Category Archives: Featured

Rapture – Training Your Mind for Completion

Posted on January 15, 2010 by Jim Benson

Don’t strain your brain, paint a train You’ll be singing’ in the rain… – Blondie Your brain is a muscle. As we repeat certain actions, our “muscle memory” becomes comfortable with those actions, and programs itself to anticipate them. As … Continue reading →

Posted in Expert, Featured, Primers | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Save the Date! Jim Benson Featured Guest on Yi-Tan Call

Posted on December 30, 2009 by Tonianne DeMaria Barry

Save the date! Monday, January 4th at 10:30 PST/1:30 PM EST for the weekly 40-minute Yi-Tan Tech Community call hosted by Jerry Michalski and Pip Coburn. The topic? Personal Kanban, of course! Call, listen, and chat with Jim Benson (@ourfounder … Continue reading →

Posted in Featured, Primers | Leave a comment

Tools Talk: Julia Child Understood the Nature of Work

Posted on December 28, 2009 by Jim Benson

While expertise, good humor, humanity, and care are words that immediately come to mind when describing Julia Child, the iconic chef personified something else – she understood the nature of her work. She recognized the role it played, the value … Continue reading →

Posted in DesignPatterns, Featured, Primers | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Towards a Leaner Santa: Holiday "Do" Date-ban

Posted on December 22, 2009 by Tonianne DeMaria Barry

Chalk it up to a decade with the nuns and my time as a Girl Scout (always be prepared!), but I obsess over details. Having my “stuff” in one bag or my proverbial ducks in a row is how I … Continue reading →

Posted in DesignPatterns, Featured, Primers | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

WIP can be Imposed

Posted on December 14, 2009 by Jim Benson

Please don’t feel bad if you find you’ve lost control of your WIP. The two rules of Personal Kanban: 1. Visualize Your Work 2. Limit WIP With a little practice, #1 becomes easy…second nature, even. Number 2 is, well, pretty … Continue reading →

Posted in Featured, Primers | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

InfoPak 3 – Personal Kanban Design Patterns: Inspiration to Discover Your Flow

Posted on December 7, 2009 by Tonianne DeMaria Barry

Info Pak3 Personal Kanban Design Patterns View more documents from Jim Benson. Modus Cooperandi is pleased to announce the release of its third Personal Kanban InfoPak. In Personal Kanban Design Patterns: Inspiration to Discover Your Flow we present a series … Continue reading →

Posted in Applications, DesignPatterns, Featured, Primers | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Undertow and Churn: Workflow isn’t Always Linear

Posted on November 27, 2009 by Jim Benson

In Personal Kanban, our primary step is to define our workflow. Workflows tend to be linear, and often look like this: Waiting –>Doing–>Done or Outline –> Pre-writing –> Draft –> Edit –> Final Draft or Backlog –> Coding –> Testing –> … Continue reading →

Posted in Featured, Primers | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Getting "Personal" with Your Kanban

Posted on November 24, 2009 by Tonianne DeMaria Barry

So why call it “personal” if I can use it with my family, in the classroom, or with a team at the office? In life and in business, we create value.  For Personal Kanban, “personal”  relates to  personal value.  Personal … Continue reading →

Posted in Expert, Featured, Primers | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

WIP and Priorization: Recommended Portions

Posted on November 22, 2009 by Jim Benson

You’ve been hiking all morning and the mercury is nearing 100. You’re parched. You need water – lots of it.  But even in your thirst, you want that water to be manageable. Which holds more water – a lake or … Continue reading →

Posted in Expert, Featured | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Multiple Projects & Threaded WIP: Using The Big Picture for Personal Kanban

Posted on November 13, 2009 by Jim Benson

The two rules of Personal Kanban: Limit WIP and visualize your work. The truth about personal work: it’s messy. So people with messy work have been asking me for: ways to create multiple Personal Kanban(s) with unique workflows, ways to … Continue reading →

Posted in Applications, DesignPatterns, Expert, Featured | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments