Getting Projects Completed Before the Holidays with the 25 Priorities Kanban Board

Getting your projects completed before the holidays gives us deep satisfaction, and most of you rush through November and December in a frenzy. Our common anxiety and fatigue levels have been higher in the last few years than before the Pandemic, and your adrenaline and cortisol have probably also been high the whole year. You can tell if you need more than a week to really relax. That’s what most of our research tells us right now. One week is no longer enough, let alone one day in the spa. However, it’s better to take a day than to wait until you are sick for three to six months.
Many of you feel the pressure of having a line manager and their demands sometimes add to the pressure you already have. Let alone all the reminders you constantly receive from machines like Jira to work on your 267 unanswered tickets and 754 unanswered emails.
Being “busy” is not the same as being “productive”, so I wanted to share a method that has helped me feel a sense of accomplishment over the last few years before the holidays. Also: If you feel stressed right now, we would like to invite you to this workshop on
Prospering Mindscapes – Reaching Health and Mental Well-Being as a Lifestyle Expat
Join us for the transformative workshop, “Expat Well-Being in Switzerland: From Stress to Success,” designed to help you navigate the challenges of expat life and find your balance. 🌍✨
🗓️ When: Friday, 29 November 2024, 09:00 AM – 10:30 AM CET (Online)
💻 Where: Online – from the comfort of your home, link will be shared with subscribers only
🎟️ Donation to the cause of “My Swiss Story”, helping lifestyle expats with integrating in Basel and Zurich, Switzerland

Hosted by Pragati Siddhanti, Founder of My Swiss Story, this workshop will
Angie Weinberger, Global Mobility Yoda, Author, Expat Coach and Founder of Global People Transitions, will guide us through
- Neuroscience: Insights into the brain and the difference between work pressure and stress.
- Intercultural Theory: Why is intercultural adjustment causing so much stress in the body?
- Deep Psychology: Building trust and community will help you feel safe and settled again.
- Coaching and Therapy: What to do to help yourself with your well-being with the five “Safety Stops” and seven weekly practices
If you’re an expat, expat spouse, or even a Swiss person seeking community and ideas for personal and professional growth in Basel or Zurich, don’t miss this opportunity!
💬 Secure your seat now to make the most of your #expatexperience: Grab your ticket here
I also wanted to share a few topics I observe in coaching conversations and give you a method for dealing with them playfully. You can also involve your family in this activity because “Family Success is a Team Sport.”
1 – Oil the Perpetual Machine
What I am observing inside corporations and what increasingly frustrates me is the lack of accountability and constant waste of resources and time. It reminds me of Jean Tingeluy’s artwork “Heureka” at my favorite spot in Zurich. Often, it seems that many functions and positions are just there to maintain a well-oiled machine, but the value they add to the clients or companies they serve is minimal. You can oil the perpetual machine by learning more about generative AI and machine learning. Many functions will lose significance shortly, and I predict we will abolish the old functional organizational models over the next five years. We should move towards the experienced-based models of organizations, network approaches, and the “Flower of Hope”. (Check my latest publication, “The Global Rockstar Album”, for that)

2 – Reduce the Data Squash
We also use a lot of time correcting or searching for data because the original source does not contain the data or the data is flawed. We must rely on our brains to remember specific scenarios to cover all exceptional circumstances. We hire more consultants to help us administer a workflow tool that does not deliver the data we need instead of training the data entry specialist in the Philippines or India so that the data is entered correctly. We implement three levels of controls instead of helping the first handler of the data to deliver a zero-error quality report. Work on quality, training and skill building with your teams. Build collaboration ground rules.

3 – Mend the Process Porcelain
Do you often chase someone because they forgot to take action on an item they were supposed to deliver so you can continue your process? You might be correcting processes and mending broken process porcelain because the decision-makers do not understand the process and just run around like a headless chicken. Sometimes, you might feel like a mother at work trying to collect the toys that the children left lying around all over the floor. You pick them up so nobody trips, but you are also not noticed while you do your work quietly in the background.
(My image here is that of the mended mask of Kylo Ren, an old Japanese tradition showcased in a lovely way in Starwars.)
4 – Feed the Digitalization Babies
Many digital processes are still in the baby’s shoes, so they often need someone to check them and ensure they are completed. I have been in arguments with my bank because they don’t offer a draft function to enter payments right when I receive the invoice and execute them later when I have enough funds in the account. My payments regularly get stuck because of cash flow issues. Then I need to build an administration around the digital process. The funny thing is that they always blame the customer here. They hardly say: “This is an interesting idea, and if we can help you with that, we will consider it.” Still, I encourage you to feed the digitalization babies by giving them input and food and teaching them. It could easily be that nobody has ever thought of what you are telling them and that your input helps another genius to improve what is broken.
5 – Piece together the Lego Spaceship
The more digitally you work, the more you miss the link between tools and systems (the rubber ring). Often, you work with many different tools and providers, and then it is your responsibility to link them all and, like LEGO, build your spaceship from scratch. You might need to build a street or highway around a tool before you can build a linked system or even automate a process. It’s worthwhile bringing more minds to discuss solutions and workarounds.
We often feel exhausted and still feel we have not achieved anything meaningful. Therefore, the secret to feeling good about your productivity is in the system and how you visualize your contribution. One suitable method is a physical Kanban board. The Kanban board had a revival with “Agile.” I remember writing an assignment in Tassie in 1995 about Total Quality Management and came across Kanban then.

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Resources
The Global Rockstar Album
Angie Weinberger’s Latest Song and The Global Rockstar Album
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