## What is kanban Kanban is simple and clear grid-like arrangement, which is used in several software tools, including Odoo, Trello, Kanbanote and Ayoa. Kanban is psychologically reassuring because all cards are visible. This satisfies the brain that you’re managing ‘everything’ and eliminates worry. I feel sure that [David Allen](https://gettingthingsdone.com/) would agree with this in terms of #GTD, where the approach is getting your ideas and concerns out of the mind and written down. Kanban is a scheduling system for lean or just-in-time manufacturing, developed by Taiichi Ohno, an industrial engineer at Toyota, to improve efficiency. It takes its name from the cards that track production within a factory. The kanban method maintains inventory levels and signals when to produce and deliver a new shipment as material is consumed. It brings visibility to suppliers and buyers, and highlights problem areas by measuring lead time and cycle time of processes and their component stages. Kanban is used in software development to manage and share work. This approach aims to balance demand with available capacity by improving the handling of bottlenecks. ## Kanban Implemented Software Trello, Kanbanote (for Evernote), Odoo, and Ayoa all use Kanban. Kanban is at the heart of this system to publish an internet site through Evernote. Its aim is to tag Evernotes ‘published’ and then convert an Evernote stack into a website with postach.io. ![[kanban-at-the-heart-of-the-system.png|Diagram showing Kanban as the central system for publishing via Evernote and postach.io]] ## Kanban using Trello The Trello kanban can help you to focus on the task at hand, whether personal or for work, from the operational to the strategic. The following Trello kanban helps to drive GTD activity: ![[trello-kanban.png|Screenshot of a Trello Kanban board with multiple columns and task cards]] ## Kanban using Ayoa [[Ayoa project planner and mind mapping]] uses a kanban-like presentation and has a very good modelling interface. ![[ayoa-workflow.png|Ayoa project planner interface displaying a Kanban-style workflow]] ## Kanban using Todoist [[Todoist as an effective task manager|Todoist]] remains one of the most flexible, the most available, the easiest to use and the most reliable task managers. Screen print of todoist kanban in [kanbanist](https://kanban.ist/): ![[todoist-kanbanist-overview.png|Overview of Todoist tasks displayed in Kanbanist with columns for task management]] Todoist has now integrated its own native kanban board. Below is an example of the kanban board view in todoist. Tasks in Todoist can also be presented in list format. ![[Todoist board view.png|Todoist's native Kanban board view showing tasks organized in columns]] Todoist sync is excellent, reliable and fast and it can quickly become a trusted system. The horizontal presentation of kanban is more natural, rather than the downward presentation in todoist. Todoist is very well suited to use with [[Getting Things Done (GTD) framework|Getting Things Done]] because it includes the notion of the inbox and can quickly become your trusted system. ## Kanban using Odoo Herewith is an example kanban in [Odoo](https://odoo.com/), to manage CRM, orders and direct order-related tasks. The kanban below displays various tasks from multiple projects, and current orders. Kanban is an excellent planning tool; it’s flexible; you can establish sequences and deadlines, with columns as stages or projects. ![[odoo-project-kanban.png|Odoo project management Kanban board with tasks and project stages]] ## Kanban in Gmail with Sortd [Sortd for Gmail](https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/sortd-for-gmail/aohlfneeliakfcefeffppfplagbccbni?hl=en-GB&utm_source=ext_sidebar) is a very interesting kanban, and is essentially an overlay on Gmail on Chrome, which allows you to organize your emails in a Kanban arrangement. You can set up columns freely, which turns emails into tasks that you can then complete. Emails can easily be moved from one column to another so that you can use your inbox as a task manager. ![[gmail-sortd-kanban.png|Sortd overlay on Gmail showing emails organized in Kanban columns]] Sortd bucks the trend of using your emails as task reminders because it is a sensible organization. Unfortunately, this system is only available on Chrome and is not available on Gmail mobile. So it has its limitations, since the organization that you give it on the desktop is no longer visible to you on mobile. Also there is a cost involved with [standard plan pricing](https://www.sortd.com/pricing) ranging from $10 for a starter to $29 for a business plan. ## Kanban using Kanbanote for Evernote The kanbanote dashboard system is useful for sorting Evernote content in a kanban format, to see the relationships between items and drive actions. ![[kanbanote-organising-evernote-content.png|Kanbanote dashboard organizing Evernote notes into Kanban columns]] This visual presentation is invaluable in a world of so many words. You can set up boards for projects with columns which correspond to the tags on your Evernotes, such now, next, soon, and waiting. ![[kanbanote-evernote-loop.png|Kanbanote board showing Evernote notes sorted by tags such as now, next, soon, and waiting]] The functional requirement is to have a way of sorting out captured data. If you’re like me, you capture questions, issues and observations in your note-taking tool, whether Evernote or another. But when you’re trying to make sense of the content, you may want to regroup notes from many different places. This system allows you to use Evernote as your GTD inbox and then arrange and filter notes by tag. ![[Funnel-with-ideas-and-Linking.png|Diagram illustrating the funneling of ideas and linking in a Kanban workflow]] The following video demonstrates a project with columns and tags now, next, soon or waiting, in any project folder.  This video shows how you can configure columns from any notebook.  The screen below shows how you can configure the columns in Kanbanote to reflect the tags current, next, soon, waiting and someday. Each column will display notes with the corresponding tag. ![[planner-in-kanbanote.png|Kanbanote planner interface with customizable columns reflecting Evernote tags]] In Evernote, you can select the notes tagged above.  This system, therefore, allows you to capture freely into Evernote and then to focus on things that you should be doing, can do and want to do. You can also combine Kanbanote with the Evernote task system, which allows you to establish tasks within a note and to display an overall task list, as shown below. ![[evernote-task-list.png|Evernote task list showing tasks within notes, integrated with Kanbanote]] This can form quite a powerful combination, allowing you to get an overview of action notes by tag in Kanbanote, and then set tasks within action each individual Evernote. ## Conclusion All the software systems above use the kanban principal, which is clear, and clarity is important when there’s a lot to do. Although the choice of software tool is yours, we recommend those that use the kanban presentation. It’s a simple ‘one after the other’ arrangement, which the brain can easily understand at a glance.