Tonianne and I run the Personal Kanban, Modus Institute, Modus Cooperandi Corp-o-plex pretty much duo-handed. There's a lot of work. The rules of Personal Kanban apply to us too. We are constantly experimenting with new ways to visualize our work and limit our Work-in-Process.Right now, we have five proposals out, are discussing potential work with four other organizations, are supervising another translation of Personal Kanban, have a major client with seven concurrent internal projects, are putting out a new product (coming soon!), have two other clients that require touch, a new project of Toni's, group classes for Modus Institute to track / schedule / lead, eight conferences to speak or teach at, and the usual biz dev / taxes / paperwork ... oh and we're redesigning web sites, making marketing collateral, and having interviews with the press or conversations with people.So ... how do you limit your WIP when it takes a paragraph to list just the types of work out - not even the tasks.Well, the answer is simple ... ish.I'll write about how we schedule out our weeks in a week or so, when I have more data about how our current shared board is working. But for this post, I just want to talk about this board.This is my personal In-Flight board that is keeping track of all things Modus for me.Blue column headings note client work, business operations, or speaking / open classes.Green Big Bet stickies track my big bets (work I expect to take more than a month to complete or are the entire project).Orange stickies are either the upcoming value delivery package or event (proposal, call, class video, etc).Red stickies are highlights that the Big Bet needs action.Purple are Today's WIP. (It's Sunday, so I'm just getting two things out and writing this blog post).The columns tomorrow will be joined by our week's Big Bets - Toni and I select two or three things each week to "knock out." Last week it was to get a prototype design of our new product to the producer. Which, I'm happy to say we did.We pick a few big bets each week that can live in the flow of the work you see here. That way we make sure that company goals and needs are both met.Actual tasks are not tracked on this board. They are on my pretty eternal "Immediate Personal Kanban" which has been up long enough for the title stickies to be faded and the "Options" column to actually say ready. (Let this be a testimony to super sticky post its).The two items in doing are the two items in the purple ticket.Mea Culpa - While writing this I "remembered" three other things to put on the portfolio wall and two more things on this board.So ... the important thing to remember is that Personal Kanban is always an exercise to keeping track, keeping honest, and keeping control. We lose track, we lie to ourselves, and we surely lose control all the time. Don't lose heart, just know that this is part of being human and busy.The Exercise:
Take several colors of Super Stickies
Decide colors for title, big bet, active work (what you need to do), status (what is in flight and you don't need to act on right now), and current WIP.
Start writing down all your responsibilities as projects / big bets
Ask yourself as you go along, "Is this how I want to spend my time?"
Note big bets, projects, or tasks that you answer "no" to.
Begin to strategize how to make that work improve or go away.
Systematically and calmly do the rest.
My goal at the end of any day is to get those red stickies to disappear. In essence, turning the board into active tasks I've let fly. In this way, I'm able to keep multiple responsibilities in flight while limiting my WIP.Over time, I've asked myself that question a lot. It's led Toni and me to select customers carefully and extract ourselves from situations in which we were personally invested, but didn't lead to a healthy company or healthy Toni and Jim.So, be busy ... but be busy right.