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Ask HN: How do you not keep track of what you did yesterday (and this morning)?

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11–20 of 37 posts

Re: Ask HN: How do you not keep track of what you did yesterday (and this morning)?

#11
> I take 15 minutes before my meeting preparing for the standup

A daily standup should be a It seems like a waste of time to me to spend any time on preparing for it, and if that means my update is "I don't really remember what I did yesterday because I jumped around a ton", so be it.

Frankly even now that I'm a team lead I find these meetings fairly useless and my only real takeaways most days is what people need help or more work.

Re: Ask HN: How do you not keep track of what you did yesterday (and this morning)?

#12
Talking in front of a group can be a stressful situation depending on your emotional state.

It sounds like you've found a system that works for you, imagine not having that system, being sleep deprived, or simply focusing on the next thing instead of the last thing you did.

I know a lot of things about a lot of things, to the point where I know a lot of things I don't know a much about, but I usually end up forgetting what I did yesterday, how old I am, how old my daughter is, birthdays other than my daughter's and my own.

People are different, so empathy is key in communication, I'm not too good with empathy, but I try not expect others to behave as I would.

Re: Ask HN: How do you not keep track of what you did yesterday (and this morning)?

#13
I use ManicTime and email history, mostly.

> I take 15 minutes before my meeting preparing for the standup - to try to hunt down what I did yesterday

I would advise to take those 15 minutes at the end of your workday, and write it down. Then you’ll remember better the next day/week. Those 15 minutes are also an opportunity to plan what to work on the next day/week (and write that down as well).

Re: Ask HN: How do you not keep track of what you did yesterday (and this morning)?

#14
I'm having a hard time imagining a stand-up where everyone on the team does not already know what you were doing yesterday. The board has your closed tasks and your current task. Your stand-up is to give progress on your task. What's going on that people don't know what task they have been working on?

Re: Ask HN: How do you not keep track of what you did yesterday (and this morning)?

#15
When we didn't use JIRA or similar apps, I had a hard time remembering as well. But with JIRA I look at the ticket I'm working on (and the ticket is displayed on the screen) and say "I was working on Ticket XYZ". Of course, they can look at JIRA themselves and don't need me to say it. But that's what stand-ups are anyways—a status update when you can already see the status from JIRA. But that's a different topic.

Re: Ask HN: How do you not keep track of what you did yesterday (and this morning)?

#16
I usually take notes on what I do, but if I’m forgetting what I did yesterday, it’s likely because my brain is so completely absorbed in the task of the last five minutes that I don’t mentally exist on this planet anymore. I could figure it out, but that would require turning my attention back to earth, and the problem I’m absorbed in is too fascinating to let go right now.

Re: Ask HN: How do you not keep track of what you did yesterday (and this morning)?

#18
post #14

I'm having a hard time imagining a stand-up where everyone on the team does not already know what you were doing yesterday. The board has your closed tasks and your current task. Your stand-up is to give progress on your task. What's going on that people don't know what task they have been working on?

Because I wake up 5 minutes before this meeting and my mental energy is spend on making coffee.

Re: Ask HN: How do you not keep track of what you did yesterday (and this morning)?

#19
post #14

I'm having a hard time imagining a stand-up where everyone on the team does not already know what you were doing yesterday. The board has your closed tasks and your current task. Your stand-up is to give progress on your task. What's going on that people don't know what task they have been working on?

Because I wake up 5 minutes before this meeting and my mental energy is spend on making coffee.

This is THE comment. Completely related

Re: Ask HN: How do you not keep track of what you did yesterday (and this morning)?

#20
Because who wants to waste 15 minutes of being useless time prepping for a meeting that is again useless. Does every detail really matter? Do we really have to daily justify what we do? That breeds a lot of resentment. May I please go to the bathroom? Weekly Eng standups at most unless truely working on something in tight collaboration.
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