My experimentation with personal kanban systems has been well documented here. I am a fan of using a digital personal kanban board to manage tasks and projects for work, personal, and blog activities. Now there is a new tool to help you be more productive. It is webapp called KanbanFlow.
KanbanFlow is completely free to use, and once you've signed up the 2 minute tutorial will walk you through the process of creating tasks, moving them across your boards, flagging your to-dos with colors, adding and managing subtasks, and even setting up the built-in Pomodoro timer to work with the to-dos you've added. Adding items and managing them is super-easy, and you can set a timer for any to-do on your boards, including subtasks. If you don't want to cram all of your to-dos onto the same board, you can create as many boards as you want to organize all of your activities.
The service allows has a number of great features like like creating as many Kanban boards as you like. Each board can be shared or kept private, individually. So you can use both work related boards and private boards on the same account without problem. You can easily switch between your boards, which is practical if you happen to be involved in several projects on a daily basis.
If you are working with a team, you can invite them to the service to work with you, and you'll be notified when they update your boards. You can instantly see what other people are working on right now, what has been done and what is coming up.
KanbanFlow is currently in beta, but it's pretty polished and remarkably fast. Your board is easily customize from the Administration menu and it is portable thanks to the internet.
The Lean educator in me is always looking for effective ways to teach and reinforce Lean Thinking. I recently had the opportunity to review a great educational product called the Lean Product Cards.
The Lean Thinking Pocket Cards pictured above were created by Pascal Dennis teach Lean concepts with a light touch. The images are funny, intuitive, and teach concepts fundamental to the world's most powerful business system. Each card illustrates a core Lean Thinking concept and contrasts it with conventional thinking., to prompt your thinking and guide you to your True North. Topics covered: Leadership, Problem Solving, Planning, Simplicity, Pull, Flow, Standards, and Quality at the Source.
A few months ago the Lean Learning Solutions Team lead by Pascal released the Lean Tools Pocket Cards. The twelve Lean Tools cards are designed to provide you with a visual overview and detailed view of the most common tools used in Lean organizations. Topics covered include: Strategy Deployment, Waste, Visual Order (5S), Visual Control, Standardized Work, Total Productive Maintenance (TPM), Problem Solving, Problem Solving Tools, Kaizen, Kanban, Poka Yoke, and Quick Changeover.
Learning and changing thinking requires constant reflection and reinforcement. As the saying goes "a picture is worth a thousand words" these visual cards are extremely powerful. These cards can be used by executives to machine operators and everyone in between successfully. They are small and durable so you can carry them everywhere and refer to them as you need.
If you still aren't sold on them here is a video with Pascal talking about the Lean pocket cards:
I recommend these cards for any organization looking for educational materials to reinforce their Lean Journey. My organization is going to use these and the Lean Leadership Pocket cards coming soon. Buy your cards today.
pictured above were created by 
. The twelve Lean Tools cards are designed to provide you with a visual overview and detailed view of the most common tools used in Lean organizations. Topics covered include: Strategy Deployment, Waste, Visual Order (5S), Visual Control, Standardized Work, Total Productive Maintenance (TPM), Problem Solving, Problem Solving Tools, Kaizen, Kanban, Poka Yoke, and Quick Changeover.