Personal Kanban Book Summary - Personal Kanban Book explained in key points

Listen to the Intro

00:00

Personal Kanban summary

Name: Personal Kanban
Rating: 4.1 (130 reviews)
Author: Jim Benson & Tonianne DeMaria Barry

Jim Benson & Tonianne DeMaria Barry

Mapping Work / Navigating Life

4.1 (130 ratings)

17 mins

Topics

Effectiveness

Table of Contents

Personal Kanban
Summary of 8 key ideas

Audio & text in the Blinkist app

Key idea 1 of 8

What’s in it for me? Use Personal Kanban to get a grip on your time.

If you browse the internet or your local bookstore, you’ll find an abundance of time management methods; some are no more than blown-up to-do lists, while others are based on complex computer algorithms. However, they usually all have one thing in common – their ineffectiveness.

At some point, most of us have attempted to get a grasp on our management of time, but none of the available methods get the job done – and we’re still pressed for time!

So why should you try Personal Kanban? Because the Kanban system has been proven to work. Developed by Toyota to streamline production, Kanban worked extremely well, allowing Toyota to reduce production costs while maintaining a high level of quality. Other companies began to adopt the Kanban system – and many of them use it to this day.

Personal Kanban is based on that original Kanban, but it’s been customized for your personal use; for instance, you can customize it to fit with any shifts in your lifestyle.

In these blinks, you’ll learn how to draw a map of all your goals and tasks – both at home and at work – and to visualize them as they move toward completion. Personal Kanban puts an end to procrastination and enables you to regain control of your time.

By reading these blinks, you’ll also learn

about the connection between Piggly Wiggly and a balanced life;
why Personal Kanban is much better than deadlines and to-do lists; and
what unfinished tasks can do to your mind.

A work-life imbalance can cause you to lose sight of meaningful goals, but the Personal Kanban can help.

Have you ever been overloaded with work, stressed out and struggling to find a free moment to kick back and relax? At times like this, even simple pleasures such as meeting friends for a drink seem like a far-off impossibility. Why does this happen?

It all has to do with how we separate our work time from our personal time, a tendency that disturbs our work-life balance. It does this because our personal life and our work life are inseparable parts of the same life. In an ideal world, both aspects of your life are meaningful to you, but a problem arises when you allocate all your time and energy to planning just one part of your life.

For instance, while you might find it silly to jot down a reminder to hang out with friends, you probably readily write to-do lists for work, a fact that may lead to your pursuing work goals until day’s end, at which point you have no energy for socializing.

But that’s not the only problem. When you treat your life and work as separate entities, you risk permanently forgoing life-changing goals, like living abroad or more ethically. That’s because goals like that require taking action in both your work and your personal life. So, if you don’t plan out your goals with both these sides in mind, you likely won’t achieve them.

For example, living a healthier life requires more than exercising and eating a few pieces of fruit. To truly achieve better health, you’ll need to reduce stress by doing things like taking regular breaks from work.

Okay – so you’re ready to plan for both sides of your life. But how do you do it?

With the Personal Kanban. A tool that will help you visualize and plan your to-dos as well as your activities, the Personal Kanban will also put you on the road to achieving your long-term goals.

Kanban was developed for companies, but Personal Kanban is customized for your life.

While visiting America, the thing that most impressed Taiichi Ohno, a Toyota engineer, was a trip to the local supermarket. He’d never seen such perfectly stocked shelves. The supermarket, instead of ordering and stocking vast quantities of everything, had on hand only what their customers tended to purchase. Ohno realized that such an approach could greatly improve Toyota’s assembly line – and thus Kanban, aimed at optimizing industrial production, was born.

Since Ohno’s goal was to cut costs while maintaining the quality of the finished product, the obvious area to target was inventory; storing things is expensive and doesn’t mean better cars.

Building your Personal Kanban is as easy as choosing a medium, putting it in place and following three simple steps.

So, you’ve decided that your life would benefit from improved organization. Well, all you need is a pen, a whiteboard and some sticky notes to start mapping your workflow and boosting your productivity.

How do you do this?

Working with Personal Kanban is just another four steps away.

Now that you’ve set up your Personal Kanban, you’re ready to start using it. Your first job is to take on new tasks and get your workflow going. Do so by following step four and five:

Step four is to pick the most pressing tasks from your backlog and place them in your workflow. When doing this, it’s key to put the most urgent tasks into the READY column of your board.

Personal Kanban is full of pluses.

It can be hard to turn down juicy new projects, but sometimes saying no is the best thing you can do. Thankfully, Personal Kanban can make you more effective by limiting the number of things on your to-do list.

Why’s this so key?

Personal Kanban will help you unearth problems before they get out of hand.

Do you remember, back in 2006, when NASA sent the New Horizon space shuttle to Pluto? To get where it was going, the spacecraft needed to correct its trajectory, mid-flight, by a precise 5m/sec. If the shuttle’s path hadn’t been adjusted, it would have missed the planet by 80,000 km!

Sometimes small adjustments made early mean major effects down the line. This is good news, because Personal Kanban’s continuous feedback lets you tackle problems while they’re still small. For instance, for that space shuttle, making a small, early correction ensured the desired result with the least disruption.

Personal Kanban is a better motivator than deadlines, as long as you keep a couple of things in mind.

MIT researchers once conducted an experiment in which three groups of students were required to submit papers; each group had a different deadline. The first group had a clear due date, the second was allowed to choose their own and the third was told to submit their paper anytime during the semester.

The results?

You can flexibly adapt your Personal Kanban to meet your needs.

Did you know that Danish designers developed a new type of house with flexible walls, moveable outlets and the ability to change shape as the owner’s desires change? If you have another child, for instance, you can add a room – just like that! If you want to expand your living room, you can move a wall without a second thought. Wouldn’t it be great if life were customizable? Well, Personal Kanban works in the same way.

For example, you can add a TODAY column to your board, maybe before the DOING column, to which you pull tasks for the day. This can be a helpful addition, as people often fail to complete all of a day’s tasks. The TODAY column works by helping you track your achievements and determine your daily capacity. Say you just began teaching. You optimistically pull “mark 60 essays” into your TODAY column and proceed to work until your eyes are bleary, and there are still 30 papers to grade. Now you know how much work you can realistically complete in a day.

Want to see all full key ideas from Personal Kanban?

Key ideas in Personal Kanban

More knowledge in less time

Read or listen

Get the key ideas from nonfiction bestsellers in minutes, not hours.

Find your next read

Get book lists curated by experts and personalized recommendations.

Shortcasts ^New

We’ve teamed up with podcast creators to bring you key insights from podcasts.

What is Personal Kanban about?

Personal Kanban (2011) is an adaptable tool for visually oriented people. It’ll help you to organize your life and your work, and to strike a balance between the two. These blinks teach you how to set up your own Kanban and how to put it into action, thereby maximizing your efficiency; they also provide insights into life patterns, allowing you to measure progress and limit the tasks on your plate.

Best quote from Personal Kanban

Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted. - John Lennon

—Jim Benson & Tonianne DeMaria Barry

Who should read Personal Kanban?

Professionals in search of a dynamic and flexible life management tool
Anyone struggling to strike a balance between life and work
Creative people who find themselves unmotivated by rigid, one-dimensional to-do lists

About the Author

Jim Benson has worked for a broad range of organizations – from government agencies to Fortune 10 corporations to startups. He co-owns the software development copy Modus Cooperandi and is a management consultant who uses Personal Kanban to improve working environments.

Tonianne DeMaria Barry is a management consultant. She’s worked in the fashion industry as well as for government agencies, non-profit associations, Fortune 100 corporations and startups.

Categories with Personal Kanban

Productivity

Books like Personal Kanban

Change by Design

Tim Brown

How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation

17 min

4.2

The Pomodoro Technique

Francesco Cirillo

The effective method of structuring your workday into small, manageable chunks

Winning at the Game of Work and the Business of Life

A Novel about IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win

30 min

4.5

Organize Tomorrow Today

Jason Selk

Eight Ways to Retrain Your Mind to Optimize Performance at Work and in Life

18 min

4.5

The Elements of Scrum

Chris Sims and Hillary Louise Johnson

A guide to every aspect of Scrum

16 min

4.0

Learning Agile

Andrew Stellman and Jennifer Greene

Understanding Scrum, XP, Lean, and Kanban

17 min

4.4

Thinking, Fast and Slow

Daniel Kahneman

Intuition or deliberation? Where you can (and can't) trust your brain

Get More Done One Thing at a Time

Creating a Successful Work-Life Balance

22 min

4.3

The Bullet Journal Method

Ryder Carroll

Track the Past, Order the Present, Design the Future

26 min

4.3

The Checklist Manifesto

Atul Gawande

How to Get Things Right

16 min

4.1

Black-and-White Thinking

Kevin Dutton

The Burden of a Binary Brain in a Complex World

23 min

4.5

How to Make People Like You in 90 Seconds or Less

Nicholas Boothman

Make Instant, Meaningful Connections for Interviewing, Selling, Managing, Pitching

18 min

4.2

The 12 Week Year

Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington

Get More Done in 12 Weeks than Others Do in 12 months

21 min

4.6

Continuous Discovery Habits

Teresa Torres

Discover Products that Create Customer Value and Business Value

20 min

4.2

Emotional Intelligence

How to Implement Flexibility in the Workplace to Improve Employee and Business Performance

A Strategic Plan to Improve Your Health and Life Through Food

25 min

4.5

The 4 Disciplines of Execution

Chris McChesney

Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals

17 min

4.4

Manage Your Day-To-Day

99U and Jocelyn K. Glei

Build Your Routine, Find Your Focus and Sharpen Your Creative Mind

18 min

4.2

You Can Fix Your Brain

Dr. Tom O'Bryan

Just 1 Hour a Week to the Best Memory, Productivity, and Sleep You've Ever Had

19 min

4.1

My Morning Routine

Benjamin Spall and Michael Xander

How Successful People Start Every Day Inspired

27 min

4.1

The Gap and the Gain

Dan Sullivan with Benjamin Hardy

The High Achievers' Guide to Happiness, Confidence, and Success

20 min

4.6

The Long View

Brian Fetherstonhaugh

Career Strategies to Start Strong, Reach High, and Go Far

Lose Weight, Supercharge Your Energy, and Sleep Well Every Night

20 min

4.5

Excellent Advice for Living

Kevin Kelly

Wisdom I Wish I'd Known Earlier

13 min

4.2

Mindful Self-Discipline

Giovanni Dienstmann

Living with Purpose and Achieving Your Goals in a World of Distractions

18 min

4.5

The ONE Thing

Gary Keller and Jay Papasan

The surprisingly simple truth behind extraordinary results

A Guide for Occupants

29 min

4.5

The Procrastination Cure

Damon Zahariades

21 Proven Tactics for Conquering Your Inner Procrastinator, Mastering Your Time, and Boosting Your Productivity!

Living More with Less

101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think

Brianna Wiest

Philosophical Meditations That Will Change Your Life

12 min

4.4

How to Take Smart Notes

Sönke Ahrens

One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking – for Students, Academics and Nonfiction Book Writers

How to Create an Agile Business in the Digital Age

21 min

4.4

A Short History of Nearly Everything

Bill Bryson

A journey into the most intriguing and intractable questions that science seeks to answer

38 min

4.5

The Great Money Reset

Jill Schlesinger

Change Your Work, Change Your Wealth, Change Your Life

17 min

3.9

Building a Second Brain

Tiago Forte

A Proven Method to Organize Your Digital Life and Unlock Your Creative Potential

A Guide to What Matters Most

366 Meditations on Power, Seduction, Mastery, Strategy, and Human Nature

A Guide to Becoming the Best Possible Version of Yourself, One Tiny Habit at a Time

15 min

4.3

The Bullseye Principle

David Lewis and G. Riley Mills

Mastering Intention-Based Communication to Collaborate, Execute, and Succeed

Healing the Shame-Fueled Relationship Between What You Eat and How You Feel

18 min

4.6

Make Change Work for You

Scott Steinberg

Ten Ways to Future-Proof Yourself, Innovate Fearlessly and Succeed Despite Uncertainty

16 min

4.1

The 12-week Fitness Project

Rujuta Diwekar

Going Beyond Weight Loss for Better Sleep, Energy, and Bloating

16 min

4.2

The Free-Time Formula

Jeff Sanders

Finding Happiness, Focus, and Productivity No Matter How Busy You Are

12 Ways to Accelerate Growth for an Agile Business

Find Your Focus, Own Your Attention, 12 Minutes a Day

20 min

4.6

Thanks for the Feedback

Douglas Stone

The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well

15 min

4.4

People ❤️ Blinkist

Sven O.

It's highly addictive to get core insights on personally relevant topics without repetition or triviality. Added to that the apps ability to suggest kindred interests opens up a foundation of knowledge.

Thi Viet Quynh N.

Great app. Good selection of book summaries you can read or listen to while commuting. Instead of scrolling through your social media news feed, this is a much better way to spend your spare time in my opinion.

Jonathan A.

Life changing. The concept of being able to grasp a book's main point in such a short time truly opens multiple opportunities to grow every area of your life at a faster rate.

Renee D.

Great app. Addicting. Perfect for wait times, morning coffee, evening before bed. Extremely well written, thorough, easy to use.