Kanban for Studying (Chess openings!)♟️

Andrew Lapidus

Hi there, MeisterTask community! 👋

I wanted to reach out and share a MeisterTask use case I've been implementing lately as part of a personal project: studying and improving my skills as a chess player! ♟️

I didn't just want to share this template as a way to earn a badge from Miša 😜, but also to offer some inspiration for the ways Kanban boards can be used for review and study - both inside and outside of the classroom. Even if you're not into chess, I'm confident that the kanban method used in this board could be used to learn any sort of new skill. The key is simply to divide your area of study into topics (tasks) and set a series of checkpoints (columns) for your learning process!

About my board:

This board uses a typical kanban format - tasks are moved from left to right as the user improves their study of each opening, finally ending in a "mastery" column at the end of the board. Congrats, you've now mastered chess! (jokezzz) 🍭😂

The tasks in my board:

Each task in my board represents a different chess opening. Within each task, I've added all the resources I'll need for independent study of the opening - including links to web resources, videos, pdfs of chess textbooks, and analyses of games I've documented in MeisterNote.

The comments in each task serve as a way for me to make quick notes on useful insights, while more extensive thoughts are documented in a linked MeisterNote:

The sections in my board:

In typical kanban style, I created sections in the board which correspond to a different stage of my studies:

• Topics I'd like to study: Openings/concepts I would like to study but am currently unfamiliar with.
• Initial 2 hours of study: This stage represents an opening 2 hour study of an opening/concept.
• Hands-on Practice (Playing 3 matches): After the initial phase of studying, it's time to put what's been learned to practice: in this stage, I'll play three ranked chess matches using what I've learned.
• Analysis of strengths and weaknesses: In this stage, the three matches from the previous stage are analyzed for strengths and weaknesses.
• Additional study: The materials from the first review are examined in more depth. Memorization begins.
• Additional hands-on practice (Playing 3 more matches) Rinse and repeat!
• Additional analysis: In this stage, the three matches are reviewed.
• Final review: Any last memorization work or study necessary to feel confident in this new opening.
• Done: Time to relax! Whenever studying, there's never a "finished product" or "absolute mastery" of any topic, but I still believe it's still important to set up a "done" checkpoint. At some point, we do need to set a certain topic of study aside, at least for the scope of the current project.

I'd be happy to hear what you all think about this concept! Does anyone else have templates or examples of using MeisterTask for studying? Personally, I'm a firm believer that studying is most effective when it's divided into clearly defined stages and tasks - this also makes the process ideal for the kanban method, imho.

Best,

Andrew

P.S. I'm a beginner at chess, please go easy on me :D 

Joerg Koper

@Andrew Lapidus

What a cool use case Andrew 😎

I like the well thought-out structure of the sections and tasks. Definitely deserves a badge from Miša 👏😉

Best, Jörg

Rooster McNugget

Looks very cool @Andrew Lapidus!

Another good example to show how versatile MeisterTask can be used!

Best, Samuel

Andrew Lapidus

Thanks @Rooster McNugget and @Jörg Koper! It's been a very intriguing experience using kanban for study — one of the most helpful bits has been to be forced to define checkpoints for my columns. I've found this to be super helpful to avoid the vague "directionlessness" of other methods.

Joerg Koper

@Andrew Lapidus 

I have a personal Project-Board for my further education and goals in learning new things. And I have combined some of them, when one step is related to the other. But, I find your Project-Board very inspiring for active learning phases like needed in many studies.

btw: I love the snow...whereas, the video could also show spooky Orbs sorting a Kanban board 😊

Best, Jörg

Olaf Roeb

Hi @Andrew Lapidus,

thank you for presenting this great chess learning board. I am very much with you, organizing the learning and repetition process excellently fits into what kanban is made for. And MeisterTask offers all the beauty(again) and features I need to do it in a great and motivating way.

I am using a very similar board for learning languages:

Description:

• The left column ContentIN is the usual startbox for tasks, whether initiated directly in the project board or via integration from MindMeister or MeisterNote. The only enrichment I try to give any task in this early stage is a specific screenshot so I can identify them immediately on the screen.
• On the board right beside that ContentIn-section, you see three collapsed sections: yellow, blue, and red. I needed three for different kinds of tasks and sources: Yellow for Spanish lessons, Blue for French, and red to qualify and tag all YouTubes. They trigger automations (screenshot below) to assign some tags, a checklist, and an assignee to the task, and then move the card into the repetition process.

• The four green sections represent the actual kanban organized progress of learning:
• Entering Rep(=Repitition)1, the card gets automated due date = today plus 2 days, so that every task I put there has to be repeated within the next two days. After executing rep1 it goes into rep2, which means new due date = rep1+4days and new tag = rep2
• After the second repetition, the task goes into review, where once a week I need to decide which lessons are mastered and which I have to push back into the repeating process.
• The timing is not trivial, just on the contrary, the process called "spaced repetition" has been deeply researched and elaborated, and MeisterTask provides super-great automation to lead the learner through efficient timing within the process.

The sections on the right part of the board represent three sections for quarterly goals and reviews,(orange) and one section for general goals(grey):

I really do love learning languages, and this board gave me another push of motivation and control over lessons. Like Andrew, I hope for some feedback and more ideas.

my best, and have fun when learning whatever it may be, Olaf

Joerg Koper

@Olaf Roeb

Thanks for the insight in your cool Project-Board and the informations Olaf. Very interesting and inspiring as well 🙂

Best, Jörg

Miša Hennin

Hey @Andrew Lapidus and thank you for sharing! I'll award you a badge immediately ;).

And thanks @Olaf Roeb too! It's really nice to see how MeisterTask can be used in non-business settings too (especially since we so often associate productivity with the workspace).

Best,

Miša