I love whiteboards

... but not as much as these guys. http://bit.ly/jAxznB

I love this idea, I think its great.  I have had whiteboards from my undergraduate degree and my post grad.  My supervisor meetings revolved around us working through ideas on the white board together.  If it was important and I didn't have time to write it down I would bring my camera and take a picture of it to refer to later.

I cannot recommend them enough.  I have one white board in my office, its full there is almost no space left for temporary things.  I got it when I was lost in my notepads; ideas, todo lists, diagrams, passwords and notes.  Things were getting difficult to keep track off.  Now I have my whiteboard, it has not just everything I need to do, but everything that needs done.  My task, my staff's tasks, even my boss's tasks.  Its colour coded too, to indicate priority, that way I can add things to lists without worrying about the other.  Larger tasks are broken down in separate sections in to a group of smaller tasks.  Where possible time estimates are written next to tasks to give an idea of the scale of what needs to be done.

This is great when things get done they are erased, when things do not get done they stay, much better than being lost in the depths of early pages of a notepad.  My notepads are for doodles and daily tasks, or notes from the evening to remind me to do something the following day.  Once the page is turned in the notepad I need not worry about the previous pages, all the important stuff is on the whiteboard.

Its great for planning and working in a team.  Particularly if anybody can easily see who is assigned what.  My bosses know that I have plenty to do and can see by the turn over of tasks that I am at least getting something accomplished every day.

The problem I have is that I only have one right now.  Its almost full of tasks and plans for future projects.  There is little room for diagrams, pseudo code and doodles.  I find that I spend some time every day explaining something to someone, this is best done with a space on the whiteboard and a dry marker in hand.

I must add a task to the whiteboard:
Get more whiteboards   CTO 2hours