Kanban – a system for visual management of tasks

At Living Peace, we find that the majority of our clients are visual, and therefore trying to put something in a file or make a linear to-do list is not helpful in getting them organized. We have many methods and alternatives for organizing for a visual person, and Kanban is one example.
Kanban is Japanese for “visual signal” or “card”. It is used in workplaces for teams to communicate workflow, but you can apply it personally to your own organization of tasks.

For our clients who like to use stickies for capturing to-do’s and other ideas, this is a great solution. You can get fancy and use a whiteboard, but really you just need an open wall surface. A workflow team might use these 3 categories to organize the task stickies: To Do, In Progress, Done. You could use Now, Next Week, Future/Later if that helps you to track when something needs to get done. This way, you can visually plan your tasks, move stickies ahead if you can’t get to that task, and have a visual idea of just how much you have on your place (and hopefully help you prioritize).

Feel free to be creative and use whatever 3 categories will help you organize your tasks!
For bigger projects with multiple steps, be sure to break the tasks down into manageable chunks. You could even color-code the stickies based on the type of task (phone calls, errands, to-do items). I encourage you to keep it simple otherwise the complexity could either make it difficult to manage or you may find yourself abandoning the system.

Let us know if you try this out and what the results are!

About Melissa Belliard

Melissa is committed to helping her clients find the organizing system that works for them, with compassion and creativity. She has been helping her friends and family get organized for years, and loves decluttering closets and cabinets, especially for empty nesters and folks who are downsizing. Melissa brings her 16 years of experience as a Human Resources professional to her work, including compassionate listening, leadership, and creative problem-solving skills. Melissa is also a part-time massage therapist, and has raised two great kids. She loves being out in nature, listening to music and dancing, as well as bringing women together in community.

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