Kanban User Manual
Everything this app does, with pictures. Twelve feature chapters and ten worked examples — one for each kind of person who uses a board like this.
Getting Started
Open kanban.vardhmann.com. Click Sign in with Google. We use Google's OAuth flow — we never see your password, and we never ask for one. After the redirect you land on your board, automatically created with four columns and one welcome card.
The Four Columns
The columns aren't decoration. Each has a job. Together they enforce the only rule that matters: one slice at a time.
Up Next
The queue of things you intend to do. As many as you like. New cards land here.
In Progress
The ONE thing you're working on right now. WIP limit = 1. The app will refuse to let you start a second.
Parking Lot
Ideas you want to remember but not yet act on. Quarterly review fodder. Long-term, not lost.
Done
What you finished. Your evidence that the week was real. Compounds your confidence.
Creating & Editing Cards
Click + New task (or press C) to add a card to Up Next. Click any card to open the detail panel. Edit title, description, tag, phase, progress, and priority — then Save.
The WIP Limit — One Slice at a Time
This is the entire philosophy of the app. In Progress holds exactly one card. Try to drag a second card in, or use the Move-to dropdown to send a second card there, and the server will refuse:
"One slice at a time — finish or park the current In Progress card first."
Sounds restrictive. It's the opposite. Most weeks fail not because of laziness but because too many things are simultaneously half-done. WIP = 1 makes the trade-off explicit: to start something new, you have to either ship the current thing or consciously park it.
Drag-and-Drop
Grab a card, drag it into another column, release. The source card fades; the target column shows a dashed teal outline as you hover over it. On drop, the card lands in its new column.
The WIP rule still applies — drag a second card into In Progress and the move is rejected with a toast.
Checklists, Attachments, Comments
Open a card. Below the basics you get three lists that grow as the card matures:
- Checklist — sub-items, each toggleable. The count at the top shows "3 / 5" so you see at a glance how done you are.
- Attachments — paste any URL: a Google Doc, a Figma file, a YouTube reference, a Drive folder. We don't host files — we just keep the links findable.
- Comments — a conversation thread per card. Useful when a collaborator picks up your card. Cmd+Enter posts.
Members & Permissions
Click Members in the top bar. As the owner of the board, you can invite anyone by email — they don't need an account first. The next time they sign in with that email, the board appears for them.
Search
Press / from anywhere on the board to focus the search bar. Type — the board filters live. Search hits both card title and description. Clear the field to see everything again.
Dark / Light / Auto
Click the theme button in the top bar to cycle: Dark → Light → Auto → Dark. Auto follows your OS preference and switches automatically when your system switches (typical macOS behavior at sunset). We remember your choice in localStorage, so a reload preserves it — and a hand-written inline script applies the right theme before the page paints, so there's no white flash on dark-mode reload.
Keyboard Shortcuts
The Philosophy
Three Japanese ideas, in three sentences each.
Kanban
"Signboard." The Toyota factory-floor practice that says: don't start work the next station isn't ready to receive. In software and life: don't start what you can't finish.
Kaizen
"Change for better." Tiny improvements, every day, from everyone — not heroic redesigns. The Done column compounds; that's kaizen.
Plan, Do, Check, Act
The loop. Plan = Up Next, Do = In Progress, Check = the comment thread after Done, Act = the next card you pull. Repeat forever.
Ten worked examples.
Pick the one that sounds most like you — or read them all, they're short.
1. Student
Computer Science undergrad · final-year project term
Riya has 5 courses, a capstone project, an internship application, and a part-time job. Her old Notion was a wall of toggles she stopped opening. With Kanban she only commits to one assignment at a time — the rest queue in Up Next — and her capstone lives in In Progress until the next milestone is shipped.
Why it works for them: No more "I started 6 things, finished 0" weeks. Tag = course. Active = whatever has the closest deadline.
2. Lawyer
Litigation associate · 14 active matters
Akshay tracks every matter and every filing deadline. His firm uses iManage for documents, but no one tool gives him a clean "what am I drafting right now" view. Kanban gives him one. Each card is one filing, motion, or client task. He keeps exactly one brief in flight; everything else lines up cleanly.
Why it works for them: Tag by client. Priority for court-mandated deadlines. Description = scope, Phase = "Drafting / Review / Filed".
3. Software Professional
Backend engineer · payments team
Manish maintains a payments service that processes millions of transactions daily. He has Jira at work but Jira shows the team's backlog, not "what am I doing right this hour". His Kanban board is his personal queue — what he's actively coding, what's blocked, what's the next 5 things.
Why it works for them: Card = one PR or one ticket. Active = current branch. Parking = 20%-time spikes you want to remember but not yet act on.
4. Homemaker
Manager of family operations · the most important COO
Sneha runs a household of 4 — two kids, parents-in-law visiting next week, a husband whose calendar she also keeps. The day before, three appointments collide; nobody told her about the broken geyser. Her board makes the invisible work visible. She and her husband share the board so he can pick a card off Up Next instead of asking "what should I do".
Why it works for them: Tag by domain (kids/home/errands/social/finance). Members = spouse, eldest kid. Active = today's big task.
5. Office Worker
Operations manager · 12-person team
Rahul is the person everyone routes things through. His inbox is unwinnable. His calendar is half meetings, half "block — admin". He uses Kanban to capture every incoming ask: he triages each into a tag, sets one in In Progress, and his manager can see exactly what trade-offs he's making this week.
Why it works for them: Members = your manager. They see Active and trust that the queue is being worked. Comments capture decisions for later.
6. Influencer
Lifestyle creator · 180k followers
Tara posts to Instagram and TikTok five days a week. Her job is content — not management — but she has 12 brand DMs, an editor on retainer, two collaborations, and a long-form YouTube she wants to try. Kanban gives her a content calendar that's also a backlog: "post" cards in Up Next for the next 10 days, "brand" cards she's in talks with, an Active card for the thing she's shooting today.
Why it works for them: Tag = format (reel/post/brand/video). Phase = production stage. Done column shows the week's engagement and ROI.
7. Creator
Novelist · second book under contract
Ishan is writing his second novel against a publisher deadline. Writing is one card. Marketing the first book is another track of cards. Newsletter is yet another. Without a single board, all three pull at him in panic. With Kanban, he writes one chapter, then deliberately pulls the next thing.
Why it works for them: Phase = drafting / revising / agent feedback. Attachments = links to docs. Comments = the moment-of-clarity notes you'll want next month.
8. Freelancer
Brand designer · 4 active clients
Priya juggles four clients and two business-development conversations. Each client has its own Slack, email thread, and Figma file. Her freelance survival skill is knowing what to work on this morning. Her Kanban shows it at a glance: tag = client, priority = paid retainer, active = the deliverable due Friday.
Why it works for them: Color-code by client. Comments capture client feedback so revisions are scoped. Done column doubles as a portfolio log.
9. Doctor
GP · clinic of 1,400 active patients
Dr. Mehta sees 25-30 patients a day. The clinical work happens in the EMR; the rest of her week is the work AROUND the EMR — labs to review, prescriptions to refill, CME hours to earn, certifications to renew. She uses Kanban to keep that admin layer visible so it doesn't spill into evenings.
Why it works for them: Active = the case currently consuming after-hours brain space. Parking = continuing-education and compliance you can't lose track of.
10. Entrepreneur
Founder · 12-person SaaS · raising Series A
Vivek runs the company. The job is everything. Some weeks it's sales calls; some it's product roadmap; some it's a single legal review that blocks 3 deals. Kanban forces him to declare: this week, this one thing is the focus. Investors see the same board (he shares read access) and trust him because the queue is visible.
Why it works for them: One Active card = the one bet of the week. Investors get a window into priorities. Parking = strategic ideas that aren't this quarter's fight.
That's the whole manual.
Now go ship a card.
→ Open your board