Simplified Kanban using OneNote
Microsoft OneNote is often compared with other productivity products and criticized for lacking features such as Kanban boards for project management. While Microsoft OneNote isn't natively built as a project management tool, you can easily get a Kanban-like experience by leveraging some of the features of Microsoft OneNote that are built in.
First, we need to translate some of the OneNote terms into their equivalents in the kanban space. For our purposes:
Kanban board = notebook
Buckets / Columns = Section
Card = Page
So if we envision a kanban board as a notebook, the sections can represent the organizational columns within the board, and the pages are the cards on the board. This makes working the structure much easier.
Creating a "OneNote Kanban"
Start by creating a new notebook for the project you are wanting to manage. Within that notebook you will need to create a section for each organizing column you would want on a normal kanban board. For example you may have sections for "New", "In Progress", "Under Review", "Pending Approval", and "Completed.
Tracking your cards now is a matter of only dragging and dropping the card from section to section as progress is made.
Some kanban tools allow you to create columns on the fly based on data fields stored on the card. Unfortunately while you can't do that in OneNote, I'll teach you a method later that can get you fairly close.
Creating your first Kanban card on Microsoft OneNote
In your first section (column) create a new page (card) and add to it whatever information you need to track that item through to completion. What is important here is you are able to take that set of information and save it as a template, including tables, images, and file attachments. As a template you can set it to be the default for the section. Now when you create a new page in that section, all your information requirements can be set up in advance. No information gets lost.
Processing the cards in your notebook
As I mentioned previously, processing a card (page) is only a matter of dragging from one section to another. A nice feature of this is if you create multiple OneNote Kanban project notebooks, you can move pages between projects easily. Also since they are pages you have all the normal page features including version control and exporting.
One Page Kanban in OneNote
An alternative method for kanban management is to use linked pages to organize your information. For example, instead of moving a page from section to section, you create a table on a page encompassing the categories you want to track and move a page link from one cell to another to show progress.
Example of a OneNote Kanban Table
The linked pages can be moved using drag and drop, with a click taking you to the parent page. One of the reasons I like this method is you can add new cards (pages) by using the double square bracket technique "[[]]" to create the new page (card), use it to link to an existing page, or use Ctrl-K to pull up the link dialog.
Pro tip: by using the link dialog, you can add pages from other notebooks to your kanban table and track them without duplicating the original page.
A simple method for powerful tracking
I'm sure I'll receive many comments saying, "That's not real kanban" or "But it can't do x, y, or z" and they're probably right. But for the majority of times that kanban structures are used in everyday project management, these techniques can mean the difference between getting things done and not.
Want something more “kanban like”?
If you’re looking for an application that has more of a structure to the kanban boards, you may want to look at Microsoft Planner if you’re in the Office 365 ecosystem. Providing boards, dashboards, and grid views this can be an excellent tool for professionals and small businesses. More importantly, as Loop becomes integrated into OneNote, you’ll see Planner boards being able to be embedded into OneNote expanding the functionality that much more.
Ready to put OneNote to use for you?
Join the Being Productive Substack for exclusive content, tips, and access for all things OneNote and being productive!
Section groups in Microsoft OneNote can change the game when it comes to organizing your information.