willing to try out a bunch of tools to find one that fits, and kanban feels like it could.
The book doesn't give you definitive answers (although it provides a couple of templates and real-world usage examples) but allows you to modify and extend the process to suit you. It's quite a short read but packed with good examples.
Over the years I was (and still kind of am) using a variant of SCRUM to organise the business side of things, and within the sprints we use a kanban board to monitor our process.
However, personally I struggled with finding a way to organise my own tasks, that range from creative stuff to the not so creative chores that need to be done in almost any household. I tried with GTD but "something" didn't fit there. I gave it a shot with a kanban board to manage one big personal project 5 years ago, and it worked perfectly. This book made me rethink whether I can try to organise my whole workflow around it. Not all tools and philosophies work for all people, in se4arch for kaizen (constant state of self improvement) you have to be willing to try out a bunch of tools to find one that fits, and kanban feels like it could.
The book doesn't give you definitive answers (although it provides a couple of templates and real-world usage examples) but allows you to modify and extend the process to suit you. It's quite a short read but packed with good examples.
September 22, 2017
I am interested in productivity. My work is intense and challenging mentally. I have many projects and smaller task continually vying for attention. I also have to direct the work of staff. The outcomes from our work affects hundreds of staff and tens of thousands of customers. I have a method i have evolved over years and it works but I am always looking for ways to tweak or imported it.
I have heard s of Kanban before and have seen some simple implementations if it. I always thought it was to simple for my requirements. Wheat this book has shown me is it can operate at both ends of the scale. It can be a simple task management system, but when needed it can operate at a higher level and deal with complex tasks whilst providing important feedback about workflow and timeframes.
I think Kanban is a great way to manage tasks and would be a valuable and productive way to move from not having a system to being able to manage your work effectively.
If you are not getting what you want out of your system I would suggest giving it a go
I have heard s of Kanban before and have seen some simple implementations if it. I always thought it was to simple for my requirements. Wheat this book has shown me is it can operate at both ends of the scale. It can be a simple task management system, but when needed it can operate at a higher level and deal with complex tasks whilst providing important feedback about workflow and timeframes.
I think Kanban is a great way to manage tasks and would be a valuable and productive way to move from not having a system to being able to manage your work effectively.
If you are not getting what you want out of your system I would suggest giving it a go
November 29, 2020
The last chapter, Endgame, has a nice summary of Personal Kanban:
“The game of Personal Kanban has a grand goal: to live effectively. To win at this game, we need to define our work, rather than let our work define us. To escape the tyranny of push, we must complete what we start, exercise options for effectiveness, and increase the occurrence of what brings us joy. To achieve these objectives, we need to understand both our work and our relationship to it. A wonderful, circular and self-perpetuating system, Personal Kanban creates a narrative map of our past, present, and future actions in which to identify patterns and innovate. In the end, Personal Kanban enables us to reduce fear and make better choices.”
Two simple guidelines to easily implement it:
- Visualize Your Work
- Limit Your Work-in-Progress
Really enjoyed the book, very easy to read. Found out I was doing something similar at work with my team, but many more ideas came from reading this book. Enjoyed reading the Personal Kanban patterns in the Appendix.
“The game of Personal Kanban has a grand goal: to live effectively. To win at this game, we need to define our work, rather than let our work define us. To escape the tyranny of push, we must complete what we start, exercise options for effectiveness, and increase the occurrence of what brings us joy. To achieve these objectives, we need to understand both our work and our relationship to it. A wonderful, circular and self-perpetuating system, Personal Kanban creates a narrative map of our past, present, and future actions in which to identify patterns and innovate. In the end, Personal Kanban enables us to reduce fear and make better choices.”
Two simple guidelines to easily implement it:
- Visualize Your Work
- Limit Your Work-in-Progress
Really enjoyed the book, very easy to read. Found out I was doing something similar at work with my team, but many more ideas came from reading this book. Enjoyed reading the Personal Kanban patterns in the Appendix.
July 5, 2017
Kanban boards are a visual way to track tasks and work in progress/process (WIP). The idea is to limit your WIP so you focus down your most important tasks and don't get caught up in the multi-tasking trap. Kanban boards originate from Japanese manufacturing, but are now used in Agile software development and DevOps. I really enjoy the overall method of task management that this book presents, but feel that certain areas could definitely use expansion (metrics, retrospectives, and other improvement methods, specifically). The author makes a good case for using Kanban in our daily lives for all task management. He covers what they are, how to make them, how to tailor them to your specific needs, and the benefits of using them; both tangible and existential. I've begun to implement Kanban boards at work and at home, and I've already begun to see improvement in my ability to contextualize my work and my workflows, and to actually get tasks and projects from my backlog to completion.
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December 18, 2023Your life is too complex to organize with a to-do list and too dynamic for a complicated productivity system. That’s where personal kanban comes in: a visual board where you can easily see your workflow, keep track of your work-in-progress, and make flexible plans for the future. In Personal Kanban, Agile productivity experts Jim Benson and Tonianne DeMaria teach you how to use kanban boards—a management method that keeps automakers efficient and software developers productive—to organize your life.
Our guide explains what personal kanban is, what its benefits are, and how to start organizing your life with your personal kanban today. Our commentary complements Benson and DeMaria’s ideas with those of other productivity experts, like David Allen (Getting Things Done) and Brian Tracy, (Eat That Frog). We also offer context for understanding how kanban fits within the umbrella of Agile methodology.
Our guide explains what personal kanban is, what its benefits are, and how to start organizing your life with your personal kanban today. Our commentary complements Benson and DeMaria’s ideas with those of other productivity experts, like David Allen (Getting Things Done) and Brian Tracy, (Eat That Frog). We also offer context for understanding how kanban fits within the umbrella of Agile methodology.
January 29, 2021
The book points out the foundations of effective work: visualize your work, minimize work in progress. And pull work as a choice, see that it finished, rejoice and reflect on what flows, what doesn't. I liked it much better than a productivity book because of its emphasis on being human and not separating work from life and not judging things we do for pleasure or to cultivate our relationships and "not urgent, not important" but instead part of our value chain. The book was in my room, I was scrolling my Instagram, noticed my mindless, looked around in the room, this book caught my eye, started reading, I loved how humorously and lovingly it was written, and I had always had a planning problem so I kept on reading and I guess I finished it in less than an hour and prepared my backlog and kanban board in the next hour. Very practical.
March 6, 2024
This book found me at just the right moment in my life. I discovered it in a box labeled "free" that someone left at the public park. I was feeling overwhelmed by all the tasks I needed to do, not only for my day job but also in my personal life. My system of listing tasks on post-it notes and scratching them when finished had gotten out of hand and no longer was serving me. This book opened my eyes to the ways of kanban. It provided me with a system of organization that is not only productive but also highly efficient. Not only are the tools shared in this book incredibly helpful, but the book is written in a style that is fun and accessible. I no longer feel stressed and overwhelmed in my job. And I've been eagerly sharing it with my colleagues and family members. I recently purchased a copy for my mom as a gift. I highly recommend this book!
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