Using a Kanban board to manage work

Use of Project management and lean ideals to help guide my work has proven to be helpful. As a joint clinical and academic librarian, I find that my tasks are varied and plentiful! In my role as part of the Information Literacy Librarian team   at Xavier University, we have all been introduced to the concept of working lean and agile.  To institute this new way of working and thinking into our everyday workflows, we have been taking classes each semester to help us make the concepts more relatable to our daily tasks.

One of my biggest take- aways from this training has been the idea of using a Kanban Board. I have found this simple adjustment as made a world of difference for helping me plan and organize my projects and my daily routines. The idea is a simple one. Keep a tangible board in one place to list all the work that must be completed, that I am currently working on and what has been completed for the week.

The ideas behind the Kanban board are more complex than I am making it seem, but the outcome for me as been a positive one. This simple board has allowed me to see where I am on a given day on a task. I even try to reward myself for a job well done once I move my task to completed. You can find out more about this idea in many articles, and You tube videos. Here is a link to one that was shared during my training. Happy task managing!

Marlowe Bogino