The Burner Method is a lightweight project management framework built around the metaphor of a stovetop. It provides a simple yet powerful way to prioritize, track, and manage projects by assigning them to “burners” that represent focus, urgency, and resource allocation.
Projects are categorized across four burners:
- Primary Front Burner (PFB) – Singular daily focus (1/1 slot).
- Secondary Front Burner (SFB) – Weekly/Monthly active projects (up to 4 slots).
- Active Back Burner (ABB) – All other active projects (infinite).
- Dormant Back Burner (DBB) – Paused, scrapped, or archived projects.
- Heat Levels (HL): Adjust intensity of attention (Low → Max).
- Time on Burner (ToB): Track how long projects have occupied a burner, helping prevent stagnation and burnout.
- Fuel Source (FS): Manage resources—Time, Energy, Capital, and People—as the “fuel” that powers burners.
- Promotion/Demotion Cycle (projects move between burners).
- Fuel Budgeting (ensures sustainable allocation).
- Burnout Guard (alerts when demand exceeds supply).
I (as everything on my GitHub shows) love to orgianze things to better help me with projects. The Burner Method or TBM is a system that I invented back in 2023 and then later in 2025 started to digitize like the rest of my projects. TBM is meant to help me with three things; 1. Manage what projects I am currently working on, 2. Prevent burnout on a project, and 3. Keep track of all of my projects. Along with other stuff of course.
- Xeon - Founder, Lead Developer (Joined The Burner Method Project on 09/02/2025)
TBM (The Burner Method or Burner Method) is a proprietary project tracking and organization system developed solely by Joshua Schumacher. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or associated with any organization, institution, or third party. All concepts, naming conventions, and structural formats are the intellectual creation of Joshua Schumacher.
