I’ve kept a work diary for a long time. For any given work day in the past several years, I have a pretty good record of what I did, what was interesting or difficult about it, and what I plan to do next. It’s not always pretty, but it’s a great working memory for notes or to-dos to get triaged into something more suitable.
This makes stand-ups easy. “What did you do yesterday and what are you going to do today? Any questions or blockers?” Please sit tight, this is going to take a while.
I sometimes have to remind myself that while my manager wants to know that I’m doing my job, I doubt most of my team mates are that interested in the trivia of every task I worked on the day before.
I try to remind myself that these conversations aren’t for showing off how blisteringly productive you can be. They’re for making sure your team knows about the stuff that’s relevant to them. Stuff that contributes to the heartbeat of the team. Work that plays out at the intersection of yours and theirs.
