Apersonal kanban is considered a productivity tool because it gives us the power to produce more. It’s also said to increase our efficiency by limiting work in progress (WIP) and increasing focus, which means we expend less energy to get results. This in turn boosts our effectiveness by providing the information necessary to make better decisions and act on them.

Often people have bursts of productivity, efficiency, or effectiveness but because they aren’t paying attention to what they’re doing, these events are sometimes dismissed as happy accidents. Using a personal kanban makes your work explicit, meaning it constantly shows you what you are doing and what you could be doing. This helps you interpret your options and prioritize your tasks based on current conditions. A personal kanban also enables us to balance productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness, and turn them into three parts of the same machine.

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