Kanban

Kanban turns invisible work visible. Every task is a card on a board with three columns: to do, doing, done. You move cards right as work progresses. The board answers "how are we doing?" at a glance, which is why teams and solo workers both adopt it.

This guide shows how to set a board up, how to run it day to day and how it looks in BluePomodoro, with real boards from the app.

Set up the board

1. 1Three columns to start

   To do, doing, done. Resist adding columns until the board hurts: simplicity is the feature.

2. 2Limit work in progress

   Cap "doing" at two or three cards. The limit is the method: it forces finishing over starting.

3. 3Move cards, do not rewrite them

   A card travels the whole way. The trail of done cards becomes your week at a glance.

4. 4Review daily, clear weekly

   One minute each morning: what is stuck in doing? Archive done every Friday and start clean.

Move cards across the board

In BluePomodoro a card moves by drag and drop. Pick one up in To do, drop it in In progress when you start, and drop it in Done when the work is real. Drop a card higher or lower in the same column to reorder it. The count in each column header updates as you go.

Keep an eye on the In progress count. When it keeps growing, you are starting more than you finish. That pile is the bottleneck, and the board shows it without a meeting.

Add a card in one line

Open Add a Task at the bottom of any column and type the way you think. Press @ to pick a teammate, # to pick a label and write "tomorrow" or "in 3 days" to set the due date. When you press Enter, the card appears in that column with everything filled in.

Give every card an owner, a label and steps

Click the avatars on a card to assign people, more than one when the work is shared. Add minitasks for the steps inside a card, and labels to see the kind of work at a glance. Avatars and due dates sit on the card, so the board shows who has what and what is due without opening anything.

One board per project

Every project has its own board, so a client, a product and your personal tasks never share a column. Switch with the project tabs: each board keeps its own cards, labels and teammates.

Why teams love it

• No status meetings needed: the board is the status.
• Bottlenecks show themselves as piles in one column.
• New work enters at the left, so priorities stay explicit instead of whispered.

Kanban and the Pomodoro timer

Kanban decides what to work on and the Pomodoro Technique decides for how long. Pull one card into In progress, run your rounds on it and drop it in Done. If you also plan your calendar, pair this guide with the Pomodoro Technique and time blocking.

Frequently asked questions