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Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
Personal Kanban summary
Jim Benson & Tonianne DeMaria Barry
Mapping Work / Navigating Life
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Key idea 1 of 8
4.1 (112 ratings)
17 mins
8 key ideas
Audio & text
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.
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.
Table of Contents
Key idea 1 of 8
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.
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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
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