Personal Kanban

Flow

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.

Note: 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.