Operating a task board in 10 min

Agile@Home :

Materials:

v  Sticky notes

v  writing implement (pen, pencil) , marker pen

v  Board / wall. Window

:Start simple

v  Introduce the idea to the kids

v  Remember that it should be a fun game

v  Encourage the kids to take an active part

v  Kids are the ones building the board

Start with the simplest board

3 columns

v  To do

v  In progress

v  Done

.Add tasks to the board

v  Start simple. With the most simple one or two tasks

.Pull tasks according to what you need to do

.Set tasks priority and make sure to move tasks according to their priority

.Pull – Not push

You can add an impediment column if you like

!!!Don’t forget to have Fun

Thank you the greatest family for your pics J

The cards on the wall

The task card represents what needs to be done.

There are a few types of cards.

The Simple card:

Describes itself, for example, ‘do the dishes’.

The Parent card:

These cards include other tasks that may even be performed by other family members. For example, the math exam task below includes different types of problems that need to be learnt, each as a separate task. When they are completed, only then is the Parent task complete.

The details on the card

A card may include more specific details, such as who is responsible for it, maybe a deadline, and more.

Between you and me - it doesn’t matter. The main thing is that the tasks are visible, and that your kids see their name on the boards, and understand what they need to do. Other than the family, no one needs to understand the board, so put up the cards that make the most sense to you.

Don’t forget though - Keep It Simple. You aren’t running a software project, this is your family.

Here are a few examples of tasks that families have included in their Agile Kids efforts, ranging from the simple ones like ‘brush my teeth’ to the more complicated ones like ‘clean the house’, or ‘plan my birthday’.

Here, the small blue sticker shows the family who owns the task.

Here, you can see a large task broken down into smaller ones.

Here, the colour of the note shows who owns it.

Here, each small coloured note shows the owner.

Another way to manage ongoing tasks using the task board

This Post is posted after an interesting question raise in one of the LinkedIn discussions (see below the Q and the A :))

Anyway, just for you Greg, here is an example.

·         In the above board you can see that the kids decide to write the tasks instead of using sticky notes.

·         They divided their day into three time frames: morning, noon and evening.

·         They assigned ongoing relevant tasks for each time frame.

·         In the daily gathering, they follow those tasks along with other tasks that are not ongoing (and placed in the upper section of the task board which is not shown in this picture).

……………………………………………………………………………………………

Greg Cohen • Avi, I already use a task/schedule board at home for the adult. But curious to hear more on how your children use it. It sounds like a task on your board is "brush teeth". Does your child take the brush teeth card from To Do and move it to In Progress then go to the bathroom to brush teeth and then returns to the board to mark it Done? And then the next day you move it back to the To Do? Is that correct?

And how does time get managed? Since at least my children are always happy to extend their "work day" and stay up late. Yet tasks like brushing teeth must get done at the end of each day.

And are any leisure items, like play, placed on the board?

Thanks,

-greg

Answer :

These are really important issues you are raising. We address most of them in the agile Kids  book.

We need to remember that the agile implementation inside our family is mach simple than in the workplace. There are many ways to visualize the time frame. Some of them is just drawing the line with a time stamp, sometimes we just write it on the tasks. And sometimes we just prepare a list of issues to be dome during a specific time frame (morning, evening and such). Our next post deals exactly with that, but it is only one example. (I will publish it later today or early tomorrow).

What holds a significant value is the visualization. This itself is very helpful with the kids and help them with organization and planning issues. The parents actions will be to take those things into a discussion. The core of the agile kids is the dialog. Once we visualize, we can scope the dialog over the important things during the daily gathering  (in your case it’s the time frame and in other cases there may be something else). We can then  discuss the things and we can make sure our boundaries and our rules are followed and accept.

 At the beginning, the kids did take tasks by task and performed it. It was fun! And it was technical actionso the kids will get use to the idea of “this is my task, I need to perform and I am in control”.  we do suggest we do it with smaller children and in the initial states of implementing the agile into our home. Later on, the ongoing tasks just disappear. They are already in order and do not need special attention any more. Then, other issues raise. Mature agile kids, does not need to move stickies any more, I see they usually do it just before the daily gathering.

Any way, thanks for a great comment .I will take your comment into my blog as well 

Shirly

Permanent task boards are nice, but they aren’t the point!

What do we do with all the permanent tasks? The ones that repeat themselves again and again? Those that we’ll be moving across the board every day?

One of the ways of creating Agile boards in the house is to reverse the columns.

What do I mean?

Well, instead of moving tasks through the columns, as we’ve shown in the book and previous posts, we put up a board with pre-defined tasks per family member, which are seen throughout the week, and add a ‘Doing’ note to the task in question.

I can see these boards posted everywhere. They are colorful, delightful, and some even have every possible task you can imagine that you would ever do around the house.

And that’s EXACTLY what bothers me.

People, don’t forget. The task board isn’t the point. The point is the way we treat tasks!

The point is communication, around the tasks at hand, with an emphasis on empowering the child, developing his responsibility and his commitment to the tasks, together with a healthy family dialogue, like I show in the Agile Kids book and in previous posts.

The family dialogue pulse is what matters. The task board is just an answer to a symptom, which can be disorganization, or not doing the chores around the house. The task board isn’t the goal.

We have to understand that setting up a board is just a means to more important goals.

And so:

1. Talk to your kids and build the list of permanent tasks together. This simple activity creates the initial understanding of tasks, and enables us to hear what our children think about the tasks, and you’ll be surprised at what they have to say. You might find that just from these conversations you can already agree on ground rules that will prevent arguments in the future.

Don’t force them. Don’t come with a pre-defined board and present it to them as a given. There can be some tasks that may cross some undetermined line (such as when to go to bed), but in an open discussion you’ll be able to present them as part of all the tasks.

2. Be prepared. Think in advance what you want to achieve. You can’t just pile a whole lot of tasks on the board, which makes it difficult to see who is doing what and when.

3. Focus is important. Choose the really important tasks first. With time, you’ll be adding more tasks anyway.

4. The children can create their own schedule from tasks that they are each interested in doing during the week. We’ll keep track of the schedule, and mark each task as done.

5. Put the tasks on the board together with your children. Visibility gives a sense of control, and is the first step towards taking responsibility for our tasks. This means that the children have to be part of creating the task list.

6. Put the board in an easily accessible part of the house, where everyone can see it. A task board that’s put in a drawer is useless. You can’t see it, and it doesn’t create any awareness of tasks and responsibility.

7. Meet once a day, and talk about the tasks. 

8. Make sure that the children are the ones that move the tasks on the board, not you. Let them choose and mark the tasks - not you.

9. Make sure that the tasks are more or less balanced, and that the brunt of the tasks fall on one family member.

10. You need to put your tasks on the board as well. This creates trust.

After we mapped out this week’s tasks, each task can be marked with a check-mark, a smiley, or any other mark that you choose. :)

And don't forget to have fun...