@timapple mentioned the new 37 Signals app, which is a simple and fun version of Kan Ban called Fizzy. I went over and checked it out. Now, Kan Bans are used for tracking collaborative projects with a decent number of people, which is not me at all. I’m a solo act these days. However, I watched the demo video done by 37 Signals co-founder Jason Fried, and then signed up for the free trial today and started using it.

So far, it’s been kind of fun. I want to keep track of progress on my book projects, online writing, and home improvement projects. Right now, I’m trying to restore one of my previous books to the web for free online reading, and it is helping me organize what needs to be done. I also threw a “card” up (you created cards that are then added to columns that indicate levels of progress) about an article I stumbled on and might want to want to write about later about “ecoscenography,” which is a design approach for theater productions that tries to create sets, for instance, out of things that can be upcycled, recycled, or reused. I can attach the article to the card along with a few sentences to remind me of what I was thinking, and I put it in the “Considering” column.

I could see this as being useful for something like a podcast (@apoorplayer) or YouTube channel where you have to organize and track various stages of production. If I were still teaching, I was use the heck out of it for my class prep, committee work, production work and so forth.

For some reason, I find this kind of fun, especially recently when my mind has a bunch of new and unexpected energy. I look forward to exploring other uses. The trial gives you 1000 cards, after which you can either pay $20/month or download the source code and run it yourself. Unfortunately, the latter is beyond my pay grade right now, but it might be something I could learn later. @timapple, how is it going for you?

@drwalt I’m not sure it’s fair to say that kanban is strictly for “collaborative projects with a decent number of people.” I know soloists who use it. Cal Newport uses it in his personal system. It’s less about numbers and more about approach, i.e., pull vs. push task management.

@drjlwells Thanks for the clarification – I’m retired from academia, where I’d never experienced Kan Ban – all I know is what I’ve read. I like the pull/push differentiation.

@drwalt Fellow (former) academic here. That’s interesting, because I came across it as a way for academics to manage their research output; i.e., moving multiple projects through stages rather than checking off individual tasks.

@drjlwells I was very “forward looking” in my day when it came to technology, which was definitely not the case among most of my colleagues. Of course, I was a theater professor, and the only PhD at that, and for my colleagues, who were MFAs, their research was in producing plays. And while I always thought that having some app that would promote and enable easier collaboration (easier, and more comprehensive, than weekly meetings), resistance was strong. One time I was directing a production I had the entire team sign up for Slack – nobody used it except me, and one told me that using it made him a slacker, and he didn’t like that.

@drwalt I taught international relations in Poli. Sci., but my usual course was Intro. to Intl. Studies, which was cross-disciplinary, with a lot of business students. So, I thought we’d use Slack (instead of the uni’s LMS), because that’s what they’d see in the world. Worst evals I ever got.

@drjlwells Hahahaha! Same. Every time I’d try something new, students were like, “Oh, hell no!”