I have so many things to do. Tons of work at the house: Selling the stuff I don’t need, renovating a bath, interior paint, fix a cracked pane in a window, build screens for most windows… I also have a side business that I want to work on. Then there is the boat. With so much to do one could easily become overwhelmed. At the very least with so much to do its easy to start task switching and spread oneself so thin, nothing ever gets done.
There is another post that covers priorities: BlueChips. Today I want to discuss the tool I use to help keep everything straight. Right. I don’t have one tool. I use spreadsheets, lists on Google Keep, emails and a Kanban board. That last one is really the subject of this article. Its how I keep up with my boat fixes; both the ones I do and the ones the yard does (or even the ones subs do).
A kanban is a card. It seems to have originated in Japan as part of the Lean manufacturing and quality movement. Essentially, is an instruction card that goes from one station to the next. In my world of Information Technology and services it represents a discreet unit of work to be done, when it needs to be done and the current state. You can see what my categories are in the image below. Some people go with the easier: Todo, Doing, Done…
There are many tools available online or for download (if you are a geek and don’t mind hosting it yourself). I started using a tool from JetBrains called YouTrack. Now, I work in technology and that’s why I have it installed locally on my laptop. But there are many others that are also free AND available on the web. Search on “Kanban Board” and you will find many.
I have a list of items that I want to do or have done. If the yard is going to do it for me, I use a feature called a “tag” to tag it as “pro-fix” and who the pro is. If I am going to work it then I don’t put anything. I sort the tasks by priority with the most important cards to me at the top and the least important at the bottom. Periodically, I reevaluate the priority.
The key is I only actively work on something if its in “In progress” and at the top of the list. Otherwise it waits until I get to it. Of course, I have to keep this up myself. But it would be great of the boat yard had this where a card corresponded to a line item on their quote. Then we could keep each other up to date on each task or approvals to work on a task.
When all items are done that are marked for professionals, I will be released from boat yard purgatory. I will still have a lot of items to do, but most of those could just as easily be worked on from an island…