Kanban Tasker Open Kanban Tasker

One task at a time

A kanban board with a WIP limit of one

In Kanban Tasker only one task can be in Work in Progress. A second one has to wait until the first is finished or put back, and meanwhile the home screen shows nothing but the task you are on.

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What a WIP limit is

In kanban, a work-in-progress (WIP) limit caps how many cards a column may hold. Teams use it to stop starting and start finishing: when the column is full, nobody pulls in new work until something moves on. For one person the reasoning is even simpler. Every task you have started and not finished asks for a share of your attention, and each time you switch back to one you first have to remember where you were.

Kanban Tasker has one limit: one task in progress. It is not a warning you can click past; it holds.

How Kanban Tasker keeps it

  • One task in Work in Progress, across all swimlanes. Not one per swimlane: one for you.
  • Every way in is checked. Accept on the home screen, a card’s menu, the task editor and drag and drop on a computer all refuse a second task with “There can only be one task in ‘Work in Progress’ state”, and the card stays where it was.
  • No setting to raise it. That is the point.
  • Recurring tasks themselves never count; the tasks they make are ordinary tasks and follow the same rule.

What the home screen shows while you work

While a task is in progress, the home screen shows just that task, with its due time and swimlane, and three buttons. Finish moves it to Done. Block moves it to Blocked when you get stuck. Cancel puts it back in To Do. Blocked tasks and upcoming appointments stay in their own lists below it, out of the way.

When nothing is in progress, the home screen lists your next To Do tasks in order of due time, three by default, with Accept and Block. Overdue ones are red and come first, and a line separates the tasks due today from the later ones.

Blocked is not “in progress”

Real work gets stuck: you are waiting for a reply, a delivery or a decision. Leaving such a task in progress would take your one slot, so you Block it instead. Blocked tasks get their own list on the home screen, so nothing waits forever, and Unblock returns them to To Do.

If you prefer a quieter home screen, switch off “Show blocked tasks permanently” in Settings. You can then dismiss blocked tasks for a while (an hour by default, and you choose how long), and they come back by themselves.

A short routine

  1. Open Kanban Tasker. The home screen shows your next tasks, the overdue ones first.
  2. Accept one. Now it is the only task on the home screen.
  3. Finish it. If it can’t be finished now, Cancel it back to To Do, or Block it while you wait.
  4. The next tasks are back in front of you. Pick again.

Is one the right number?

For a team, a limit per column makes sense, because several people work at once. Kanban Tasker is a personal board, and a person does one thing at a time. The limit of one doesn’t stop you planning: To Do holds as much as you like, sorted by due time, and the board shows every swimlane and column whenever you want the big picture. It only stops you starting the next task before the current one is done or knowingly put back.

Try it with your own tasks

Make an account with Google or your e-mail, add a few tasks with due times, and let the home screen sort them. The Android app shows the same tasks.

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