A personal kanban board for your tasks on Mac, iPhone and iPad
Create a board in Alcove, give it columns such as To do, Doing and Done, and drag cards between them. Every card is an ordinary task, so dropping one in Done finishes it everywhere, in its list and in Today. New cards land in the list you choose for the board.
A list is good at telling you what's next. A board is good at telling you where everything stands. For projects with a few moving parts, like a launch, a move or a side project, I find the board is the view I keep open.
Why use a kanban board for personal tasks?
Kanban is a simple idea: every piece of work is a card, and cards move left to right through columns as they progress. Seeing work in columns makes two things obvious that a list hides:
- What's stuck. A card that sits in Doing for a week is asking a question.
- How much is in flight. If Doing is longer than To do, it's time to finish something before starting anything new.
How do you set up a board in Alcove?
- In the sidebar, find Boards and add a new one. Give it a name, like Launch.
- Add the columns you need with + Column. To do, Doing and Done are a good start. You can add more, such as Waiting or Review.
- Choose which list new cards go into. It's shown under the board's name, for example "New cards go in Work".
How do you move work along?
Drag a card from one column to the next. When a card reaches Done, the task is finished, exactly as if you'd ticked it in its list, so it leaves Today and your counts go down.
Each card carries what matters at a glance: its tags, the list it belongs to, its date and its priority. Click a card and its details open in a panel beside it, or tick the ring on the card to finish it without dragging.
Because cards are real tasks, nothing on a board is ever orphaned. A card you add on the board still lives in a list, shows up in Today when it's due, and appears in your widgets and the menu bar like any other task.
Boards worth trying
A board's columns can be anything. Rename them, add more with + Column, and choose which column finishes a task from its menu with Cards here are done. Three boards that work well for one person:
| Board | Columns | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Eisenhower | Do now, Schedule, Delegate, Drop, and Done | Sorting a long list by urgency and importance |
| This week | Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Done | Seeing the week's work spread across days |
| A project | To do, Doing, Waiting, Review, Done | A launch, a move or anything with stages |
Eisenhower. The matrix's four boxes become four columns, side by side rather than a 2x2 grid. Drag each card into a column, do the Do now column first, and give Schedule cards a date. Keep Done at the end, marked as the done column, so finished cards have somewhere to go; cards you drop for good can simply be deleted.
This week. A column per weekday shows at a glance whether Wednesday is overloaded. A column doesn't set a date, though: a card in Wednesday is due when its own date says. If you want it in Today, on the calendar or with a reminder, give it that day's date too. Clear the columns as part of your weekly plan.
A project. The classic flow, with Waiting for things you've handed off and Review for anything that needs a second look. Point new cards at the project's own list, so the board and the list tell the same story.
An assistant such as Claude, connected through Alcove's local MCP server, can create boards and columns and move cards for you. See planning your day and week with Claude.
Boards on iPhone and iPad
On iPad, the board fills the space beside the sidebar with every column in view, the same as on the Mac.
On iPhone, each column is a page. The column names sit along the top with a count beside each, and you swipe or tap a name to move between them.
Tips for a board that stays useful
- Keep Doing short. Two or three cards at a time is plenty for one person.
- Use tags for the kind of work. #design and #backend on cards make a busy column easy to scan.
- Give each board its own list. Pointing new cards at the project's list keeps the board and the list telling the same story.
- Let Done be the record. Finished cards are finished tasks, so Progress still counts them.
Questions people ask
Is a card on a board a separate thing from a task?
No. Every card is a task that lives in one of your lists, with its date, priority, tags and notes. The board is another way of looking at it.
What happens when I move a card to Done?
The task is finished, the same as ticking it in a list, so it drops out of Today and your list counts.
Where do new cards go?
Each board has a list that new cards go into, shown under the board's name, so a card added on the board still belongs somewhere.
Can I use a board as an Eisenhower matrix?
Yes, as four columns side by side rather than a 2x2 grid. Name them Do now, Schedule, Delegate and Drop, and sort each card into one. Alcove has no grid view, so if you think in two axes, a dedicated matrix app suits you better.
Does moving a card into a column change its date?
No. Columns only say where a task stands, and moving a card between them never changes its date. The one exception is a column marked "Cards here are done": dropping a card there finishes the task, and a repeating task moves on to its next date.
Do boards work on iPhone and iPad?
Yes. On iPad the columns sit side by side next to the sidebar. On iPhone each column is its own page, and you swipe or tap a column's name to move between them.