I had shared the idea of a kanban board for the family with Laura and explained that it would be fully compatible with the organization she wanted to establish in the family but until now I had not started it because Laura want ready. As we were having a discussion she disagreed with my assessment that I am the lynchpin for keeping the house moving and that when I do other things (including running errands or having long talks with her) the evenings fall to pieces. She decided to let me go and think about my assertion. I went out and began to establish order again – turning off the TV and inviting everyone to start working for the family. I decided to just start doing the kanban board since I had already hung it yesterday. Here is what it looked like at bedtime:
I explained how it works too the kids in 3 minutes and started paying tasks on the board. It didn’t take long for the older kids to pick tasks and claim them by putting their names on them. Soon they were adding tasks to the board so their work was being tracked along with what I was writing. Mariah decided to include her late assignments and suddenly realized how much there was. She’ll be making homework a higher priority – I didn’t have to say anything. We made progress on laundry, dishes, dinner, and cleaning the basement.
Laura came out toward the end of dinner and commented to me how about it was that I was the glue – that since I had come out the house was at peace and good things were happening. That’s what happens when I follow the Spirit, and I realize that given time to get in the kanban habit I will even have the freedom to step away at times because the kids will reflexively be looking to the board to know what need to be done and do it.
In under 3 hours we accomplished 12 tasks and left only 4 undone (at least 1 of which couldn’t be done today anyway). Alyssa complained about having to do dishes and counters tonight but then when she walked past the board she brightened up saying, “Dad, do you realize that I did almost half of everything in this board?” Suddenly she felt accomplished rather than picked on.
At the end of the night I checked the board and saw that Mariah has started but not finished a load of laundry. That allowed me to put that load on the dryer – no load to sit and mildew overnight. I’ve that was done I took a picture of the board – simple record of what was done tonight. So many benefits, even some I hadn’t anticipated.
I don’t know if I will post the board every night like I did tonight but I will record it and we will be better for that small change. We will be able to measure work in real time and record it accurately so that we can see trends clearly.
Leave a Reply