Get Everything Done

I know this has been discussed ad naseum in the past, but I wanted to bring this up again as it has become a critical item for me. I am using Autofocus 1 with great success. For project management, I have been doing two things: (1) Adding specific tasks to the list and (2) Adding statements lilke "work on project X". Both work well. But my question has to do with how to manage multiple projects at the same time. I have created a timeline with target dates as to when projects will be completed, but it still seems as if I am missing something that would allow things to progress more smoothly.

I seem to remember back in DIT that Mark had said that it is best if one does non-continuous projects one at a time, and therefore one can sequence things more easily. But in our 2010 world, it is not reasonable for me to only work on one project at a time. Everyone wants to know when certain projects will be completed, and frequent status updates on where things are. Using AF, it is difficult sometimes to see where I am with things in this regard.

So my question to Mark and All is what is the best way to manage multiple projects if one uses AF? Some projects can be sequenced, but many have to be worked on in a parallel fashion.

Best wishes,
-David

Hi Mark,

Thanks for clarifying your stance on projects and AF -- this was very helpful!

Do you have any suggestions as to how to track multiple projects? I have seen Excel spreadsheets done by some, and of course, there are several project management software packages available. It is hard to see what would work the best. I guess I could search online and see, but it doesn't hurt to ask. :)

-David

It also makes a big difference who wants to see progress and how. If you're the only one that really needs the details, manage on your computer with any app. But if you need to share work and share progress, then those details will direct an appropriate solution. I can think of a dozen possibilities but it all depends on context which possibility is a good idea.

I use a kanban board for projects where we have special workflows (software development). It's perfect if you need to see at a glance what is in work (WIP = work in progress) at which step and what tasks are waiting to be processed next (= backlog).

You can try a free version of a virtual kanban board here:
http://www.leankitkanban.com

Look under "Features" for pictures of example kanban boards and their workflows. You can create them very easily. There are also pictures with more than 1 project in parallel (=> horizontal swim lanes).

Here is another interesting link for personal kanban
http://personalkanban.com/personal-kanban-101/

I have never seen the Kanban before. It looks like a really simple and interesting tool for both project management and time management. It looks like it would work well in an office setting, where you can refer to it through out the day. It could also provide a reminder of recurring tasks. If you used small enough post-its, you may be able to do one in a notebook as well

Thanks for pointing it out.

Gerry
http://www.simple-time-management.com

Here are 2 more links for an overview about Kanban.

Kanban kick-start example (click on the example picture)
http://www.limitedwipsociety.org/2009/11/16/kanban-example/

Scrum-ban (the context is software development, but easily transferable to a group of students or colleagues working on any project. Interesting is the idea of a WIP limit = limit on work in progress)
http://leansoftwareengineering.com/ksse/scrum-ban/

kneitinga,

thanks for posting, very interesting stuff.

Any suggestions on using both a shared Kanban board and a private Autofocus list? I find myself muddling.

I have been very exited to see the Kanban concept and I am Meddling in it right now.
I find it very effective to keep my day balanced and I just started to integrate AF1 to it and it works great now. I will see if things keep going in that direction and post my findings :)

For anyone interested in learning more about Kanban and using Lean principles, we are hosting a free online webinar - Intro to Kanban.

Friday, June 25 at 12:30 PM Eastern Time (GMT-4)
Sign up at: http://www.leankitkanban.com/Events/IntroToKanban

Join us and learn how to use Kanban increase your business's effectiveness or to become hyper-productive in your personal life.

Holy Cow
This is the 21st century edition to my system my dad taught me in the mid 1950's. It's WONDERFUL for the visual aide of Overview/Planning/Execution. We used index cards, blackboard and scheduler. Now a days I created a sheet metal board (magnetic) with acrylic overlay on a portion to mindmap the initial processing stages to accomplish my goals....sculpures, classes/practice to mastery for competitions, term papers, etc. Then I'd schedule the steps. THIS COMPUTER PROGRAM IS WONDERFUL!!!!! I would never trash my board and index cards and whiteboard pens because of brain injuries......but this pc version might prove to both expedite and enhance the entire process.
THANK YOU! If my Dad was living, he'd be over the moon seeing this software version!
learning as I go

p.s.
For those of you reading the procrastination thread, you might find this KanBan idea IMMENSELY helpful. As a child, I had index cards for values, passions and goals. I'd create my schedule based on this. The values (especially the desired character traits and needs categories and responsibilities) were rearranged contextually according to my time, responsibilities and passions/goals to help me build my schedule.
When I'd hedge on doing something unpleasant or anxiety provoking, my dad taught me to remember the VALUE I was supporting by doing it....i.e. the WHY of it. Also, the tracking of progress kept me optimistic to start and keep on track. Over the years it got to the point that I could "see" my board in my mind. If not, I'd go to my bedroom and look at the WHAT, HOW and WHY board. I STILL need to do this mind game to keep me on point! LOL!
My other aide is a timer. I set the time based on the anxiety level I'm feeling. I just keep on this way until either the task is done or I'm completed the timebox encompassing a series of tasks on a project. True, I admit to grunting, but it does the trick. I just keep reitterating the WHY of it. Sometimes, I'll even write it down as a satellite reminder. It doesn't necessarily make doing it easier, but it always works to get/stay working to the predetermined stage of completion. When I'm lucky, a flow state will take over the initial resistance.....then I ride the wave.....
learning as I go

Holy Cow
This software app would also make a GREAT storyboard!
learning as I go

Here is an example of using LeanKit Kanban for managing personal responsibilities.

http://www.leankitkanban.com/Content/Images/Features/personelKanban.png

Hi Stephen
Thank you for the great example! This leankitkanban is FANTASTIC! I've been monkeying around with it. It's also SO FLEXIBLE! Your example is really great! This would also be a great virtues and habit builder for children. Heck, even we adults are always improving/adding habits. Your board has a lane for this! I suppose that you can infer that I'm primarily a top down planner. Your board supports both top down and bottom up planning and execution. (just as real life both encourages and demands of us) I am truly AMAZED over this!!! It is both faster and easier than my prehistoric methods...although I'll need to keep the board to help me with my brain injures. I believe that both will work well in tandem.
Again, thanks Stevphen!
learning as I go

p.s.
Stephen,
apologies for the careless typo...Stephen....Typos are exponentially worse when it's a person's name *blush*
learning as I go

Wow learning, your dad taught you this 21st century method in the 1950's? This is hard to fathom. Ahead of his time, he was!

Thanks for the information about Kanban - I'd never heard of it before.

The LeanKit software looks good, but at the moment I'm trying AgileZen (http://agilezen.com ). It's a simpler tool with fewer features, but I like its simplicity and I think it might work well for me. I really like the idea of moving things across the screen as you work on them and complete them. I've just completed my first two "stories", as AgileZen calls them, each containing several tasks, and it's very satisfying to watch them move into the Complete area. The Working area gives me focus, allowing me to pick one or two stories from each area of my life and work on it over a period of time until it's done, instead of trying to work on too many disparate things at once and feeling overwhelmed.

This might be what I've been looking for as a kind of "back-end" to AF1, planning projects and generating tasks to go onto my AF list.

Hi Alan
LOL! No, dad wasn't ahead of his time at all. We neanderthals have discovered that the "timeless knowledge" simpley gets recycled and "repackaged" as novel so that someone can make money or become a guru! That said, new techology has always boggled my brain. It's so fascinating! When I was that age, computers were the size of buildings! I wouldn't mind living a thousand more years. Life itself, especially the progress of mankind, keeps me enthralled despite the boredom and tribulations I need to dance around to get to the good stuff progress gifts us with! *blush* I won't even start about my love affair with the timeline of the arts or social progress....
learning as I go

I'd like to echo learning's thanks, Stephen, that image is awesome, to use a common expression these days.

I'm running projects whose resources are primarily myself and a couple of local colleagues, the leankanban could be a tool for me to let the others, and my boss, how things are going and what lies around the corner.

I think I'd prefer a real board rather than a virtual one, but in this virtual world with multiple locations . . . .

Annette, that looks like a good idea to combine personal kanban in AF, thanks!

Hi Annette, a nice description of AgileZen, and yes, its simplicity is enticing.

I hoped I would be able to stay manual for some time, but AZ and LK seem to have a manual feel about it, even if it is dragging cards around.

I look forward to hearing how you and Alan get along with it, but in the meantime annual draft accounts beckon. I like the capability of editing and reusing cards, ideal for the 'next task' in a process stream, I can see it now:

Instead of showing 'Complete credit card transactions' in the Completed or Archive lane, I could edit it 'Process reconciliations' and put in into Backlog or Ready. I like the LK layout in Stephen's link as well.

You wait forever for a bus, then two come along!

I don't intend to use the software. Post-Its and a whiteboard for me.

Alan, I would go for that option IF I could have one office location for any length of time, maybe for home use though. Even where I'm working in Damascus till April next year, I have two workplaces, but my colleagues aren't always at the same one as me at any time.

I'm testing the virtual kanban with a colleague at the moment. if it works well, we might even let our project team leader in on the act. That way he can be satisfied that his underlings are making progress,

BTW, I'm unable to post to the forum, when in Damascus for some reason, so am catching up on a one week flying visit back home in the UK.

Roger J

An interesting idea about setting priorities in a kanban (the article applies more to teams, but the idea can be just as well used for your personal kanban board).

I use it to structure the backlog => what to pull next, if capacity is free.

http://leansoftwareengineering.com/2008/08/19/priority-filter/

The article's priority definitions are like this:

1. An item which we are currently working on or intend to work on immediately, strictly limited by our currently available capacity
2. An item which we should work on as soon as possible, but for which we do not have immediate capacity
3. An item which we should work on soon, but is not immediately pressing

... oops I forgot. Further down the article from my previous post you find this (reminds me of DWM) :
___
One more element is needed to make this viable as a prioritization scheme. It might be possible for a ticket to languish in the lower priority states without ever being selected for promotion. To prevent this, new tickets should be given an expiration date. When tasks in one priority bucket are compared in consideration for promotion, aging tickets should be given preferential consideration. Old tickets deserve either immediate promotion or reconsideration, but should not be allowed to languish in a buffer indefinitely.

Recently, I discovered that my reason for looking for a time management method has not been in synch with they main reasons people seem to have. After going to a number of communities and systems/methods, it seems most people look for a way to alleviate procrastination. This has never been my problem. I don't procrastinate. So most of the systems don't work for me because they are centered on that. I used and tried the systems without looking at my real needs if you will.

My biggest problem has been to make sure that I manage the amount of work that I can do and commit to, so that is where the Kanban looked so appealing to me. I have "understood" recently that Project Management, Time Management and Life Balance are 3 separate discipline for three different phenomenons that have 3 different natures.

Project Management -> Make things Grows (like a Plant)
Time Management -> Make things Flow (like a River)
Life Balance -> Create a Balance of Energies (like Nature itself)

So the way I see things now is that you will have projects that come from desires but they have to be filtered down a layer of life balance to make sure it is sustainable and finally, since the only thing we cannot control is time, then we have to control the flow of the things we do at which time. That is my quest/Holy Grail and I find that a lot of systems account for everything but not Life Balance.

I found that for me, I have 3 types of energies that drive me forward:
Physical
Mental
Spiritual (nerves/stress/courage)

I often tried to plan my day but through it all, I let some stuff go because of a lack of energy of the required type. So my goal is to manage my energy levels so that I can accomplish what I want to accomplish. For that I use a big mixture that seems very complicated from the outside but is really simple and intuitive FOR ME when I actually use it.

I'll develop more on this if people seem to have any interest in the subject :)

It seems to me autofocus is good at balancing your life, if you let it. If this doesn't work for you, do tell why. There's also an app out there that happens to be called LifeBalance. Not so good for AF because it sorts and prioritizes your tasks for you. Otherwise it's an interesting approach to balance. And they have an interesting blog too. Focused on living and llamas.

I have seen LifeBalance and I don't fancy it exactly for the reason you said.

As for AF, you are spot on in saying that it does include Life Balance and that is why I discovered that that was what I was lacking. AF is great for balancing using the intuitive and reasoning parts of yourself. But it does not help me identify the fact that I'm taking too much of one kind of commitment.

I really love the simplicity, the ergonomics and the usability of AF; it's the best system I have seen so far to just do what is most important to you. But there is just something about lists that don't let me SEE what's happening and where I'm loosing on myself. For example, I'm a workaholic and it does not help me get the rest that I need to fully utilize my energy on worthwhile projects. Since I like a certain kind of thing, I'll do only that kind of stuff from the good to the bad just to continue, like candy. But we all need our veggies right? In diminishing the amount of one kind of activity you do, you automatically start to choose the ones that give you the most return on it... or in other words, the ones most important for you.

So what I did was this (I'm not going into the details):
First I did a LOOSE budgeting of my time. Let's take a setup where everyday is the same (no weekends) just to make understanding this simpler. I have taken into account the usual time it takes me to do the routine stuff, i.e: brush teeth, eat, take a bath and sleep. Which makes sure that I don't over-push the expectation of my engagements for the day. I noticed that I'm left with 12.5 hours to be active.

I decided to break that time in usable chunks: "Pomodoros" :)
With breaks in, it leaves me with 20 Pomodoros for a day but that includes everything.
I budgeted those pomodoros in things like Fun&Entertainment, Maintenance, Health&Exercise, etc... That part is my life balance thing. I can review and change it if I feel crappy one day or see things differently this month.

Then I made a simple Kanban that pulls work, recreation, maintenance, exercise, etc... into the done column on the right. The budget there is the DONE column with a WIP for each type of activity. So for exemple, I can do maintenance only 4 blocks per day and I have to do 2 blocks of entertainment.

Then I start pulling in stuff in the flow. When I finish a block of work for example, I gage my energies and then choose a block that will let me use my strength of the moment and let my previously used energy recover.

(The kanban is in a notebook and I use transparent post-its with a color end. Each color is assigned a type of activity like Fun&Entertainment)

On the left of the kanban is the stuff that needs to be done or that I want to do at one point or another. So I start pulling as I feel it, all the while balancing the types of activities that I process. After a couple of days, I can instantly see if one kind of activity is filling in too much, like maintenance for instance, on the left which means that I'm taking too many engagements of that kinds and that I should do something about it.

The great thing is that, I don't feel guilty for not doing the stuff in the backlog because I always fill my 20 allocated pomodoros which means I did a good balanced day. I have a sense of completion which AF did not give me but DIT did. I SEE what my system can handle and I use my intuition on the type of work to do next.

Projects are just another block that once you did some stuff on it that day, you can put back in the backlog for the next day. You can out stretch any budgeted limit but at least you'll see it at the end of the day and I was VERY surprised to find out that I put way too much energy on Health and Exercise (And I'm the kind of guy that hates that kind of activity!!!).

Not to make a longer read, I'll leave it at that for now.
If you have any questions or comments, please let me know!

Erik, keep going with your feedback!

This has been one of the best threads I've seen on the forum, if only because I have more project-oriented work in my 13 month assignment in Damascus, Syria.

I like the idea of the personal kanban in a notebook, would suit my nomadic/peripatetic life. As I'm back home in the UK for this week, I'll have a look at the small post-it stickers at a local stationery shop. I would think na A4/extra large Moleskine would be the best size, perhaps with squared paper.

An alternative might be a loose A3 sheet (folded in half inside a plastic folder for protection in my work backpack) which I could then put up on the nearest suitable wall in an office or apartment location with a bit of Blutac/adhesive putty.

While in creative mode, I realise one can create a kanban in Excel, have Post-It - like cells of varying sizes and colours (plus use the Comment feature in Excel for more detailed notes/comments for an individual note). This can then be printed out and displayed as required, or remain in electronic format.

I get a BNet email newsletter a few times a day, the uninteresting newsletters are deleted, the interesting links kept for looking at. There's been one on To Do Lists with a poll. I'm still one of the 29% majority using pen and paper.

Till then, more contributions to this thread, please (thanks for creating it, David)

Great post Erik!
Gives me some new ideas, thanks.

I really REALLY like the idea of personal kanban. I think it is because it is so visual. My only issue really is that I would have rather a lot on my backlog which I would have to think about. I work at home most of the time so a whiteboard application may suit me better (plenty of space) using different colours and shapes for different topics / projects / customers. Only thing is that it does become less portable on a whiteboard.

I am interested in everyone's comments on this thread which I have read with great interest. Keep them coming!!!

Hi Alison et al,

I think if you are in one place most of the time, a manual whiteboard is probably best. In fact, with a wall, you don't need a whiteboard.

I'me working in Damascus for a year. The one office (I move between two or more) is in the basement of an apartment block (cooler in summer!) and consists of a L-shaped general area and a manager's office "inside" the "L". So there are several vertical surfaces, all of which the manager uses with Post-It notes, paper posters etc.

In fact, it's so impressive. I think I'll take a photo ot four and send a link to this forum. Although 95% of this "extended whiteboard" is in Arabic, I can see that it acts as a project information system on the project which focuses on the status of customer/connection data surveys in the local water utility.

Depending on he space available in your office space, you could use ONE wall (or part) as the Backlog and Ready section, another area as the Doing/In Progress section, and a third one as Done. You would then be surrounded by your own kanban, no excuses, but maybe a bit too much for some.

Just typing this has given me an idea for my own personal "kanban wall in the corner of my Damascus apartment hall which is my domestic work area. It's in a corner, so dividing it up into the various columns/lanes will be easy for non-work or additional work projects; the latter would be for projects which are not "burning" now, but need progressive work and progress outside the office/official working hours.

Kanban can?

My new modus operandi to meet the challenges of a bigger project planning and management role (involving colleagues and others) than in my recent past is basically:

- Project management software (new tricks for this old dog) for planning/scheduling phases, tasks, resources, and then updating in response to actual progress (or not).

- Kanban board for current/short-term work tasks including project and non-project elements. As colleagues and the boss are not always in the same office, this will have to be a virtual one via the Internet.

- AF/DWM/DIT hybrid to capture stuff and scan. A routine task will be to scan and monitor each project and then feed into my hybrid. Can I cross an item off when it's been transferred into a kanban card? I think so, it will allow the hybrid to reach into the new modus operandi akin to a closed list.

In line with my previous posting, I will probably have a manual kanban on the entrance lobby corner where my apartment desk is. This will primarily be for non-project work, personal, admin stuff etc. One of these will be to learn the new project management software as best I can without formal training (the new Dummies book I got this week has already helped me make progress)

A luta continua - the struggle continues.

I'm putting together a video showing my method because I found that it was very hard to put into written words but much easier to show.

Roger
I think that you should use AF to feed your personal kanban and not the other way around. So I believe that your most recent post is a better idea then doing the reverse.

Where can we see your video Erik?

"Roger
I think that you should use AF to feed your personal kanban and not the other way around. So I believe that your most recent post is a better idea then doing the reverse."

I prefer it the other way round. I want to use AF to manage my tasks, and the kanban to manage my projects (ie generate tasks that I'll then put into AF). I want the benefits of the AF method of choosing tasks to actually do, leaving the kanban to manage the planning of what those tasks need to be.

My 'projects' in the kanban (or 'stories', as AgileZen calls them) are really just mini-projects that each have more than one task. At the moment I'm setting up a new laptop, so I have a number of stories in my kanban. The first was to prepare for the transfer of everything from my existing laptop to the new one - tasks in that story included finding the CDs for each of the software applications I had to install on the new system, finding out whether I'd have to ask the manufacturers for new activation keys, copying all my files to an external hard drive and so on. The next story was to install a new operating system - two tasks, get information about how to install it, and then actually install it. The story I'm currently working on is to install the important software first, and it has a task for each software application. I've put the tasks from that story into my AF list, and I'm working through them. There are more stories waiting to be worked on, eg installing the less important software, and then decommissioning the old laptop. But I don't have to worry about them yet because those stories are still in the Ready area, so none of the tasks have yet been put in my AF list.

All those stories in AgileZen are in the same colour. I have another set of stories about tidying my house, some stories about stuff I need to do for work, and a few stories about things I want to update on my website. I use a different colour for each of these three lots of stories. At the moment, I'm up against a deadline to get the laptop set up because the old one has to be returned in a few days, so the only story in my Working area is the relevant "setting up the laptop" one. But what I'm intending to do when this panic is over is to try to have a story of each colour in my Working area.

Single tasks like "buy a birthday card for X" go straight into AF. If it's a task I know I won't do for quite a while, I put it in Google Calendar for a month or so hence.

I prefer a paper-based AF list, because it's so portable and easy to use. But I like the on-line AgileZen implementation of the kanban, because it's so easy to structure and rearrange. If I used post-it notes on a board, each one would only be for a single task, so I'd just have a stream of individual tasks flowing across the board, without any linkage between the ones that relate to each other. But each story in AgileZen has all of its tasks listed together, and the whole story moves across the kanban. When all of its tasks are done, it moves into the Complete area.

It remains to be seen how well this will work over the long term...!

Ok, I've been confused about how the two opposing interpretations of my posts by Annette and Erik arose, but I think it was this: " AF/DWM/DIT hybrid to capture stuff and scan." which should have read , " . . . . capture OTHER stuff and scan."

I think my view is, as Annette says, kanban to handle the project tasks and feed them into/through AF.

My rationale is that project scheduling plus kanban requires a more singular focus on the projects/tasks without the distraction of other stuff that one corrals in AF.

As Annette states, let's see how it works out over the longer term.

Well, in that case, what you need might not be a Kanban...
A Kanban helps you with flow.
You can make it flow 2 or 3 projects at the same time; it's a pull system.
I thought that's what you wanted.
You evidently want to attack 1 project by focussing on it and finding what are the actions that need to be done to make it happen.
If that's the case, you need a project plan which is very different in the way it treats your project; it makes it grow.

Anyway, I intend to cover that too in the Video.
It is not ready but as soon as it is I'll give you a link to it.

Maybe we are becoming a bit pedantic in our own relative interpretations, or just me.

I will use whatever mix of techniques I think will work, discard the ones that don't. In the end no two personal management/task control systems are identical. What matters is what works for each one of us.

Like most of us, the AF/DWM recipe, with/without DIT and other techniques, seems to have been more effective than other incarnations. I started to take a greater interest in tasks when I picked up David Allen's GTD books, I was once quite keen on implementing it as should be done by DA and his Disciples. BUT like others, I found the system/admin overhead too much.

Returning to your last post, Erik, yes, the project schedule has all the tasks, but there are several sub-projects in the master schedule with not all tasks dependent on one another.

So I do want to use Kanban to keep the flow going, switching projects and tasks if there is an obstacle that cannot be removed immediately. I agree with Annette: use AF to manage tasks, kanban to manage projects.

I look forward to your video, as I'm sure others do as well.

I return to Damascus tomorrow from where it has proved difficult to post to this forum. Why? I have no idea, just a suspicion that the watchers are watching, it's their job and I must respect that.

Roger - hope you have a good trip back to Damascus. Please do update us on your progress when you can!

Erik - I am really looking forward to seeing your Video when it is ready.

Hello Alison, thanks, I will be back there for over two months before three weeks' break, so may have to resort to "proxy" methods to send posts, maybe via other forum members' email addresses..

It's frustrating being an observer on the forum, but not being able to be a participant, a bizarre form of topical emasculation.

I just hope Erik's video can be sent as a file attachment, YouTube is banned in Syria!

Everything's in the can and I'm on the editing part.
It's much bigger then I thought but you should have no problem accessing it anywhere :)

I'm studying Kanban theory for work projects and it's interesting. Although a board is nice for laying out project tasks and seeing things progress, that's not actually the point. The point of Kanban is to get things done as early as possible by minimizing the amount of stuff on the board. This is because things on the board represent things started but not finished, and the value comes from finishing, and then you can invest that value back into the business.

This seems quite the opposite of Mark's theories that order of work doesn't matter and everything is simply do or do not. I can think of two reasons for this difference:

1. Life is not business and if you aren't trying to get someplace new, then prioritizing would be like trying to get life to complete. This is nonsense. Life is about living, not finishing. On the other hand, if you have a major goal, achieving the goal may transform your life into a better one, and many other tasks may become irrelevant. Mark and Kanban then agree on this: not doing something is a good idea.

2. In life there are often many little things that simply must get done. The kanban system that says you can't water flowers because you've got 3 projects on the go already isn't very helpful. So when it comes to little things another method is needed to keep them in order.

I think you are right, a Kanban is a tool as much as AF is a tool, they both have their strengths and their weaknesses and they should be understood before choosing what tool for what job! One thing I have noticed a while back is that there is a difference between things you want to do, things you have to do and things you should do. I have yet to see a system that can accommodate all of them.

@Alan Baljeu
As you correctly pointed out the main focus of kanban is on finishing tasks before beginning new ones, but this doesn't hinder you to do "little things that simply must get done". You could design your system with different "swimming lanes" (Stephen Franklin provided a link to a good example above http://www.leankitkanban.com/Content/Images/Features/personelKanban.png ).

Then you have the possibility to apply different WIP limits (work in progress) to the different lanes and you can easily water your flowers alongside your big project tasks. The example also has daily habits on it => very nice, you just move the card to completed when done and tomorrow you reset it to Todo.

With the kanban board you can do "the 10 foot, 3 second rule" check, which is impossible with a pure list like AF or DWM. The rule says that a person should be able to look at the Kanban board from 10 feet away, and should be able to understand what is going on within 3 seconds.
- Overall, does the board overflow with too many cards (tasks)?
- Are too many items waiting in queues?
- Where are the bottlenecks?
- How many work items are blocked? Why?

(See http://toolsforagile.com/blog/archives/320#more-320 for details).


Of course I do not say that you should have only 1 task open overall and finish it every time before going to the next task. But there should certainly be a limit on the number of started and yet unfinished tasks on your board. When you get over this limit your performance degrades due to context switching / multitasking losses. You need extra energy and concentration to pick up a task again after you left it unfinished some time ago and now need to get into it again (e.g. time for review where you left off or what were your ideas, plans back then).

You can do a nice little multi-tasking exercise (it just takes 3 minutes) to experience these "costs" http://www.clarkeching.com/2007/09/multi-tasking-e.html .

What you say seems right, both allowing different categories of work and limiting them. My I'mpression of that screenshot is it does an excellent job of highlighting the software's capabilities and a lousy job of limiting the amount of active work.