Using a kanban board to manage my life

2026-05-22 22:57 UTC

Has anyone else tried using a kanban board to manage the things they would normally forget to do? Specifically moving physical sticky notes through columns as you start and complete tasks. I’m a software engineer professionally, and it occurred to me that this organization method is natural to me for work, so maybe it would also work for life tasks. So far, I’ve gotten like 100x more tasks done than I normally do, but maybe it’s a short term thing. Need more time to tell.

Replies (8)

@Nemo@slrpnk.net 2026-05-22 23:21

Systems like this work great for me right up until I forget to use them.

Open ##2771483
@thesohoriots@lemmy.world 2026-05-22 23:52

Yes! I’ve used Trello to great effect. Doesn’t work too well on the phone screen, but I’m not complaining too much about a free program.

Open ##2772297
@wrinkle2409@lemmy.cafe 2026-05-23 00:14

I don’t have ADHD myself, but for life tasks I use a to do list that allows to set recurrent events like a reminder to take a pill or take out the trash. I use this one: f-droid.org/packages/org.tasks

Open ##2772736
@i_stole_ur_taco@lemmy.ca 2026-05-23 02:21

They’re great for project work. Less so for daily routines (nobody wants to set them up every day). I’ve done it with Post-It notes on a wall and every time I used it everything went soooo smoothly.

Open ##2774662
@200ok@lemmy.world 2026-05-23 02:13

What’s a kanban board?

Open ##2776617
@irotsoma@piefed.blahaj.zone 2026-05-23 01:48

Not naggy enough for me to remember to check it. LOL

Open ##2779260
@AddLemmus@lemmy.ml 2026-05-23 00:36

You know what - that's a good idea. The general group of task tracking methods is what works best for me already, and this one makes sense. Still miss the time I had a mind map software for my tasks which also had a "progress-ready" rather than just a ready icon. It was a circle filling in quarters, until it was full and became a checkmark. I like my tasks structured hierarchically, with the option to always break down any task or subtask further, and that was the best of both worlds. With Kanban and tickets, my only worry is that creating subtasks in something like Jira does not display as nicely as it does in a mind map.

Open ##3091044
@darth_grunkus@lemmy.world 2026-06-29 15:58

I know this is a bit old, but I just came across your post this morning. I’ve been using Wekan for a long time with a tiny bit of automation. Here’s how I have it set up. Everything starts on the Big To-Do List, getting sorted by priority. For things I want done today, I move them to the Do Today list. I have a rule set up to move cards put in that list to the Do Today board. This is the board I have up on my PC all the time. It’s designed to have zero distractions. The only things on here are what I intend to get done today or what’s been started but paused that I intend to do in the next few days. If anything looks like it’s not going to get done, it immediately go to The Future which sends it to the Inbox of the Big To-Do List. To keep things decluttered, completed things also get moved to Completed on the Big To-Do List.

Open ##3472496