There is a hidden Kanban in the Apple’s Reminders application. Here then is how to turn it to good account.
The Kanban board ensures that you incorporate a clear way of displaying your planned work process. The greater tasks can be further broken down into various sub-steps and in order to get from one sub-step to the next, you just drag the job to the next cell. When working on a team or when you have activities that may take more than one or several steps, Kanban boards prove useful. Previously, Kanban boards were utilized only in specialized apps that were focused mainly on the Kanban system (one of the first such apps is Trello). They are now arriving at relatively conventional programs, such as Todoist or Google Tasks. They are also available, somewhat unexpectedly, in Apple’s Reminders application on iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
Explaining how the Reminders app of Apple implements Kanban
Apple Reminders does not look like a classical Kanban software but, as it is typical for Apple, it is as simple as possible. Furthermore, Apple does not name them as the Kanban boards, and there is no isolated area for creating them. However, it is better to generate a simple checklist with multiple sublists and then transform the latter into the Column View. There the Kanban board shines through. Your tasks then are lined up in the different columns in a manner that is by no means subtle.
Similar to the case in Todoist, the Apple system functions in a similar way – it generates the use of a custom view out of the list. Instead of list segregated by sections, you now have them in columns and relocating tasks as you advance is much more convenient. This is by far better than the changes Google Tasks has made of late, where each column displays the lists’ tasks. To make Google Tasks effectively resemble Kanban, one has to create various lists, each of which corresponds to the column. Novelties at Apple are more convenient, and, unlike Google Tasks, the application is supported on all devices (with macOS Sonoma, iOS 17, iPadOS 17 or later).
Creating and using a Kanban board using Apple Reminders
First of all, the macOS app. In the sidebar, click the plus sign in a circle to create new list or click the words “Add List” located under the list. Call it, put an emoji for it and remain in Standard font. Finally, click OK.
Your list is ready. In the toolbar at the top, click File > New Section and give the section a name.
This is going to become the title of the column. Repeat until you have all of your column headers.
Then, in the menu bar, go to Layout > as columns.
Your list will then instantly become a Kanban board. You can now add tasks as you normally do (with dates, notes, images, and attached files). And you can easily switch them from one column to another via drag and drop.
On iPhone, tap the Add List button to create a new list. In the latter, go to the Menu button at the top and choose Add Section. Add as many sections as you need. Tap the Menu button again and choose View as Columns to switch to Kanban view.
On iPhone, you’ll only see one column at a time, but you can scroll horizontally to see all the columns. And drag-and-drop works to move a task from one column to another, obviously.