Daily Standup Phrases
25 ready-to-use phrases for your daily standup — reporting what you did, what you'll do, and what's blocking you.
Standup structure
- Yesterday: What did you complete or work on?
- Today: What is your plan for this workday?
- Blockers: What is preventing you from progressing?
Keep it under 90 seconds. Flag blockers explicitly — don't hide them.
Reporting Yesterday's Work
- Yesterday I worked on…General opening — follow with task name
- I completed / finished / wrapped up…Signal a closed ticket
- I merged the PR for…Specific — tells the reviewer it's done
- I spent most of the day investigating…When you couldn't resolve something
- I was in a lot of meetings — got some time on X between calls.Honest about interrupted focus time
- Yesterday was mostly support / bug fixes / reviews.When there's no single main task
Sharing Today's Plan
- Today I'm planning to / going to…Clear plan — present continuous
- I'll continue working on…Ongoing task carrying over
- My main focus today is…Signals your priority clearly
- I should have this done by end of day.Commit to a concrete deadline
- I'm aiming to get X done by mid-afternoon."Aiming to" = goal, not promise
- I'm going to pair with [Name] on…Mention collaboration plans
- After standup I'll pick up where I left off on…Clear continuation
Communicating Blockers
- I'm currently blocked on…Direct and clear — use early in standup
- I'm waiting on feedback / review / access from [Name/team].Name the source of the blocker
- I can't proceed until [X] is resolved.Shows the dependency explicitly
- The staging environment is down — I can't test until it's back.Infrastructure blocker
- No blockers on my end.All-clear — common and expected phrase
- I'll reach out to [Name] after standup to resolve this.Show you have a plan to unblock yourself
- This might block the rest of the team — can we discuss after?Flag a team-wide blocker without derailing standup
Flagging Risks & Updates
- Quick flag: [issue] — not blocking me but worth knowing.FYI that doesn't need a decision
- I might need help with this later — I'll ping [Name].Proactive, not reactive
- The ticket is more complex than estimated — I'll update the story points.Re-estimate openly
- We may miss the sprint goal if X isn't resolved today.Risk signal — useful for scrum master
- I'll send more detail in a thread / ticket comment.Keep standup brief, put detail elsewhere
Async Standup (Written Slack Update)
- 🕐 Yesterday: [task]. Today: [plan]. Blockers: [none / description].Standard async format — emoji headers help scanning
- Done: [task]. In progress: [task]. Blocked by: [dependency / person].Label-first format — works well in Slack
- No blockers on my end today.Always state this explicitly — don't rely on silence
- Carrying over [task] from yesterday — paused for [reason], resuming today.Transparency about rollover work
- Off until [date]. [Name] is covering for any urgent questions.OOO async standup — name a cover
- [task] is taking longer than estimated — updating ticket ETA to [date].Proactive re-estimate, not an apology
- FYI: I'll be in deep focus today — will check Slack at 12:00 and 17:00.Set expectations for async response times