What should I say in a daily standup?

Three things in under a minute: what you finished since the last standup, what you’re doing next, and anything blocking you, with who can unblock it. Name the outcome, not the activity: “the export now handles 10,000 rows” beats “worked on export”.

What if I have nothing to say in standup?

Say what you’re in the middle of and when you expect it done, or what you learned that changes the plan. “Still on the import; found the slowness is in parsing, not the database; done tomorrow” is a good update.

What is an EOD report?

An end-of-day report: a short written note of what you did, what’s next and any blockers, sent to a manager, client or channel. It’s common in remote teams and agencies, and often replaces a live standup.

How do I write a standup update quickly?

Keep a running list as you work, or let an AI draft it from what you actually did today and edit it. Either way, check every line is true before you post it.

What to say in standup: 15 examples and an EOD template

The format

Done: what you finished since last time, as outcomes.
Next: what you’re doing today, and when you expect it done if anyone is waiting.
Blocked: what’s stopping you, and who can unblock it. Or “nothing blocking”.

Aim for under a minute. Details go to a thread or a call after standup with the people who need them.

Vague vs specific

“Worked on payments.” → “Refunds now go back to the original card; in review.”
“Meetings, mostly.” → “Agreed the Q1 scope with sales; spec out Thursday.”
“Still on the bug.” → “Found the cause: timezones in the scheduler. Fix today.”

The specific version tells people whether to care, and whether anything changed for them.

15 examples by role

Engineer

“Done: search returns in under 200 ms on the big accounts. Next: the pagination bug. Nothing blocking.”
“Done: migration script, tested on a copy of staging. Next: run it tonight. Need Sam to approve the downtime window.”
“Still on the flaky checkout test; it’s a race in the cart service. Pairing with Jo at 11. Done by tomorrow.”

Designer

“Done: onboarding screens, two options in Figma. Next: test both with three users Thursday. Need PM to pick the users.”
“Done: icon set handed to engineering. Next: empty states. Nothing blocking.”
“Blocked on copy for the pricing page; waiting on marketing since Monday.”

Product manager

“Done: Q1 scope agreed with sales; export and SSO are in, the mobile app is out. Spec Thursday.”
“Next: customer calls on the import flow, three booked. Will share notes Friday.”
“Decision needed from Alex: ship Monday without the bulk edit, or wait a week.”

Sales

“Done: demo with a 40-seat logistics team; they want SSO before signing. Next: proposal today.”
“Next: renewals for the three accounts expiring this month. Need legal on the new terms.”
“Pipeline: two deals moved to contract, one lost on price.”

Freelancer or agency

“Done: homepage build for the bakery client, on staging. Next: their feedback round, 2 hours budgeted.”
“Done: 6 hours on the audit, report half written. Next: finish Thursday. Waiting on analytics access.”
“Next: invoice for October; logging the last two days first.”

Blockers

A blocker needs three parts: what’s stuck, who can unblock it, and since when. “Waiting on design” is a complaint; “waiting on Priya for the empty-state copy since Monday, need it by Wednesday” is a request someone can act on. If it’s been blocked two standups running, take it out of standup and message the person.

Async standups

In Slack or Teams, post at the same time each day in one thread or channel, same three parts, and link the work (pull request, doc, ticket) so nobody has to ask. Read others’ updates and reply in thread with anything that affects you. Posting standups to Slack with AI covers drafting them from your day.

EOD report template

EOD [date]
Done
- [outcome], [link]
- [outcome], [link]
In progress
- [task]: [where it stands], done by [when]
Tomorrow
- [first thing]
Blocked / need
- [what], from [who], since [when]
Hours (if billing): [client] [h], [client] [h]

Example:

EOD Oct 21
Done
- Refund flow merged (PR 412)
- Q1 scope notes sent to sales
In progress
- Scheduler timezone fix: cause found, done tomorrow
Tomorrow
- Pair with Jo on the checkout test
Blocked / need
- Downtime window approval from Sam, since Monday

Writing it in 30 seconds

The slow part is remembering. If your AI assistant can see what you actually did today, through your notes or a work-memory connector, let it draft and you edit:

Draft my standup from what I did since yesterday morning:
Done (outcomes, with links), Next, Blocked. Under 60 words.
Only include things I actually worked on; mark anything unsure.

Cachejay keeps a record of your workday (screen, calls, coding-agent sessions) that ChatGPT and Claude can read, so that prompt works without pasting anything. See standups, and for longer look-backs, the weekly review from work history. Freelancers can use the same record for hours: Cachejay for freelancers.