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Kanban and Pomodoro

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I’m always tinkering with new ways to better manage my time and todo lists.

I’ve tried most of the online todo apps (RememberTheMilk, Todoist, etc.), I’ve tried pen and paper, and I’ve used things like org-mode in Emacs. These all work but I always find myself slowly loosing interest in them and looking for something else.

Lately I’ve been experimenting with two techniques that seem to be working really well.

  • Kanban

Kanban is a method for developing software products and processes with an emphasis on just-in-time delivery while not overloading the software developers. It emphasizes that developers pull work from a queue, and the process, from definition of a task to its delivery to the customer, is displayed for participants to see

  • Pomodoro

The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s. The technique uses a timer to break down periods of work into 25-minute intervals called ‘Pomodoros’ (from the Italian word for ’tomatoes’) separated by breaks.

Kanban

I’ve always been intrigued by scrum and agile process but there is no buy-in on those processes where I work so I needed something a bit simpler to use myself. Kanban fit the bill nicely. Normally you use a board and physical cards, but I telecommute and didn’t want to drag a board back and forth to the office with me :) so I investigated some online tools.

There are a ton of tools out there and I tried several including KanbanFlow which combines Kanban with a pomodoro timer. In the end I selected Trello.

I use (Redmine) as my bug tracker and all customer requests get logged there.

When I log an issue in Redmine I also add the related task(s) to my Kanban board:

My ‘board’ has several lists:

  • Backlog - list of everything I need to do (usually associated with an issue in my bug tracker)
  • Do Today - Every morning I review my backlog and move things I’m going to tackle to this list
  • Doing Now - This is where I place one item that I’m working on (see Pomodoro below)
  • Done This Week - As I complete thing they move here and at the end of the week I can fill out my timesheet based on what I worked on
  • Completed - finished task. Within Trello you can ‘archive’ items so they no longer clutter your workspace.

Within Trello I’m using their ’labels’ to identify tasks for different projects. This lets me see everything, or I can apply a filter and see specifics for each project. It’s a bit of a kludge but so far it works OK.

Pomodoro Technique

So once I’ve defined what I’m going to work on for the day I get into the Pomodoros. I’m still trying to discipline myself to do this but when I do I feel more focused. The pomodoro folks recommend using an egg timer but again I can’t have that going off in the office so I use an Air based timer called FocusBooster.

Focus Booster

I move my task to the ‘Doing Now’ list, start my timer and chug on some code. The pomodoro encourages taking regular breaks so I usually do get up and get away from my desk when these roll around. I’m still struggling with interuptions and how to deal with them. This is less an issue when I work from home.

Combining both techinues seems to have increased my orginization, and reduced the ‘what am I supposed to work on next’ confusion I used to find myself in. And the Kanban is relaxed enough if I’m feeling a bit uninspired I can pick some low hanging fruit out of the backlog or if I’m feeling motivated I can tackle some more challenging tasks.