Explorer posts by categories
Explorer posts by tags
by Max Bennett
Ever wished your to-do list would stop glaring at you from your phone like a disappointed cat? Meet Personal Kanban-on-a-door: a ridiculously simple, suspiciously satisfying setup that turns sticky notes and a flat surface into a productivity arcade game. You move tasks across columns. You get instant visual clarity. And when something lands in Done? Chef’s kiss. Dopamine confetti.
I’ve used this during book drafts, house projects, and the kind of admin sludge that can swallow a Tuesday whole. It’s low-tech, gentle on your brain, and yes—we’re literally putting sticky notes on a door. Not fancy. Very effective.
Why a door? Doors are tall, vertical, and impossible to ignore when you walk by on the way to snacks. They also force you to limit how much you’re doing at once, which is where the magic happens.
Personal Kanban rests on two principles:
When you can see everything at once, your brain stops spending energy remembering and can spend energy doing. Add WIP limits and you stop juggling flaming torches when you’ve only practiced with tennis balls.
Visualize your work. Limit your work-in-progress. (Everything else is a local optimization.)
Personal Kanban, Jim Benson & Tonianne DeMaria Barry
If you like the spirit of focusing on a few things that matter, this pairs beautifully with your daily The Rule of 3: Put Your Daily To-Do List on a Diet and the quick planning rhythm from The 5-Minute Forecast: A Quick Morning Planning Ritual.
You’ll create three columns: Backlog → Doing → Done. That’s it. Fancy is optional; momentum is mandatory.
Use painter’s tape for lanes and low-tack sticky notes. Test in a corner first. If your door is fussy, stick your notes onto a large sheet of poster board or foam core and then mount that with removable strips.
Think of your Doing column like a tiny airport runway. Only a few planes can land at once without chaos. WIP limits enforce that reality kindly. If Doing is full, you cannot start another task. You must finish, delegate, or delete something first.
Use a sticky note labeled “Blocked” for tasks waiting on someone else or a resource. Keep it out of Doing so it does not eat your WIP.
You don’t need more motivation. You need fewer active tasks. WIP limits shift your brain from “what else can I start” to “what’s the next visible step to finish.”
If focus is shaky, layer in audio that keeps your attention steady. I tested soundtracks in Focus Sound Showdown: Testing Brown Noise, Lo-Fi Beats, and Nature Sounds for Productivity. Pairing your Doing time with a consistent sound cue can be the mental on-ramp you need.
Colors should reduce thinking, not add it. A few simple schemes:
Want to plan tasks by where or how you can do them? You’ll love Contextual To-Do Lists: Plan by Energy, Location, and People and The Energy Budget: Plan Your Day by Batteries, Not Hours. Your door board becomes the control tower; contexts are your flight paths.
Without a quick ritual, any board becomes wallpaper. This sweep plays nice with your existing routines like The Shutdown Routine: How 10 Minutes at 5 PM Saves My 9 AM Tomorrow and The 5-Minute Forecast.
On Sunday, clear Done to an archive envelope or snap a photo and toss the notes. Then prune your Backlog brutally—see The Weekly Review That Doesn’t Make You Cry for a friendly script.
You can do this with whatever sticky notes you have. If you want to upgrade, these tools hit the sweet spot.
Some links above may be affiliate links, which help support MySimple.life at no extra cost to you. Thanks for keeping the sticky-notes flowing.
If you want a complementary digital home for reference notes and project details, layer this with Second Brain, Zero Jargon: A Simple Notes System You’ll Actually Use. Door board = action control center; notes app = memory palace.
If you suspect accountability would help, try working alongside a friend for 25-minute bursts from Body Doubling 101. Move notes together; celebrate Done together.
If you do longer projects, track throughput (how many notes hit Done each day). Draw five tiny boxes on a sticky labeled “This Week” and tick one for each task completed. It’s silly. It works.
Pair that with a gentle weekly ritual from The 30-Minute Sunday Reset or The Weekly Review That Doesn’t Make You Cry, and Monday-you becomes an unstoppable sticky-note sherpa.
If you want bonus structure, combine this with The Shutdown Routine and a Monday 5-Minute Forecast. Your brain will hum like a well-oiled sticky-note machine.
I want to see your setup. Share a photo and tag our Instagram: @mysimple.life.official. Bonus points for creative color schemes and WIP tattoo jokes.
One last nudge: don’t wait for the perfect markers or the ideal door or the lunar phase of maximum productivity. Grab a pad, draw three lanes, and move the first sticky. You’ll be surprised how quickly your day starts to move with it.
Max Bennett
Max was once the king of procrastination, proudly sporting a "Deadline Enthusiast" badge. After realizing he spent more time organizing his desk than actually working, he dove headfirst into the world of productivity. Max now experiments with unconventional (and sometimes ridiculous) productivity hacks and shares what works—with plenty of laughs along the way.
Declutter your makeup with ruthless clarity and hygiene, and build a 30-day capsule kit you can use in a half‑awake routine. The post guides you through auditing, cleaning, and organizing for a calmer makeup drawer.
A quick guide to learn 20 time-saving keyboard shortcuts across macOS/Windows, Gmail, Google Docs, and browsers in 20 minutes to boost daily productivity.
A practical, no-shame guide to a one-week time audit that reveals hidden time leaks, helping you reclaim 5–10 hours next week with simple logging methods, templates, and quick fixes.
by