Creating Your First Board

Boards are the foundation of your Kanman workspace—they’re the highest-level organizational unit where everything else lives. Think of each board as a dedicated space for a specific area of your work or life, containing all the projects and tasks related to that context.

Choosing the right board structure from the start will make your entire Kanman experience more organized and productive. This guide will help you create your first board and set it up for success.

Desktop Mobile

Creating a Board

Creating a new board takes just a few seconds. You can start with a minimal setup and customize later, or take a moment to configure everything upfront.

1. Click + New Board in the sidebar or on the homepage
2. Enter a descriptive name that clearly identifies what this board is about
3. Click Create for a quick start, or expand the customization options first

Your new board will appear in the sidebar immediately, ready for you to start adding projects and tasks.

Board Settings

Every board has settings that control its appearance and behavior. Access these anytime by clicking the gear icon in the board header.

General Settings

The general settings define the basic identity of your board:

• Name: The board’s display name, shown in the sidebar and board header. Keep it concise but descriptive—you’ll be reading this name many times a day. Maximum 255 characters.
• Description: Add context about what this board is for, what it contains, or any other notes that help you (or teammates) understand its purpose. The description supports rich text formatting including bold, italics, links, and lists.
• Icon: Choose from hundreds of icons in the Lucide library to give your board instant visual recognition. A well-chosen icon helps you find the right board quickly when scanning your sidebar.

Appearance

The appearance settings let you personalize your board’s visual style. A distinctive look helps you instantly recognize which board you’re working in and can make your workspace more enjoyable to use.

Desktop Mobile

Background Options

You can set a background in three ways, depending on the aesthetic you’re going for:

1. Solid Color: Pick any color using the color picker. Solid colors are clean, professional, and load instantly. Great for boards where you want minimal distraction.
2. Unsplash Image: Search through millions of high-quality, free photos from Unsplash. Whether you want inspiring landscapes, abstract patterns, or cozy workspace vibes, there’s something for every taste. When you select an Unsplash image, Kanman automatically stores and displays the photographer’s credit.
3. No Background: Keep it minimal with the default dark theme. This is the best option for maximum focus and fastest performance.

Accent Color

The accent color is used throughout the board’s interface to highlight important elements and create visual consistency. It appears in:

• Project header backgrounds and borders
• Progress bar fills showing task completion
• Interactive hover states and focus indicators
• Active state highlighting for selected items

Choose a color that helps distinguish this board visually from your other boards. Many users pick colors that match the board’s theme—green for finance, blue for tech projects, orange for creative work.

Layout Preference

Kanman offers two layout modes that fundamentally change how your tasks are displayed. Each has its strengths, and you can switch between them at any time without losing any data.

Desktop Mobile

Layout	Best For	How It Works
Simple	Quick task management, todo lists, backlogs	Projects appear as expandable cards stacked vertically. Tasks are listed within each project.
Kanban	Visual workflow tracking, sprint planning, status-based work	Tasks appear as cards in columns based on their status. Drag cards between columns to change status.

You can switch layouts at any time using the toggle in the board header. Your preference is saved per board, so you can have some boards in Simple mode and others in Kanban mode.

Board Limits by Plan

The number of boards you can create depends on your subscription plan. If you need more boards, consider upgrading or archiving boards you’re no longer actively using.

Plan	Board Limit	Best For
Personal	5 boards	Individual users with focused needs
Pro	15 boards	Power users and freelancers managing multiple contexts
Teams	50 boards	Teams and organizations with complex project structures

Best Practices

Over time, we’ve seen patterns emerge in how the most organized users structure their boards. Here are some recommendations that will serve you well.

Naming Conventions

Your board names should immediately tell you what’s inside without having to open them. Future you will thank present you for being specific.

Good examples:

• “2024 Product Launch” — specific and time-bound
• “Client: Acme Corp” — clear context with client prefix
• “Personal Finance” — descriptive of the area
• “Home Renovation - Kitchen” — specific project with context

Avoid:

• “Board 1” — meaningless, will cause confusion
• “Stuff” — too vague to be useful
• “Work” — too broad, consider splitting into specific projects

One Board Per Context

Resist the urge to put everything in one giant board. Instead, create separate boards for distinct areas of your life or work. This keeps each board focused and manageable.

Consider creating separate boards for:

• Each major client if you’re a freelancer or consultant
• Each significant project that has its own timeline and goals
• Each life area such as work, personal, side projects, and hobbies
• Each team or department in larger organizations

A good rule of thumb: if two groups of tasks never need to be viewed together, they probably belong in separate boards.

Use Icons Strategically

Icons provide instant visual recognition when scanning your sidebar. Choose icons that logically represent each board’s content:

• Briefcase — work and professional boards
• Home — personal and household boards
• Lightbulb — ideas, brainstorming, and innovation boards
• Chart — analytics, metrics, and reporting boards
• Users — team and collaboration boards
• Code — development and technical projects
• Palette — design and creative projects

Consistency helps—if all your client boards use a users icon and all personal boards use a home icon, you’ll build muscle memory for finding what you need.

Editing a Board

Board settings can be changed at any time without affecting your existing projects or tasks.

1. Open the board you want to edit
2. Click the Settings icon (gear) in the board header
3. Make your changes in the settings drawer
4. Changes save automatically—no need to click a save button

Deleting a Board

When a board is no longer needed, you can delete it to keep your workspace clean. Deletion is a reversible action with a safety net.

1. Open the board settings
2. Scroll to the bottom of the settings drawer
3. Click Delete Board
4. Confirm the deletion in the dialog

Important: Deleted boards go to the Trash and can be recovered within 40 days. After that grace period, the board is permanently deleted along with all its projects, tasks, and subtasks. This cannot be undone, so make sure you’ve exported any data you need before the 40-day window expires.

Next Steps

Now that you have your first board set up, continue building out your workspace:

• Understanding Projects - Learn how to organize work within your board using projects
• Kanban View - Set up visual workflow lanes for status-based task management
• Board Notes - Add documentation, context, and reference information to your board