Skip to main content
Standups create anxiety. You hoard updates during the day because you need content for the meeting. You forget your blockers. You adjust your schedule to be in early, even if you work better at night. I ran into this when I started my company. People join startups to escape corporate bureaucracy. When I tried to introduce morning standups, the early hires pushed back hard. It didn’t feel like a startup move to them. Given that, I went back to the drawing board to break down the actual utility of the meeting. A standup exists to distribute context so a team can parallelize work and maintain synchronization. If that’s the goal, you don’t need a meeting.
You can watch me write this blog post on video here on x.com.

​
The process

1

Post your task list in the morning

First thing in the morning, drop your todo list into a shared channel like #standup. No meeting, no ceremony — just a message with what you’re planning to do today.
- Fix login bug on staging
- Review Sarah's PR #234
- Write API docs for /users endpoint
- Sync with design on checkout flow
2

Cross off tasks as you go

As you complete work throughout the day, go back and edit the message to strike through finished items. Everyone watching the channel gets a live view of your progress.
- ~~Fix login bug on staging~~
- ~~Review Sarah's PR #234~~
- Write API docs for /users endpoint
- Sync with design on checkout flow
That’s it. Everyone sees what you’re working on. No meeting required.

​
Advanced version

Add timestamps if you want to track how long things are taking or provide more context for teammates. 
Today:
- [9:15-10:30] ~~Fix login bug on staging~~
- [10:30-11:00] ~~Review Sarah's PR #234~~
- [11:00-?] Write API docs for /users endpoint
- (no start time since previous task is unfinished) Sync with design on checkout flow
The timestamp format doesn’t need to be strict — just enough to give your team a sense of pacing and where you’re at in the day. Open-ended ranges like [11:00-?] signal that a task is actively in progress.

​
Why this works better

Team members who work better in the evening or across time zones don’t have to restructure their day to attend a morning meeting. They post when they start their day — whenever that is.
The message lives in the channel all day. Anyone can check it at any time, not just at a fixed meeting moment. Late additions or updated priorities show up in real time.
When you’re not performing for a meeting, you’re less likely to pad your list or artificially manufacture progress. The format encourages straightforward, practical updates.
This approach works for fully remote and distributed teams where overlapping hours are limited. The written record also gives managers a lightweight audit trail without additional tooling.