In today’s lesson, you’re going to learn the striking difference between capacity and flow (and ensure you optimize for the right one) and set SMART goals.
Video Lesson
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Time: 7:11
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Click full screen (lower right corner) to increase the size
Lesson Summary
Capacity vs. flow
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Capacity is how much work you can do;
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Flow is how fast work moves through your Kanban (the flow from one column to another is also called your “value-stream”)
In the book Personal Kanban, authors Benson and Barry use a freeway to explain the difference between optimizing for capacity vs. flow.
Picture an empty freeway. You’d say the freeway is at 0% capacity. If you optimize for capacity, your goal will be to reach 100% capacity—which ends up a bumper-to-bumper traffic jam.
Now, let’s optimize for flow. Instead of pushing for 100% capacity—which brings traffic to a standstill—we limit capacity to only 65%. At 65% capacity, traffic flows along nicely, and everyone’s happy.
Applied to your work: if you’re at 100% capacity, your work won’t flow. You’ll feel overburdened, stressed out, and—as a result—you won’t get the important stuff done. Your work becomes a traffic jam.
Key Point: Every time you feel overwhelmed, you’re probably “working at full capacity”—and getting nothing done.
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Focus on capacity = fail
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Focus on flow = win
Kanban and flow
Kanban ensures you optimize for flow, not capacity.
Why?
Because in your kanban, you limit your cards in your “Doing” column (aka work-in-progress)—to 3 cards at a time; this limits your capacity, which in turn optimizes your flow.
Kanban makes this dead-simple. It forces you to finish one task in your “Doing” column—or move it back to your “To-Do” column, to be completed later—before moving on to the next. So instead of just “getting things done” you’re getting the right stuff done, at the right time.
Set SMART goals
To recap: your kanban is a board with a series of cards. Each card represents a task (or goal). In your kanban, your “Doing” column—also called your work-in-progress (WIP)—should have a maximum number of cards. By limiting your WIP, you optimize for flow, not capacity, which reduces stress, increases effectiveness, and makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside.
For your work to flow, clearly define each goal (i.e. card). If your goal is vague—which happens often—you’ll never know when it’s done; the card will languish there, in your “Doing” column, until the cows come home, fall asleep standing up, and blast your carpet with methane-coated fudge nuggets.
To define your goals—and keep you accountable—we’re going to use the SMART goals framework.
SMART stands for:
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Specific
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Measurable
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Attainable
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Realistic
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Timely
Let’s look at each one more closely. Your goals should be:
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Specific. (“Visit Spain and Portugal.” vs. “Travel more.”)
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Measurable. (“Run a 50k.” vs. “Run farther.”)
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Attainable. (“Dive the Great Barrier Reef.” vs. “Go to Pluto.”)
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Realistic. (“Increase bench press by 100 pounds this year.” vs. “Increase bench press by 100 pounds by tomorrow.”)
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Timely. (“Visit Spain and Portugal by June of next year.” vs. “Visit Spain and Portugal.”)
Attainable vs. realistic
In case you’re wondering about the difference between “attainable” and “realistic,” I view them this way:
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attainable goals are what you could achieve;
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realistic goals are if you really want to.
For example, Adam is six-foot-four. Therefore, for him to become a jockey is neither attainable nor realistic. On the other hand, for him to become a doctor is attainable, but since he doesn’t want to go to medical school, it’s not realistic.
SMART goals help you focus; they provide clarity about your purpose and ensure you know what you want to do—and by when.
Next up, we’ll integrate the SMART Goals framework into the goals you created in your Board Game of Life.
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