Our friend Marilia arrived home in the Brazilian city of Belém yesterday. She had been staying with us for most of the last six months and finished obtaining her doctorate in music while she was here. During the 12 years she’d been in the U.S., she’d accumulated a lot of stuff. She was able to send some things, including her piano and furniture, home by boat several weeks ago, but there was a weight limit on that shipment, so she spent the last few weeks sorting through her wardrobe and other possessions, deciding what she would take with her on the plane and what she would throw out or give away before she left. She also had to handle scads of administrative tasks, from obtaining an apostille for her diploma to returning her E-Z Pass tag.
It was a head-spinning job, so I tapped my project-management experience to help her get on top of it. The photo above shows the Kanban board we created on the wall of a spare bedroom on which she posted all the things she needed to handle before leaving. (Projects were captured on pink sticky notes and stand-alone tasks on yellow ones.) Each morning we reviewed and updated the board and made a plan for the day. She left for Sao Paulo on Christmas Day with her sanity intact.
The flight was packed, and she wore both a mask and a face shield the entire 9+ hours she was on the plane. She switched to goggles and a mask while she was in the airport, which was mobbed.
After a one-day layover, she flew on to Belém yesterday morning, where she’ll be in quarantine for a couple of weeks. We have our fingers crossed that the coronavirus never caught up with her.
Paul, I love your stand-alone-project pink/yellow post-it approach. When at Opinion Research Corp I managed large-scale employee survey projects – and had developed a similar system – but without post-its. I’ve modified it for my life today. To say that I adhere to it faithfully on a daily or even weekly basis would be untrue. But I make the effort. I have maybe 5 or 6 or more columns with headings across the top: Business/paperwork; Personal (like haircuts….); House and Garden; Creative (writing, drawing, painting, quilting;) Social; Landscape-LMS; Things to buy; Book Club ;and so forth. If nothing else it serves to remind me of a lot of things both large and very small – and since I have it up on a white board I can put something down the second I think of it.