New Approaches to Time Management: Mastering Personal Kanban
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Chapter 1: Understanding Time Management Challenges
For many of us, a typical day is filled with a whirlwind of activities: waking up, having breakfast, commuting to work, attending meetings, meeting deadlines, managing finances, writing proposals, shopping, exercising, cooking, and so on. The concept of "time" impacts us all in various ways, prompting reflections on how we organize our schedules and adapt to its pace. This, in turn, influences both our personal and professional lives.
Time is essentially a series of events that need to be coordinated among individuals, necessitating mutual agreements. The common reference for this coordination is the way the Earth orbits the sun, which we refer to as calendar time (Wolfgang Lücke: Kalenderzeit und Operational Time in der Betriebswirtschaftslehre, in Management und Zeit, 2000). Calendar time helps us schedule meetings and define our daily and weekly work hours.
In contrast, there is also a subjective perception of time. You might have experienced that time seems to fly when you are engaged in multiple activities, yet it appears to drag on when you're waiting for a train or sitting in a doctor's office. While the actual passage of time remains constant, our experience of it can vary greatly. What we can influence, however, is how we optimize our use of time.
Effective time management can be quite a hurdle. Perhaps some of these scenarios resonate with you:
- You find yourself easily distracted by emails and social media, making it hard to maintain focus.
- You begin numerous tasks but complete only a handful.
- It's unclear to you which tasks should take priority.
- You procrastinate on unpleasant duties for extended periods.
- You struggle to organize your tasks and lack a clear overview.
- Traditional to-do lists either don't work for you or only partially help.
- Your goals remain vague.
If this sounds familiar, you're not alone. A strategy that can help you regain control is Personal Kanban.
Chapter 2: The Golf Course Analogy
Have you ever thought about how golf courses manage to accommodate thousands of players in a single day? Typically, a golf course has eighteen holes, and it can seem vast, with most players unaware of others on the course besides their own group.
This system operates similarly to production management: the entire process consists of navigating eighteen holes, each representing a step in the overall workflow. Specific guidelines govern this process, including:
- A maximum of four players per hole (flight of four).
- A designated order of play.
- A fixed starting tee.
- Play is permitted only during daylight hours.
The groups playing on each hole represent the "Work in Progress" (WIP) limit for that hole. Different holes may take varying amounts of time to complete, but on average, it takes about ten minutes per hole. Assuming the first group tees off at 6:00 AM, it would take roughly 170 minutes for all holes to be filled. To optimize the experience, tournaments often start from different holes simultaneously.
After completing one hole, players must wait to tee off at the next hole based on the availability of the fairway. Players can only proceed when there is enough distance from the group ahead. Ideally, the preceding group will leave the course before the next group arrives, similar to the signal cards used in Kanban systems, enabling a seamless flow of play.
However, just as in production, disruptions can occur. Sometimes groups may take longer than the average ten minutes, either due to searching for lost balls or a slower pace of play, causing a backlog behind them. To mitigate such delays, rules are established, including a maximum search time for lost balls and allowing faster groups to overtake.
Certain golf courses require reservation of tee times to prevent overcrowding at peak hours (e.g., around 9:00 AM). Nonetheless, the pull principle remains in effect.
The golf course example demonstrates how managing work in progress (the number of players per hole) and employing the pull principle can regulate flow, allowing many players to enjoy the game throughout the day. In the upcoming chapters, we will explore these principles and practices in relation to Personal Kanban.
Chapter Overview:
- Chapter 1: Introduction
- Chapter 2: Understanding Time Management Challenges
- Chapter 3: The Principles of Kanban
- Chapter 4: Visualizing Workflow: The Kanban Board
- Chapter 5: Thematic Kanban Boards
- Chapter 6: Time Planning with Kanban
- Chapter 7: Limiting Work in Progress and Controlling Workflow
- Chapter 8: Continuous Improvement
- Chapter 9: Timeboxing Techniques
- Chapter 10: Utilizing User Stories
- Chapter 11: Applying the Pareto Rule and 72-Hour Rule
- Chapter 12: Digital Kanban Boards: Trello
- Chapter 13: Key Advantages
© 2020 Britta Ollrogge
Mastering Personal Kanban: Enhance Your Freelance Efficiency
Author: Britta Ollrogge
Independently published
This work, along with its components, is protected by copyright. Any reproduction or distribution without the author's consent is prohibited, particularly in electronic formats.