{"id":11984,"date":"2018-04-25T08:53:39","date_gmt":"2018-04-25T13:53:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.planview.com\/?p=11984"},"modified":"2020-02-03T08:58:32","modified_gmt":"2020-02-03T14:58:32","slug":"regain-focus-with-kanban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.planview.com\/regain-focus-with-kanban\/","title":{"rendered":"Regain Focus with Kanban"},"content":{"rendered":"

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How often do you find yourself at work flipping between tabs, unable to complete a thought before moving onto something else? You go from answering an email to checking a Facebook notification to reading some LinkedIn article, and then – what was I doing? Oh yeah, answering that email.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the digital equivalent of walking into a room and forgetting why you needed to go in there – and we do it\u00a0all the time.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Throughout the work day, our brains flutter from meetings to emails to calls with little room to breathe. During our lunch \u201cbreaks,\u201d we\u2019re working, thinking about work, or scrolling through something on our phones. We\u2019re multitasking while we work, eat, and even use the restroom.<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, we\u2019re exhausted – with little energy left to spare for hobbies or exercise or spending quality time with our loved ones.<\/p>\n

Trying to multitask, constantly, during all waking hours, is making us anxious, depressed, and socially isolated — but it doesn\u2019t have to be this way. \u00a0At the heart of all of these issues is our inability to focus, which stems from a lack of intentionality. If we can be more intentional with our time and energy, we can regain the focus we need to feel fulfilled by work again – and keep it from bleeding into the other parts of our lives.<\/p>\n

But how do we find intentionality in our work when there is so much to do, all the time? It\u2019s not easy – but it is possible.\u00a0Kanban<\/a>\u00a0(pronounced\u00a0kahn-bahn<\/em>) is a way of thinking about and managing work that can bring discipline and focus into your workday. Kanban provides that clarity through this one concept: Visualize your workflow. Visualizing your workflow sounds like an overly simplistic solution, but it can truly work wonders on your ability to think and work with clarity and purpose. By encouraging you to identify, prioritize, and intentionally complete work items one at a time, Kanban can help combat the damaging effects of multitasking in a hyper-stimulated world.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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VISUALIZATION AND WHY IT MATTERS<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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There are two elements to this concept: First, visualization. We are bombarded by textual information – emails, texts, articles, notifications, etc. every day. It can feel impossible to keep all of this information straight – especially when you\u2019re trying to decide what to work on or how to prioritize your time. This is because our brains aren\u2019t designed to process so much text information at once – in fact,\u00a0research shows<\/a> that the more information we try to process, the less effectively we\u2019re able to filter through information. The more distracted we are by information, the less able to make informed decisions about what is or is not important – sounds like an ideal mindset for working, right?<\/p>\n

Luckily, our brains\u00a0are<\/em>\u00a0designed to efficiently absorb visual information<\/a>\u00a0– so the more we visualize what\u2019s most important to us, the more likely we will be able to stay on task and get things done.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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GAINING CONTROL OVER YOUR WORKFLOW (AND WHY YOU SHOULD CARE)<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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The second element is workflow – Kanban is all about gaining control over your process, and this starts by visualizing it accurately. Your workflow is the mechanism by which work goes from To Do to Done. Without Kanban, most of our workflows look something like this:<\/p>\n

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Your goal should be to turn that squiggle into a straight line\u2026 You do this by figuring out upfront what steps need to be taken on a piece of work, and then doing them in that order. Sounds simple, right? But most of our processes are far from linear. Think about the last project you completed, and the process it went through to go from To Do to Done – was it linear? Did it move smoothly through your process, or did it stop and start and backtrack? Did you finish it on time, or did it take you longer than expected?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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KANBAN BASICS: BOARDS AND CARDS<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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Now that you know the what of Kanban, let\u2019s discuss the how. Kanban uses boards – Kanban boards – to represent your process, and cards to represent your work items. Every Kanban board reflects some version of this basic workflow: To Do, Doing, and Done.<\/p>\n

To Do > Doing > Done<\/p>\n

The first step to practicing Kanban is to customize your board to accurately reflect your unique process. Here are some examples of different Kanban boards for a marketing team, software development team, and an individual managing personal projects.<\/p>\n

Marketing: Backlog > Planning\/Research > Testing > Implementation > Analysis > Done<\/p>\n

Software Development: Backlog > Gather Requirements > Doing > QA > Deploy > Done<\/p>\n

Individual: To Do > Planning > Doing > Reviewing > Done<\/p>\n

What is that process for you? We can\u2019t tell you that – but we do have an exercise that can help you figure it out – download our\u00a0Kanban Roadmap<\/a>\u00a0to learn how to identify the steps in your process and design a Kanban board that reflects it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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