You have a list, a to-do list. Not a maybe-do list. Not a if-I-feel-like-it list. Not even a does-this-make-sense-anymore list.
Your to-do list is long. It’s staring at you like a judgmental cat that hasn’t been fed in three hours. Meow…meow…meow…
You think that list is a contract. You think that because you wrote “Clean the Garage” on a sticky note, you are legally obligated to clean the garage before the heat death of the universe. You think that because someone thought they could write a user story about it, it became a must-complete.
Personal Kanban the first column of any board “Options,” which is a nice, financially sound way of saying “Things I Might Do If and When They Make Sense.” Because they are Options. Say it with me, Op-shunz.
You Are Working in a Bear Market
Think of the investment of your life like the stock market, but instead of losing money, you’re losing your will to live. Make the most of what you have.
Expiration Dates: Work is like yogurt. Eventually, it goes bad and when it does, it’s very very ugly. If you have a task that’s been sitting there since the Obama administration, it’s not a task anymore. It’s a historical artifact. Throw it out.
Hello! I am an expired option! Market Value: Your effort might not yield returns. Just because you want to write a 400-page report on the history of paperclips doesn’t mean anyone wants to read it. If you want to do things for your own benefit that’s fine, just don’t get caught in the trap of completing work no one wants.
Know the value of your work, Bert. The Strike Price: Your work is an investment of your time. If you have used up all your time on other stuff, you won’t have the brain juice to do anything else. You’ll have spent so much time eating moldy yogurt with your paperclips that when a real opportunity comes along you’ll say it has to wait. (No, I can’t find a picture of a Muppet eating moldy yogurt with a paper clip…)
Treat your options with respect and they will return the favor. (Image: Kanban zone)
You Gotta Have Options
So, when we build a kanban or Personal Kanban, we need to make sure that our “backlog” doesn’t stay a set of tickets we are duty bound to carry out, but become a pool of options that we can apply our professional judgement to. If we don’t we will routinely do the wrong work at the wrong time, leading to wasted energy, re-work, extra meetings, and poor quality product.
CTAs FTW!
Join us for the Personal Kanban workshop. We’ll go deep on your actual limits, help build visuals that work for you personally, and create boundaries that work. Spend some time with us:
Deep Dive See Your Work-shopRead the full Personal Kanban book to understand the humanity behind the practice.
Read the Collaboration Equation to learn more about this type of leadership.
Work with Jim and Toni for personalized guidance implementing visibility in your specific situation.
Like and subscribe and all that stuff. But … really, everyone is running way above capacity and it’s hurting us all. So, please … opt out of that pain.
