{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "description": "The BattleBoard is a Pomodoro-scored Kanban system for solo consultants to turn a chaotic task list into an ordered, completable daily work plan.",
  "path": "/articles/battleboard/",
  "publishedAt": "2019-08-07T02:25:25.000Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:jznynyzgerlqmdbbj33o7wfs/site.standard.publication/3mnll3icujb2z",
  "tags": [
    "Business Operations"
  ],
  "textContent": "EDIT: Since this post hit your inbox, I’ve been lucky enough to guest on the Notion Office Hours to chat about The Battleboard AND I’ve made my Notion Templates for this available for purchase\n\nCheck out the Notion Office Hours BattleBoard presentation here: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/battleboard/\n\nBuy the BattleBoard Templates here: https://gumroad.com/l/battleboard\n\nThe one thing that I usually break out when I’m in the final stages of shipping a project/preparing for a trip is\n\nThe BattleBoard\n\nThe BattleBoard is a Kanban board named Today that has a simple, essential function:\n\nTake the pile of things I need to get done and turn it into an ordered, scored, estimated list of things that I can move to Completed.\n\nIt’s a Trello Board set up as a Kanban board. On the right of each card, it looks like there are a bunch of pixelated tomatoes.\n\nI use Trello for my BattleBoard. You could use Notion for it. Or you could use your tool of choice. (You can find a Trello and a Notion template to copy at the end of this article)\n\nHow To Play BattleBoards\n\nHere’s how you get started.\n\nStart Your Day\n\nYou start your BattleBoard by doing a brain dump and calendar dump of everything that you have to do today. Write it on paper with pen or pencil.\n\nSchedule 30- to 60-minutes to just brain dump every single task, project, action, and item that you need to tackle. Get messy with it.\n\nAlright, you’ve written down everything that you need to get done.\n\nBuild Your BattleBoard\n\nSpawn a new Trello/Notion/Whatever board. Create the following columns:\n\nBacklog\nWorking On (2)\nThe Pen\nCompleted\n\nThat “(2)” is important. We’ll come back to it in a bit.\n\nIn Backlog, you want to create a card for each thing on your list.\n\nBoom. You’ve got a messy list.\n\nNow, for each card, ask yourself:\n\nWhy should this card stay?\n\nMake the default deleting the card.\n\nIf you can’t identify the reason why you need to tackle this today, stop thinking about it.\n\nGet it off your board.\n\n🍅 Score Your Cards\n\nThe Pomodoro Met -\n\nThe Pomodoro Technique is a time management method developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s. The technique uses a timer to break down work into intervals, traditionally 25 minutes in length, separated by short breaks.\n- https://francescocirillo.com/pages/pomodoro-technique\nCirillo named the system “Pomodoro” after the tomato-shaped timer he used to track his work as a university student. The methodology is simple: When faced with any large task or series of tasks, break the work down into short, timed intervals (called “Pomodoros”) that are spaced out by short breaks.\n- https://lifehacker.com/productivity-101-a-primer-to-the-pomodoro-technique-1598992730\n\nAhem.\n\nThe Pomodoro Technique has you work in a 25-minute working session followed by a 5-minute break.\n\nThe Pomodoro Technique is a great way to score your projects. Is it going to take:\n\n25 minutes? One Pomodoro = 25 minutes = 🍅\n50 minutes? 🍅 🍅\n75 minutes? 🍅 🍅 🍅\n\nThat’s a very convenient way to estimate how long something will take.\n\nAnd, hey, it works well on individual Trello cards.\n\nGo through your board and do a rough time estimate for each card:\n\n🍅 (25 minutes)\n🍅 🍅 (50 minutes)\n🍅 🍅 🍅 (75 minutes)\n🍅 🍅 🍅 🍅 (100 minutes)\n\n“But Kai, what if a task will take less than 25-minutes?”\n\nScore it as one tomato 🍅. If you finish a card early, take your break early and then get started on the next card.\n\nPrepare for The Game\n\nAlright, now you’ve got:\n\nA BattleBoard\nA bunch of cards in the backlog (your ‘deck’ )\nTomatoes all over your cards\n\nHere’s how you prepare for your game.\n\nStack Your Deck\n\nYou want to sort your deck of cards (your ‘backlog’) so the most important cards are at the top.\n\nGo through the cards in Backlog (your deck) and stack it.\n\nPut the cards you want to tackle first at the top of the deck. The cards that, when completed, will have the most impact.\n\nPrep Your Notes\n\nThe back of every card is a spot you can leave yourself notes: instructions, links, summaries, checklists, or quick notes.\n\nClick on the card. Add to the description and comments.\n\nHide Your Phone\n\nStore your phone outside of your working space. Put it in your bedroom, your bag, your car, or leave it at home.\n\nCapture Distractions As They Happen\n\nGet a pen and a piece of paper or a legal pad.\n\nDuring each Pomodoro, write down distractions as they happen.\n\nWhen you’re distracted, make a hash mark on a piece of paper.\n\nThis is what my “Distraction Log” looks like:\n\nEach time I get distracted - tabbing to Slack, grabbing my phone, checking iMessage, whatever - I make a hash mark on the paper.\n\nThis technique comes from Scott Hanselman’s talk Scaling Yourself:\n\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FS1mnISoG7U\n\nGet Your Timer\n\nYou want to be reminded to take breaks. Remember, you’re following The Pomodoro Technique. That means a 25-minute working session and then a 5-minute break.\n\nI use an app on my Mac to run 25-minute timers (https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/47506/timebar). A timer on your phone works quite well.\n\nGet Your Time Tracker\n\n“Kai, a time tracker?”\n\nYup.\n\nI love using a time tracker. (I *hate* hourly billing.)\n\nUsing a time tracker lets you see how accurate your time estimates are.\n\nIf you say “This is going to take me 25-minutes,” how do I know if you spent too much time on it? How do you know if it only took you 10-minutes?\n\nA time tracker lets you close that loop and see how long it takes you to finish a card.\n\nI use Noko (https://nokotime.com/) for my time tracking and like it. Any time tracker will work.\n\nWhen you move a card from “Working On (2)” to “The Pen” or “Completed,” you can log your time as a comment.\n\nThen, when you complete the card, you can compare your estimate (🍅 🍅 🍅) against the time and see how accurate you were.\n\nThis feedback loop lets you adjust your scoring as the day goes on. Find that you’ve under-estimated the time required for a few cards? Review your deck, adjust your estimates as you see fit, and re-stack your deck.\n\nPlaying BattleBoards\n\nYour goal is to move cards from the left (your deck) to the right (completed) and through:\n\nWorking On (2)\nThe Pen\n\nCards can only move to the right, with one exception explained in “The Pen.”\n\nAs you tackle new cards, pull them from your deck and move them to\n\nWorking On (2)\n\nYou get to work on two cards at a time. Maximum. You can’t be working on more.\n\nWhen you’re done working on the card, move it forward to “Completed” (if the card is complete) or “The Pen” (if the card isn’t finished)\n\nWhat if you’re waiting for someone to send you information so you can complete a card? Let me tell you about\n\nThe Pen\n\nThe Pen is where you put cards that are stuck, stalled, or waiting on other people.\n\nStuck and need to hit pause on a card?\nWaiting for someone to send you some information?\n\nPut the card in The Pen.\n\nWhen you’re ready to move a card out of The Pen, move it back to “Working On (2).”\n\nWhen you’re done working on the card, move it forward to “Completed” (if the card is complete) or “The Pen” (if the card isn’t finished)\n\nCompleted\n\nCompleted is where you put cards that you’ve completed 🎉\n\nStart Your BattleBoard Game\n\nYou’re ready to get started.\n\nTo review, you have:\n\nYour BattleBoard\nYour Cards (a ‘deck’) on your BattleBoard\n…with a Time Estimate (🍅) on each card\nNotes on the back of the relevant cards\nYour Timer (to take breaks)\nYour Time Tracker (to measure the accuracy of your time estimates)\nYour Paper (to track distractions/interruptions)\nYour Water Bottle (because it’s cool to stay hydrated 🚰)\n\nYou’re ready to play BattleBoards\n\nStart your timer. Start your time tracker.\n\n▶️ Take the top card or two in your backlog and move them to “Working On.”\n\n📇 Work on your card. Move it forward to “The Pen” or “Completed,” depending.\n\n⏰ Take breaks when your timer tells you to take a break\n\n⏲️ Track your time in your Time Tracker. Record how much time you’ve spent on a card\n\n📝 Write down distractions as they happen in each Pomodoro.\n\n🚰 Stay Hydrated\n\n2️⃣Two cards maximum in “Working On (2)” at a time\n\n🌟 Your goal is to move as many cards from your deck (“Backlog”) to “Completed” as possible\n\nWhen you’re done for the day, count up all the cards (and 🍅) you completed.\n\nCongratulations, friend. That was a great workday.\n\nHere’s the truth: you aren’t going to complete everything you intended to in a day. That’s just how life is.\n\nAt The End of The Day\n\nYou’ll have cards in:\n\nCompleted\nThe Pen\nWorking On (2)\nBacklog\n\nGet rid of all the cards in “Completed.” They’re done. You don’t need to think about them anymore.\n\nYou want to prep for tomorrow’s BattleBoard. That means:\n\nCreate a new column named “Tomorrow”\nMove all the cards all the board (The Pen, Working On, Backlog) into “Tomorrow”\nGet out a piece of paper\nBrain dump anything that comes to mind that you need to take care of tomorrow\n\nTomorrow, you’ll start with two assets:\n\nYour Brain Dump\n\nTake this as a jumping-off point for your brain dump process. Write down everything that comes to mind.\n\nYour “Tomorrow” Cards\n\nTomorrow, start by reviewing all the cards in your “Tomorrow” column. These are notes to yourself from Yesterday.\n\nFor each card, ask yourself:\n\nWhy should this card stay?\n\nMake the default deleting the card.\n\nIf you can’t identify the reason why you need to tackle this card today, stop thinking about it. Get it off your board.\n\nTemplates for BattleBoards\n\nTrello BattleBoard Template\n\nOpen this board in Trello and make a copy of it and you can get started with your BattleBoard.\n\nAnd if you’re new to Trello, you can sign up at https://trello.com\n\nNotion BattleBoard Template\n\nOpen this board in Notion and duplicate it and you can get started with\n\nyour BattleBoard.\n\nAnd if you’re new to Notion, you can sign up at https://notion.so\n\nExcelsior!\n\nKai\n\n🚨 Very Important Footnote: Stacking the deck doesn’t mean ‘put the easiest cards on top.’ If you do that, when your energy starts to drop, you’ll be looking at a stack of challenging cards, and your enthusiasm will wane.\nInstead, put the most impact generating cards at the top. These might be small (🍅) or large (🍅 🍅 🍅 🍅), depending.\nThere’s always a chance you won’t finish your entire deck before the day ends. If that’s the case, you want to make sure you’re tackling the most important cards at the start of your day. ↩\nHell, if you’re feeling particularly courageous, walk up to the barista at your coffee shop and say, “Hi, I’m working on a project. Can you put my phone in the lost and found with my name on it and I’ll pick it up when I’m done?”\nThen give them a tip. ↩",
  "title": "BattleBoard"
}