Kanban
See your work. Limit your work. Finish your work.
Developed by Toyota engineer Taiichi Ohno in the 1940s and adapted for knowledge work decades later, Kanban is a visual workflow system built on three columns: To Do, Doing, Done. Its power isn't the board — it's the rule that limits how many items can sit in Doing at once.
How it works
List every task as a card and place it in To Do. Move it to Doing when you start, and to Done when you finish. Cap Doing at three items, max. If a fourth task wants in, you have to finish or remove something first. The constraint is the entire point.
Why limiting WIP matters
Multitasking is a myth — switching between tasks burns 20 to 40% of your cognitive capacity. Limiting work in progress forces you to finish before starting, which is the single biggest lever on actual throughput. Most people feel busier doing five things at once, but ship more doing one.