"What Did I Do Yesterday?" — Why Standups Feel Harder Than They Should

The daily memory scramble

It’s 9:28 AM. Standup starts in two minutes. Your mind races: What did I do yesterday? You scroll through Slack messages, check your commit history, scan your calendar. By the time it’s your turn, you cobble together something that sounds vaguely plausible.

If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. How to remember what I did yesterday for standup is one of the most common daily frustrations for engineers, PMs, and knowledge workers everywhere. And it’s not because you’re forgetful—it’s because the system is broken.

Why standups feel harder than they should

Daily standup preparation shouldn’t be stressful. You do valuable work every day. The problem is that your brain isn’t optimized for recall on demand. Here’s what’s actually happening:

Context-switching erases memory

Engineers switch contexts constantly—between codebases, meetings, tickets, and conversations. Each switch fragments your memory of the day. By the time standup arrives, yesterday feels like a blur.

Working memory has limits

You can only hold about four things in active working memory at once. Yesterday’s accomplishments got pushed out by today’s priorities before you even woke up.

Standups happen at the worst time

Morning meetings require recalling work from up to 18 hours ago. That’s a long time for details to fade—especially when you’ve slept and started thinking about new problems.

The pressure to perform

Knowing that teammates are listening adds performance anxiety. You want to sound productive, which makes it harder to think clearly in the moment.

Common engineering standup problems

Beyond memory struggles, standups often suffer from structural issues:

Updates are too vague. “I worked on the API” doesn’t help anyone understand progress or blockers.

Updates are too detailed. A five-minute monologue about implementation specifics loses the room.

No real discussion happens. People recite updates but don’t engage with each other’s work. The meeting becomes theater.

Blockers go unnoticed. When you’re scrambling to remember what you did, you might forget to mention what’s stuck.

The meeting drags. Ten people × 2 minutes each = 20 minutes of mostly listening to things that don’t affect you.

Practical tips for writing daily standup updates

The solution to standup meeting preparation isn’t better memory—it’s better systems. Here’s what works:

1. Capture progress throughout the day

Don’t wait until standup to reconstruct your work. As you complete tasks or hit milestones, jot a quick note. This takes seconds and saves minutes of morning scrambling.

2. Use a consistent format

Having a structure makes preparation automatic:

• Done: What you finished
• Doing: What you’re working on today
• Blocked: What’s stuck and needs help

3. Be specific but brief

“Fixed the login redirect bug (PR #234)” beats “worked on authentication.” Specific updates show progress and give teammates enough context to offer help.

4. Note blockers immediately when they occur

When you hit a wall, write it down right away. By standup time, you might forget you were blocked or minimize its importance.

5. Review your notes before standup

Spend 60 seconds scanning your notes from yesterday. This primes your memory and ensures you don’t forget anything important.

A better approach to standup preparation

The engineers who breeze through standups share a secret: they don’t rely on memory. They keep lightweight running notes of what they accomplish each day.

This isn’t extra work—it’s actually less work than scrambling every morning. A few seconds of logging during the day replaces minutes of stressful reconstruction.

Here’s what the practice looks like:

End of day: Write 3-5 bullets about what you accomplished. Include project names or ticket numbers for context.

Next morning: Glance at your notes before standup. Add anything you forgot. Done.

This simple habit transforms standup prep from a stressful memory exercise into a quick review.

Beyond daily standups

When you keep daily notes, benefits extend beyond standups:

• Weekly updates write themselves. You just synthesize what you logged.
• 1:1s become more productive. You have specific topics to discuss instead of vague feelings.
• Performance reviews get easier. Months of notes give you concrete examples of impact.
• You feel more confident. Knowing what you’ve accomplished reduces imposter syndrome.

Start today

Tomorrow’s standup is coming. Before you leave work today, write three bullets about what you accomplished. Keep them somewhere you’ll see in the morning.

Do this for a week, and notice how much easier standup becomes. No more memory scramble. No more vague updates. Just clear, confident communication about your work.

Your standup problems aren’t a memory problem—they’re a system problem. Fix the system, and standups become what they should be: quick, useful, and stress-free.