Personal Kanban Software

How To Select the Right Personal Kanban Software

What is а Personal Kanban Software?

A personal Kanban software allows you to organize your workflow by applying the Kanban methodology.

A Kanban software lets you visualize your work with the help of a Kanban board.

In its basic form, a personal Kanban board consist of three columns (labeled from left to right): To-Do, Doing (In progress), and Done.

What is Kanban and What is Used For?

If you strive to work more efficiently, it is likely that you have heard about Kanban methodology used to manage and track workflow.

Kanban rises in Toyota’s lean manufacturing techniques and in the recent years gained popularity in the IT world.

Today, it is used almost in every business sector because it is credited with reducing waste, improving productivity, and boosting quality.

Yet many people have trouble realizing exactly how to put the Kanban method into practice.

A Kanban system is based on three key ideas:

· Visualization – The workflow is represented visually

· Pull-based – Work progresses only when you are ready for more and pull a task

· Work-In-Progress (WIP) Limits – Multitasking kills productivity, thus only a limited number of tasks are allowed at each stage.

While a Kanban system can be visually represented with a whiteboard and sticky notes, there are lots of standout personal Kanban board software that support Kanban in the cloud.

How to Select the Right Personal Kanban Software?

The key to selecting the right Kanban software is flexibility. Whether you are using Kanban, eXtreme Programming (XP), or Scrum methodology, the software should fit your needs, not the other way around.

For example, key features in a Kanban Software are:

· Ease-of-use — Is it easy to add new columns and Kanban cards to your workflow or does it involve multiple steps? How intuitive is the tool? Does it allow one-click drag-and-drop option?

· Templates — The perfect Kanban software should let you create your own workflow by adding as many columns as you need to visualize your work process step-by-step (column-by-column).

· Filtering — Kanban boards should be easy to visualize the work, but big projects can make visualization difficult. Thus, you will need a Kanban software that lets you filter tasks and cards with the help of tags and labels.

· Attachments — if the projects you manage require exchanging many attachments and inline files that need a quick preview, then consider a tool that will allow you to attach them to the board.

· Search Functionality — If you have many tasks on the board and a complex workflow, filtering may not be enough. Having a search functionality make it easier for you to find items on your board. Look for a Kanban software which allows you to perform quick searches.

With all the features that exist, it can be overwhelming to decide your requirements.

However, one of Kanban’s biggest strengths is its simplicity, and many experts advise using the simplest Kanban software.

How Personal Kanban Works

Workflow visualization is the heart of personal Kanban. Kanban addresses issues around multitasking and helps people to stay focused.

Reducing multitasking is achievable by applying one of the core Kanban principles – limiting work in progress (WIP). The WIP principle is what makes Kanban different to being just a task board or a to-do list in a spreadsheet.

Since Kanban is a pull system rather than a push system, you can take on as much work as you can handle.

If you can manage only two task at a time, then you can have your two tasks and then only when you finish one card, you can pull the next one. Having a limited pull system helps you stay focused and organized.

Any personal Kanban software should be something very simple – for example, a column and to-do lists.

In that sense, Flow-e is excellent for managing your personal task and life because it doesn’t force you into using the structure you’ll find in Kanban software made for a complex business project management.

Why Personal Kanban Works

Kanban is useful at helping people stay focused and organized as it forces them to think through their tasks and work in order to map it to a Kanban board.

Personal Kanban creates a narrative of work because Kanban helps to transform our work into a story. For example, let’s say that you want to organize your family chores.

Visualizing chores on a Kanban board turns them into a game that’s compelling for all ages.

Often work could be a collection of unrelated tasks, but laying them out on a Kanban board, they become a series of events that impact each other and flow.

What are the benefits of using a personal Kanban software?

· Increased productivity and saved time;

· Less chaos in your life, which leads to less stress;

· Better focus on your work, which leads to better quality;

· No time wasted on “big bang” planning. Instead, you break down your tasks into small chunks;

· No more multitasking, because you have a clear view of the tasks you should be working on.

What Should You Know Before Choosing a Personal Kanban Software?

When choosing a personal Kanban software for life events and work visualization, it is good to consider such a tool that will allow you to align with some of the most efficient productivity methods for email and task management – Getting Things Done (GTD), Inbox Zero, Pomodoro, and Kanban, to name a few.

Since Flow-e integrates with Office365, it makes it an excellent personal Kanban software for managing projects in different business areas.

Flow-e is exceptionally flexible Kanban tool offering the following benefits:

· Clean, streamlined interface;

· Integrates with Office365;

· Allows easy organization of emails;

· Simplifies task response;

· Group cards into conversation;

· Set due dates;

· Add To-Do lists;

· Add notes to your Kanban cards;

· Built-in email/task delegation;

· Integrates Kanban principles and workflow into email and time management;