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Module 4 · Level 2 · 15 min

One map, five views

This is the part nobody finds on their own, and the one that changes how people work: your kanban and your timeline are not other documents. They are this map, seen from another angle.

Nothing is converted, nothing is lost

Every view button in the toolbar says the same thing in its own description, and it is worth reading once:

📋 Kanban — “the same map as cards grouped by status; nothing is converted, nothing is lost (Esc to come back)”
📅 Gantt — “every dated node as a bar on a timeline; nothing is converted, nothing is lost”
📝 Notes — “the same map written as a page: type, Enter for the next line, Tab to indent”

In most tools, “view as a board” means an export you then have to keep in sync. Here it is one document. Change a card in the kanban and the node changes in the map, because it is the node.

What makes a node appear in each view

ViewWhat puts a node in it
📋 KanbanTurning the node into a to-do. The app is explicit about the consequence: “it feeds the kanban and the gauges”.
📅 GanttGiving the node a date. Undated nodes simply are not on the timeline.
📝 NotesNothing — the whole map is already a document, read top to bottom.
🎨 SheetNothing — branches become rows, and you can import a CSV straight into them.
▶ PresentNothing — each branch becomes a slide, sub-points revealed one at a time.

Esc comes back to the map from any of them. There is no “save as” and no round trip to lose.

The habit to build

Do not decide the shape first. Most people open a tool and ask themselves “is this a board or a document?” — and lose ten minutes to a question that does not matter here.

Write first, look differently after. Dump the thinking as a map, tick the lines that are actually actions, date the ones that have a deadline, and then press Kanban to see what you have committed to, or Gantt to see whether it fits in the time you have.

The trap worth naming: a node that reads “Sam” makes a useless card. A node that reads “Call Sam about the quote” makes a card you can finish. Views only give back the precision you put in.

Your turn

Take a project you are running now. Map it, tick every line that is really a task, put dates on the three that have one — then read it as a kanban, then as a Gantt.

If the kanban looks empty, the map was a description rather than a plan. That is the useful part of the exercise.