Organisation and the Writer

The Writer's Kanban:

I started reading Personal Kanban. A book about organising your tasks. I'm a big to-do list girl but am always open to new ideas for organisation and project management. The biggest problem I've found with most tools is when you try to combine several projects at once, for me that would be teaching, writing and home life.

This book was easily read in a day and I suspect it is one of those techniques that you have to use for a while before you appreciate it. It seems simple enough; write all your tasks on post it notes, stick them in the backlog (to-do) column, prioritise and move the ones you can work on now to the 'doing' column and move them to 'done' when finished. The key difference that I can spot between writing a to-do list and using this system is in a list all your tasks are there waiting to be done, it can be a bit overwhelming. Kanban insists you limit your WIPs, that is limit the number of tasks you allow in your 'doing' column.

I didn't have a whiteboard handy, so I improvised with my wardrobe pink is writing, blue is teaching (today was Mother's Day, so I felt no need to add domestic chores):

I'll try this for a while and let you know if it turns out to be a life-changer. You can find out more about the Kanban system by visiting the website:

http://www.personalkanban.com/pk/

Or view these slides:

Personal Kanban 101

I've been trying it out along with the Pomodoro technique - you work on a task for 25minutes, take a 5minute break and then move onto a different task for 25minutes. I've blogged about it before in:

8 Ways to Prioritise Writing

Or, you can find out more at:

http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/

Now I'm reading Seth Godin's Poke the Box: