When summer blew up our family's routine, I turned to a business system from Toyota. It helped curb the chaos.

The author said her family was reluctant to follow a new method for organizing their to-do list at first, but they quickly got on board.

Courtesy of Laura Wheatman Hill.

I am a summer Grinch. I do not thrive in warm weather. I do not have the funds for extravagant vacations. Perhaps the thing I like least about summer is that my family's sense of routine is disrupted.My two kids, 10 and 12, are spending several weeks of the summer in day camp, but also have stretches where we have no commitments. I'm working from home as an independent journalist and also have a summer job at a new play festival.A babysitter takes care of the kids while I'm at the theatre, which motivates me to keep the house at least a little orderly. But I was still struggling to come up with a system for keeping my home and sanity intact while the kids are home. Turning to a business system gave me some help, and some hope, for a summer we could all survive.I came across a new-to-me method of organizing our livesI was researching ways to organize workflow online and came across the Kanban method. I was intrigued. I learned that kanban means "signboard" in Japanese and is a business system used by companies like Toyota (where it was developed). It helps manage workflow across multiple people in multi-step projects.My background in teaching informed my decision to use this method since it involves "chunking" a project into smaller parts. Instead of the task "keep the house clean," there are smaller actions like "wipe countertops" that are more specific and manageable.Chunking is an especially good strategy for students with ADHD or other barriers to learning, and my kids fall into that category. I broke out the Post-It notes and got to work.Setting up the systemAfter learning about how kanban can help people maximize their productivity, I made the unpopular household decision that we would be implementing the method this summer.I had some trial and error while constructing my board. The first version was just putting sticky notes on the wall, but they kept falling down, so I pinned a bright square of wrapping to the wall. The sticky notes stuck to the paper better than the wall. I put a solid piece of paper on one side to indicate the "done" section. Then, I assigned colors to each kid and designated a third color for activities that anyone could do or that they could do together, such as putting away clean dishes or playing a board game.