To Kanban or not to Kanban?!
I know I said I wasn’t going to post here until after the orientation I will be leading for beginning teachers, in my building, a few weeks from now. However, I’m in the middle of deciding whether or not to try something out and thought a blog post might be the place to think this through; along side others (my readers) who may, from time to time, find themselves deciding whether to try something that may or may not help them with their practice.
I consider myself to be a pretty organized person. I also consider myself someone who manages his time well. I am debating whether or not to start using the Kanban method in combination with my task manager OmniFocus. Specifically, I’m wondering if the visualization of what it is I do as a teacher will provide me any valuable insights. As I write this I am reminded that I am in the midst of my "Year of Gain" so if I only play around with this for a little while it will, by default, fit nicely with my yearly theme; even if that insight is that using Kanban is not worth the time.
I’ve already started to create an experimental Kanban. It’s pretty basic, 3 columns; “Need to be done,” “Working on,” and “Done.”
I thought it would be smart to start off simple. The reader will notice that I am using the Obsidian iPadOS app to create this board. I just learned recently that there was a plugin within the app that allows for the creation of such a board. The reader will also notice that my cards all have links to my OmniFocus tasks. These tasks or actions all relate to the Project I am testing this all out with; School. Most of the tasks/actions I create are, in my mind, single action and/or recurring. When I say single action I mostly mean that I am the person doing them and I don’t mark them complete until they are done. Purists of OmniFocus may disagree with my interpretation of single action.
For example, if you look back at my experimental Kanban you will see the task, “Set up Classroom.” I’m sure there are people that would debate whether or not “that” is actually a task/action or a project as it implies that there are surely several things that need to get done in order for the classroom to be; set up. I agree with this thinking to a degree but do not see any value in creating a series of tasks/actions that would fall under “Set up Classroom” when I know exactly what those things are and do them when I am in the room setting it up. I picture myself, with that massive list, stopping and checking things off as they get completed then moving on to the next thing and I think; what a waste of time! Why not just write “Set up Classroom” and go…set it up!? I guess we could continue to debate this but that’s not really the point of this post.
Having the OmniFocus links embedded within the cards on the Kanban allows me to go straight to OmniFocus while using the board. This feels, without having tested it out yet, like it would be efficient IF there is value in the visual aspect of Kanban. Is it going to be valuable to me when I go into my classroom, to see these cards, in this configuration? Maybe I’m asking the wrong question. Maybe the question is, Is it important to see, on July 26th, that I have 3 things that need to be “done” by August 11th in this configuration? What insights am I gaining seeing these things on the Kanban? Do I not already know any/all of “this” by looking at my OmniFocus list? The only way I’m going to get answers to these questions is to try it out. I will come back here to report on what it was like.
