Personal kanban means seeing your work on a board with columns like "To do", "In progress" and "Done", and limiting how many tasks you have going at the same time. It has two rules: make your work visible and limit your work in progress. The board shows you the rest.
You have probably had weeks where you started five things at once and finished none of them. It looks like a focus problem, but most of the time it is a visibility problem: you cannot see how many tasks you are carrying at once. Personal kanban shows you that at a glance.
What is personal kanban?
Kanban means "visual card" or "signboard" in Japanese. The method was born in Toyota factories in the 1940s to organize production, then spread to software teams. Jim Benson and Tonianne DeMaria Barry adapted it to personal life with their 2011 book "Personal Kanban".
Personal kanban has only two rules:
- Make your work visible. Write every task you are holding in your head on a card and put it on the board. The column a card sits in tells you what stage that task is at.
- Limit your work in progress. The "In progress" column can only hold a few cards at a time. When the limit is reached, you have to finish one of the tasks you already have before starting a new one.
Cards flow from left to right: they start as waiting tasks, move into progress and end up done. When you look at the board, you see both what to do and how much you are trying to do at once.
Why does personal kanban work?
A to-do list tells you what to do, but it does not show which of those tasks you have started or where you are stuck. A board adds both of those.
- Half-finished work becomes visible. Tasks you started and dropped sit on a list like any other item. On a board, they pile up in the "In progress" column where you cannot ignore them.
- Context switching goes down. Juggling three tasks at once means pulling your attention back together every time you switch. The limit keeps you from jumping to something new before finishing what you are on.
- Stuck work stands out. If a card has been sitting in the same column for days, there is a blocker there. Looking at the board, you can spot what is stuck and focus on clearing that blocker.
- Progress is something you can see. When the "Done" column fills up, you see where your week went. That is a concrete answer to the "I did nothing today" feeling at the end of the day.
How do you set up a personal kanban board in 5 steps?
Setting up your first board takes less than half an hour. Start simple; you can change the columns to fit your needs over time.
- Decide on your columns. Starting with three is easiest: To do, In progress, Done. If you have a lot of tasks where you are waiting on someone else, you can add a fourth column: On hold.
- Put every task in your head on a card. Work, projects, home, personal: it all goes on the board. Each card should be a single task. "Moving house" is a project; "get a quote from a moving company" is a card.
- Set your work in progress limit. Pick a number for the "In progress" column. For most people, 2 or 3 is a good start. You can write the number into the column name: "In progress (3)".
- Order the cards by priority. The card at the top of the "To do" column is your next task. When you start something new, you do not have to think; you take the top one. If setting priorities is hard for you, the Eisenhower matrix helps you build the order.
- Review the board once a week. Archive what is done, look at cards that have not moved in a week, and bring next week's priorities to the top. These five minutes of upkeep are what keep your board alive.
How many tasks should you work on at once?
The work in progress limit (WIP limit) is the most skipped part of personal kanban, and the part that makes the biggest difference. A board without a limit is just a colorful to-do list.
The right number is different for everyone, but here is a hint: your limit should not go above the number of tasks you can really move forward in a day. For someone working full time, that is usually 2 to 3. If your day gets interrupted a lot, you can start with 1 or 2.
After trying the limit for a week, take a look at the board. If the cards in "In progress" keep getting stuck, lower the limit by one. If the column is often empty and you lose time waiting, raise it by one. The goal is not to look busy, it is for work to leave the board.
Example: a personal kanban board for one week
For someone who has a job and is also getting ready to move house, the board might look like this on Wednesday morning:
To do
- Get a second quote from a moving company
- Send vacation dates to my manager
- Set up internet at the new address
- Sort kitchen items into boxes
In progress (3)
- Prepare the quarterly report presentation
- Security deposit conversation for the old place
- Change my address with the bank
On hold
- Waiting for the lease draft from the landlord
- Waiting for graphics from the design team
Done
- Sign the lease for the new place
- Share the team meeting agenda
- List the utility accounts
Since the "In progress" column is full, one of the three current tasks has to be finished before starting something new. The two tasks on hold do not take up space in the active column, but they do not disappear from view either.
Personal kanban or a to-do list?
One does not replace the other; they answer different questions.
- To-do list: Tells you what to do today. The simplest tool for short tasks that fit in a single day. We explained how to limit the day's list in our 1-3-5 rule article.
- Personal kanban: Shows what stage your multi-day or multi-week work is at. If you are running several projects at once and waiting on other people a lot, a board gives you a clearer picture.
The best results come from using both. The board holds the big picture of the week, and the daily list holds the steps for today from the "In progress" cards. If your list keeps growing, you can find the reason in our article on why your to-do list never ends.
4 common mistakes
- Adding too many columns. A seven-column board makes you waste time deciding where to put each card. Three or four columns are enough for personal use.
- Setting a limit and ignoring it. When the limit is reached, it is easy to say "this one is small, it doesn't count." Every exception turns the board back into a list.
- Writing projects on a single card. "Redesign the website" stays in "In progress" for weeks and never feels like progress. You can split the project into cards that take less than a week.
- Deleting finished cards. The "Done" column is a source of motivation. You can archive the cards at the end of the week, but let them stay there all week.
How do you set up a personal kanban board in Pumpynotes?
In Pumpynotes, the board is not a separate tool; it is a view of your notes. Every card is a note and every column is a status:
- Open the Board view. On the Notes page, you can switch the view to "Board". Your notes line up in columns by status: To do, In progress, Done and On hold come ready to use. Notes without a status gather in the "No status" column.
- Drag a card to move it forward. When you drag a note from one column to another, its status changes too. You do not need to update anything else.
- Adjust the columns to fit you. With "Manage statuses" you can change the names and colors of statuses and add your own. Writing your work in progress limit into the column name reminds you of it every time you look.
- Put everything inside the card. Since every card is a note, you can add to-do lists, tables, links and sub-pages inside it. All the context of a project lives inside the card.
- Filter the board by tag. You can give your notes tags like "work", "home" or "moving" and filter the board by tag. One board, several areas of your life.
You will find how notes work in our notes and linked pages guide, and how to build your whole system in our personal productivity system article.
Pumpynotes is free. Bring your calendar, notes and budget together in one workspace and see all your work on a single board.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is personal kanban?
Personal kanban is a task management method where you track your work on a board made of columns like To do, In progress and Done. It has two rules: make your work visible and limit how much work you have in progress at once.
How many columns should a personal kanban board have?
Three columns are enough to start: To do, In progress and Done. If you have a lot of tasks where you are waiting on someone else, you can add On hold as a fourth column. More columns usually slow the board down.
What should my work in progress limit be?
For most people, 2 or 3 is a good start. Try it for a week and then look at the board: if cards keep getting stuck, lower the limit, and if the column is often empty, raise it.
What is the difference between personal kanban and a to-do list?
A to-do list tells you what to do today, while personal kanban shows what stage your work is at. A list suits short, single-day tasks, and a board suits work that takes several days or weeks. Using both together gives the best results.
Should I keep my personal kanban on paper or digitally?
Both work. A paper or sticky-note board is a powerful reminder if it is in front of you every day. A digital board goes wherever you go and lets you add details, links and files inside each card.
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