Object of play
Personal Kanban is a tool for organizing your work to be more efficient and productive.
Number of players
Any number of people can play this game.
Duration: 10-15 minutes.
How to play
1. Divide a whiteboard or sheet of paper into four columns: Backlog, Ready, Doing, and Done. Or you can use this template.
2. Using sticky notes, fill the “Backlog” column with all the work that needs to get done.
3. Move the highest priority jobs to the “Ready” column. Then rank the jobs in the “Ready” column, from highest to lowest priority.
4. Take the top one to three jobs from the “Ready” column and move them to the “Doing” column. These are the things that you will work on right away.
5. As you finish each job, move it to the “Done” column.
Strategy
The key to understanding and using Personal Kanban effectively is understanding the nature of work. First, the importance of each job on your to-do list shifts over time, so you want to regularly re-prioritize your backlog, taking things off that are no longer important and moving important things to the top of the list (That’s your “Ready” column). Second, there are only so many things you can do well at any one point in time. So limiting the work-in-progress in your “Doing” column ensures you are not taking on too much and keeps you focused on getting things done.
Personal Kanban can be used by individuals or teams to make their work visible and transparent to customers and colleagues. This allows better group conversations about what is important and why. Another advantage is that kanban boards show what people are working on, so it can help teams gain a better understanding of their capacity, which can in turn help teams justify new hires when they are needed.
Personal Kanban was created by Jim Benson, based on kanban as used in Lean manufacturing.