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 really dislike how disrupted our regular routine is when the kids are home during summer break.

This year, I was determined to make the days more productive and meaningful while limiting screens.I turned to the Kanban method, a business system for organization, to keep my kids on task.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