How Kanban Can Help You Be More Productive
One of the key benefits of multi-tabbed browsers is that users can open multiple websites in one window and switch between them with ease. However, the disadvantage for many of us who read a lot is that we eventually end up with too many tabs open. Should we call ourselves “multi-tabbers?”
Generally, I reach a point once every few weeks when I have tens of tabs open all at once. As a result, I resist opening new tabs. At the same time, I cannot concentrate on the older tabs, which leads me to feel some anxiety.
The good news is that I found a plugin called “TooManyTabs” that assists in suspending tabs for later retrieval. This has helped me suspend the less important articles so I can concentrate on the important ones. This was an immense help to me when I was clearing up my backlog of tabs.
During this process of suspending and retrieving tabs, I realized that I am applying one of the key principles of kanban: I’m limiting the work in progress to improve my lead time.
In my case, the lead time is the time between opening a new tab to read an article and when I close the article after I read it. My goal was to reduce this lead time. Based on my personal experience of implementing kanban, I know that lead time can be reduced by reducing the “work in progress” (WIP) or by improving throughput by reducing waste. These principles are not new; Littles’s Law says it all.
I started by reducing the WIP. The first rule to reduce WIP is to set the maximum limit, which in my case meant that I could only have three tabs open at a given time—a comfortable number for me to work with. During the course of the day, I kept monitoring the tab count and as soon as it reached the limit, I stopped creating new tabs or I revisited the tabs to suspend the less important ones.
My next step was to identify the muda, or wastes, to improve the throughput. As we know in the knowledge workers’ circle, there are seven types of wastes. This website gives a good overview of different wastes, and in particular “task switching.”
In my personal example of having too many tabs, I found that task switching was the key source of waste. To eliminate this waste, I decided that I would not move to a new tab without completing the current one.
After applying all of the above kanban principles, can I say that I improved the lead time and reduced my stress? Yes, indeed. I encourage you to look at your personal life and identify the areas you want to target in order to improve lead time and eliminate wastes.
