The World's Best Book Summaries
Do you experience a lot of setbacks while working? How could kanban benefit you? In Personal Kanban, Jim Benson and Tonianne DeMaria argue that kanban offers advantages that other productivity systems can’t. These benefits include transparency, prioritization, and adaptability. Find out more about the benefits of kanban.
Do you know how to create a kanban board? How do you know what tasks are the most important to work on? In Personal Kanban, Jim Benson and Tonianne DeMaria teach you the basics of personal kanban so you can create one yourself. They lay out the steps to get started on your personal organization journey. Continue reading to learn how to develop your own kanban board.
Are you overwhelmed with the amount of tasks you have to complete? How do you prioritize all your work? In Personal Kanban, Jim Benson and Tonianne DeMaria say that a kanban board will help you complete your tasks. To do so, you need to start prioritizing the important to-do items over the less important ones. Keep reading to learn how to prioritize workload based on a “Ready, Doing, and Done” table.
What’s the difference between importance and urgency? Is it better to prioritize important tasks over urgent ones? In Personal Kanban, Jim Benson and Tonianne DeMaria advise prioritizing important tasks that inspire continuous improvement. While these tasks may not be urgent, they’ll benefit you in the long run. Learn how to tell the difference between what’s important and what’s urgent.
What are value streams? How do you set up a value stream that fits your needs? A value stream is the development of tasks from ideas to accomplishments. Setting up a value stream is the second step of a kanban board, according to Personal Kanban by Jim Benson and Tonianne DeMaria. Check out how to create a value stream that fits your needs.
How can you constantly improve yourself and your work habits? How is continuous improvement part of the kanban system? In kanban, continuous improvement is at the core of the workflow system. The way you achieve it is by observing your work, asking questions, and trying out new ways of doing things. It’s important to take some time to step back and reflect on what you’ve accomplished so you can continue moving forward. Let’s look at three ways to embed continuous self-improvement into your personal kanban practice.
Are poor people lazy? What did the Covid-19 experience teach us about poverty and work ethic? When politicians try to figure out why people become poor and stay poor, they often point to a lack of work ethic. Social scientist Matthew Desmond pushes back on this idea, pointing to data gathered during and after the Covid-19 pandemic. Continue reading to learn what Desmond discovered.
What does emergent intelligence mean? How does emergent intelligence make Amazon more successful? Emergent intelligence is the concept of a team solving problems together without a central figure coordinating the project. Knowing how emergent intelligence works can grow your organization’s strengths. Learn how Amazon used the concept of emergent intelligence to its advantage.
Are productivity and self-care opposites? Do you have to choose between the two, or can you enjoy both? The word “productivity” typically doesn’t bring to mind self-care behaviors such as sleeping in and enjoying a leisurely meal with friends. But, Grace Beverley’s Working Hard, Hardly Working insists that self-care and productivity aren’t opposites—they actually require each other. Continue reading for an overview of this book that might inspire you to reset your lifestyle.
Do you feel like you want to retire, but you’re only 30? Is work a nonstop reality in your life? Grace Beverley addresses today’s epidemic of burnout in her book Working Hard, Hardly Working. She points to three realities behind it: our culture of overwork, continuous access to technology, and economic uncertainty. Read more to learn what causes burnout at work in today’s world.