Skip to content
Writing Style Library

Daily Standup

A brief daily status communication with three fixed sections - done, next, blockers. Surfaces information and flags what needs action. Not a progress report; a coordination tool.

Daily Standup

Section titled “Daily Standup”

The daily standup is a coordination format, not a status report. The distinction matters. A status report demonstrates effort; a standup surfaces information that allows a team to respond. The three sections - what was done, what is next, what is blocking - are not prompts for comprehensive updates. They are prompts for the minimum information a team needs to know whether to act. Done and next are information; blockers are the only part that demands a response.

The failure mode of the standup is treating it as an opportunity to demonstrate productivity. Long “done” sections, vague “next” sections, and absent blocker sections indicate the writer is performing effort rather than coordinating work. A well-written standup is short. The done section names completed items without narrating them. The next section names the next task, not a plan. The blocker section is either empty or states specifically what is blocked and what resolution would look like.

Standup format works for both synchronous (spoken in a meeting) and asynchronous (written in a Slack channel or doc) contexts. The written async standup has the same structure but gains the additional obligation of being self-contained: the reader cannot ask a follow-up question in real time. Every blocker in an async standup should name what the writer needs, from whom, and with what urgency.

Canonical template

Section titled “Canonical template”
**Done**
- [Completed item - one line each]


**Next**
- [Next task or focus - one line each]


**Blockers**
- [What is blocked, what is needed, from whom - or "None"]

When to use

Section titled “When to use”

The standup format belongs in daily team coordination - sprints, weekly goal cycles, or any rhythm where a team needs to know who is moving and where things are stuck. It works in synchronous stand-up meetings and in async Slack channels. The format is especially valuable when blockers need to surface reliably so the right person can respond without needing to ask for status.

When not to use

Section titled “When not to use”

Skip the standup format when the situation calls for context or narrative - end-of-sprint summaries, milestone updates, or communication with stakeholders who need to understand the work, not just the status. If the recipient cannot use the three-section structure to know whether to act, a different format serves better.

Pairs well with

Section titled “Pairs well with”

operator, direct-communicator, matter-of-fact, candid

Often confused with

Section titled “Often confused with”

meeting-notes: Meeting notes capture the full outcomes of a specific meeting - decisions, assigned actions, open items - across any topic. A standup is a recurring short-form personal status update with a fixed three-section structure focused on coordination.

slack-message: A Slack message is a general-purpose channel communication that can take many forms and lengths. A standup is a specific format with a fixed three-part structure - it often lives in Slack, but the format constraint is tighter than the Slack message format allows for.

Tells

Section titled “Tells”
  • Exactly three fixed sections: Done, Next, Blockers
  • Done names completed items without narrating them
  • Next names the immediate next task, not a plan
  • Blockers either says “None” or states what is blocked, what is needed, and from whom
  • Short overall - roughly 10 lines or fewer, one item per line
  • In async form, every blocker is self-contained (what is needed, from whom, with what urgency)

Anti-patterns

Section titled “Anti-patterns”
  • Writing a long, detailed Done section that narrates a week of work - That is the scope of the confusable status-report; a standup covers the immediate cycle and surfaces only what the team needs to coordinate today.
  • Dropping the Blockers section or leaving it implicit - Blockers are the only part of a standup that demands a response; without them the update is information-only and the format’s coordination purpose is lost.
  • Letting the update sprawl into general channel chatter or discussion - That is a general slack-message; the standup is a tighter fixed-structure format, even when it lives in the same Slack channel.

Failure modes

Section titled “Failure modes”
  • Escalates every minor uncertainty into the Blockers section until the one part that demands a team response is flooded with non-blockers - Reserve Blockers for what actually halts progress and needs someone else; a standup where everything is blocked trains the team to skim past the section that exists to be acted on.
  • Over-compresses into a checkbox ritual - the update is filled in so tersely (“done: stuff; next: more; blockers: none”) that it conveys nothing actionable - Brevity serves coordination, not the appearance of it; each line should let a teammate know whether to act, so name the actual item rather than a placeholder.

Instruction

Section titled “Instruction”
Write as a daily standup update. Use exactly three sections: Done, Next, Blockers. Each
section uses short bullet points, one item per line. Done covers completed work - name the
item, do not narrate it. Next covers the immediate next task or focus. Blockers states what
is blocked, what resolution is needed, and from whom - or the word "None" if there are no
blockers. The entire update should fit in 10 lines or fewer. Do not include progress narratives,
explanations of effort, or general context not needed for coordination.

Template

Section titled “Template”

See the Daily Standup template.

Section titled “Related”

Pairs well with

Section titled “Pairs well with”

Operator, Direct Communicator, Matter of Fact, Candid

Avoid with

Section titled “Avoid with”

Pastoral, Columnist, Devotional Reflection, Warm

Often confused with

Section titled “Often confused with”

Meeting Notes, Slack Message

Examples

Section titled “Examples”

#team-standup - Devon Park - Tue May 27, 9:42am PT (day 9 of trial)

Shipped

  • Rate-limiter rollout to staging; 0 errors over 18h soak
  • PR #4412 merged (auth token rotation runbook)

In progress

  • Production rollout of rate-limiter, gated behind rl_v2 flag, 5% traffic by EOD
  • Pairing with Aditi 10am PT on the IST-hour metrics dashboard

Blocked / at risk

  • Waiting on @sara for sign-off on the rotation runbook before I close the parent ticket (not urgent, EOW is fine)
  • (meta) Async format participation was 9/11 yesterday - @oliver and @emma did not post. Oliver was on-call handoff, fine. Emma I will DM. Flagging so @maya has visibility before the day-15 pulse.

Appears in diff-pairs

Section titled “Appears in diff-pairs”