I was buried in incoming correspondence, projects, appointments, contracts, and a wide variety of obligations, responsibilities, and duties. I decided to move away from my tickler file to a Personal Kanban system with four columns: Backlog, Ready, In Progress, and Done. This Personal Kanban board was large, difficult to move, the Sticky Notes would fall off, and I needed a way to make my work more portable. I saw an article discussing the ScanCard System from the 1980s that described it as a portable project management system. I needed something that did not depend on internet access, and that would not require me to log into and use a computer. I needed something tactile, something portable, and I realized that I needed something like the ScanCard System.
I found out that the ScanCard System was still made by a McKinley American Leathercrafters, and was very happy to discover that they were made out of high quality and very nice leather. I bought the padfolio which had 4 columns so that I could use my existing four column Personal Kanban system, using ScanCards. I work in a very high stress environment, and needed a way to keep track of all of my obligations and responsibilities both inside and outside of work. The ScanCard system does this very nicely.
Wherever you find me, you will find my ScanCard System(Personal Kanban) in the center of my desk or table, and my phone/computer to the right. At my desk at home a large month calendar desk blotter rests beneath my ScanCard padfolio for distant appointments, but for everything approaching, my Scancards are there to help me pull the right work(and responsibilities) at the right time. The calendar and Scancard System is the center of my workflow, allowing me to track multiple projects and situations. Without it I would not be able to maintain my flow, and stay on top of my many duties and obligations. Work flows in from my computer, phone, inbox, mailboxes, and email and gets captured in my Scan Card system, this allows me to spend more of my energy Getting Things Done, as opposed to wasting my energy trying to salvage missed deadlines.
Now that I am using the ScanScard System to implement my Personal Kanban very few projects ever slip through the cracks. What was once a mountain of things to track and order is now a managable process. All of my work and obligations are visible at a glance.
It is durable, it looks elegant on a desk or in a meeting, and it is simple. No passwords, urls, loading screens, data loss, or subscription nonsense. It won't break during an upgrade. I hope McKinley American Leathercrafters never stops making the Scancard Padfolio Director Model, or its ScanCard refill packs.
