Barry, Tonianne DeMaria & Jim Benson. “Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life,” n.d., 135. [[2020-06-25]] 2 key principles: - visualize work - limit work in progress **It's better to pull than to push.** Instead of letting our backlog of to-do tasks overwhelm us (pushing), we focus on a few things at a time (our Work-in-Progress bucket), and only when those things are cleared do we take on another task from our backlog (pull). A nice illustration of the benefits of pulling is the story of moving an overloaded cart. If we push the cart, it can easily get snagged on a carpet and tip over or get blocked. If we pull the cart, it's easier to get it across uneven surfaces. Pulling gives us more control. We can anticipate changing circumstances and adjust accordingly. **We should optimize for flow, not capacity.** When we optimize for capacity, we often misjudge the available resources to perform a task. There isn't enough slack, buffer or reserves. If a waiter keeps filling our water glass, there will come a time when we can't drink anymore because we've had enough. For traffic to flow smoothly, we can't jam the freeway with too many cars. We must leave enough space to accomodate different driving styles and speeds. Adding one vehicle too many can cause a major traffic jam. Capacity is a spatial property, whereas flow is a temporal property. **Visualizing our work allows us to adjust.** When we drive a car, we make use of a lot of information. What we see in the mirrors. The fuel gauge. The speedometer. Road signs. These give us a field of awareness which allows us to drive effectively. We want constantly updated information. It doesn't help to start out the journey and know that we have 25 kilometers of fuel left and then have to keep track of this mentally. We want a real-time indicator. The Eisenhower Matrix doesn't place enough value on all the quadrants. Even tasks that are Not Important / Not Urgent have a value in our lives. Their value will change depending on the context. The quadrants are rigid, and don't allow for this fluctuation in value. Kanban provides us a story we can follow. We can see what we have accomplished, and what is coming up. It gives us a sense of satisfaction.