Personal Kanban in the notebook: be productive

You know me: for me everything happens via laptop, tablet, smartphone. I prefer to manage to-dos, projects, everything online and synced between devices. But there is a little voice inside me that always makes sure I write important notes by hand. I just did this in detail while on vacation. Book passages, product ideas, blog articles: I always have a notebook with me because writing by hand is something very special. Think before you put something on paper. And it’s just nice to get away from the keyboard and screen in everyday digital life. I also admit a vice: I love attractive, practical or simply beautiful office supplies!

That’s why this nimble new notebook by Natalie Schüller (listenweise.de) immediately fascinated me. Your idea: Notebook meets Kanban. It consists of two areas:

• a Kanban board with sticky notes as Kanban cards
• a notebook

Part 1: The Kanban board

As soon as you open the notebook, you can open a simple, standard Kanban board, made of paper, (here’s a link if you want to quickly check out how personal Kanban works). Then put your tasks into four lists. Sticky notes (aka Kanban cards) pass through three or all four stations:

• Do (all there is to do)
• doing (Things you really have in the works)
• pending (Tasks you’ve delegated, that you need more information about, that you’re currently stuck on: anything that has to wait.)
• Done (what did you do)

On the back of the board you will find instructions for all the lists. This is for a classic Kanban board. The leaf note notebook chalkboard has even more to offer:

• another area think tank for your good ideas, flashes of inspiration and everything you would like to do but haven’t yet realized. If you really want to work agile, you can also create your backlog here.
• at the end of the notebook a sheet for better done. Store your successes here and look at them whenever you need motivation.

At the end of the notebook you will also find 300 sticky notes in different colors and two sizes. I will use it to classify activities, e.g. customer order, my business, private. If you run out of them, Natalie says they can be reordered at her store soon.

Part 2: The notebook

Here you can expect over 190 dotted pages with page numbering. If you prefer to use the notebook for your bullet journal, you can save yourself this part of the manual work. The paper is high quality and so stable that even my wide nib fountain pen can’t write on it.

And here are other practical features:

• The sheets can be easily unfolded after approximately the first 25 pages (before this the page has a small crease near the seam). This makes writing on the left side more comfortable.
• You can insert the two reading tapes for orientation.
• The back cover not only contains sticky notes, but also a fold-out pocket for receipts, business cards and other small items you can take with you on the go.
• Under the pocket you will find a pen loop.

The notebook is bound in lightweight vegan leather and closes with a colored elastic band.

Conclusion

I find this notebook extremely practical and aesthetic. I’ve already set mine up for next year and can’t wait to keep my handwritten notes there. But in my opinion it’s even better: if you want to keep track of your tasks in an agile way using the personal Kanban system, here is an option to do it without Trello and similar. Modern management method: the good old notebook. And maybe even a Christmas gift for good friends?