A weekly Kanban board: plan the week in ten minutes, then just move cards
A four-column weekly board, a Sunday reset that takes ten minutes, and how to reuse the board every week in Hense.
The short answer. A weekly Kanban board has four columns: This Week, Today, Doing, and Done. On Sunday you pull the week’s cards into This Week; each morning you pull two or three into Today; during the day you move them through Doing to Done. In Hense the board takes five minutes to set up, fits in the free version, and syncs to every device so the plan you made on the Mac is the plan you check on the iPhone.
Why a weekly board instead of a weekly list
Weekly planning usually happens in a list or a calendar. Both have a problem. A list does not show what you have already started, so Monday’s plan and Thursday’s reality drift apart and you stop looking. A calendar is for appointments, and most of the week’s work is not an appointment.
A board fixes the first problem by giving the week stages. A task is either planned for the week, planned for today, in progress, or done, and it moves through those states in front of you. By Wednesday the board is a truthful picture of the week: what is finished, what is stuck, what is still waiting for a day.
The four columns
| Column | What goes in it | Rule |
|---|---|---|
| This Week | Everything you intend to finish before Sunday. | Filled once, on Sunday. New arrivals during the week go here only if something else leaves. |
| Today | What you will start today. | Two or three cards, pulled each morning. |
| Doing | The one or two cards you are actively working on. | If a card lives here for two days, split it. |
| Done | Finished work, kept until Sunday. | Cleared at the reset. The Friday view of this column is the reward. |
Optional fifth column: Waiting, for cards blocked on someone else. If you do a lot of email-shaped work, add it; the free version of Hense allows five columns, so it fits.
The Sunday reset (ten minutes)
This is the routine that makes the board work, and it is short on purpose:
- Look at Done. Count it, feel good, then delete the cards (or move a few worth remembering to a project board).
- Empty Doing and Today back into This Week or delete what no longer matters.
- Check Waiting if you have it: chase, keep, or drop.
- Pull next week in. From your longer list (a Life board, notes, email), add a card for each thing you intend to finish. Be stingy. A This Week column with fifteen cards on Sunday is a column with nine cards left on Friday and a bad feeling.
- Add due dates only to cards with real deadlines. The red overdue marker should mean something.
The daily pull (one minute)
In the morning, open the board and drag two or three cards from This Week into Today. That is the plan. During the day, drag a card into Doing when you start it and into Done when you finish. If something new comes up, add a card to This Week and decide at the next morning’s pull whether it beats what was already there.
On iPhone this is where the paginated view earns its keep: swipe to Today, see the two or three cards, get on with it.
Setting it up in Hense
In Hense
- Create a board called “This Week” (or the week’s date, if you like a fresh board per week). Pick a color you will not use for any project board so it stands out in the sidebar.
- Add the columns in order: This Week, Today, Doing, Done (and Waiting if you want it). Add Column is at the right end of the board; ⇧⌘N on iPad and Mac.
- Add a few labels for the kinds of work you mix in a week, such as Work, Home, Admin. Edit the board (⌘E or long-press) and open Labels. Three labels are included free.
- Do the Sunday reset once, now: add a card for each thing you intend to finish this week into This Week.
- Mark Done as an end-state column (Pro): edit the column and switch on End State. Finished cards get a green check and stop showing as overdue, which matters on a weekly board where dates pass constantly.
Reusing the board every week
There are two ways to start a new week, and the right one depends on how much you like a clean slate:
- Reuse the same board. Do the reset, keep the columns and labels. Simplest, and it works fully in the free version.
- Copy the board as a template (Pro). Long-press or right-click the board and choose Copy Board, with columns and labels included and cards excluded. You get an empty weekly board with the right structure and can keep last week’s board for a few days as a record. Pro has no board limit, so old weeks can pile up until you delete them.
Cards that repeat every week (the Sunday reset itself, a weekly report, watering the plants) are a good use of Copy Card (Pro): copy the card into next week’s board instead of retyping it. Hense does not have recurring cards, so this is the honest workaround.
What the board looks like across devices
The weekly board is the one board that benefits most from living everywhere:
- Mac: open it in its own window (right-click the board, Open in New Window) and park it at the edge of the screen. ⌥⌘N adds a card without leaving whatever you were doing.
- iPad: the whole board fits in landscape. Good for the Sunday reset, with your notes or calendar in Split View beside it.
- iPhone: the daily pull and the mid-day check. Paginated view, swipe to Today.
Everything syncs through iCloud with no account, so the reset you did on the iPad is what the iPhone shows on Monday morning.
Frequently asked questions
What columns should a weekly Kanban board have?
This Week, Today, Doing, and Done. Add Waiting if much of your work depends on other people. Keep This Week short; the board is a plan for one week, not a backlog.
How is a weekly Kanban board different from a to-do list?
A list shows what exists; the board shows what state each item is in (planned, today, in progress, done). Because cards move, the board stays accurate through the week instead of drifting from the plan you made on Sunday.
Can I set up a weekly Kanban board in Hense for free?
Yes. The board uses four or five columns, which is within the free version’s 5 columns per board, and the free version includes 2 boards, labels, checklists, drag and drop, board search, and iCloud sync. Copying a board as a weekly template and end-state columns are Pro features (a one-time $9.99 USD purchase).
Does Hense support recurring tasks for weekly routines?
Not as a feature. For repeating cards, keep them in This Week and move them back after finishing, or use Copy Card (Pro) to duplicate them into the next week’s board.
Should I use one weekly board or a board per week?
Start with one board you reset every Sunday. If you like keeping a record of past weeks, use Pro’s Copy Board to spin up a fresh board each week and keep the old ones until you no longer need them.