Get rid of standups
I just finished 13 months of daily 20-minute standups, and realised how much better life is without them.
The first few years of my software career, I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing, I just built stuff. Then I joined an agency and learned that software teams do "standups": a daily meeting where everyone on the team shares what they did yesterday, what they'll be doing today, and anything stopping them.
It's so called because there should not be any chairs, so everyone stands up, which encourages a short meeting. 30 seconds per person. But as with all good ideas espoused by the agile OGs, "why" has been largely forgotten, and the practices subverted into the old top-down, command-and-control framework.
And so, especially in remote settings, everyone sits down during the standup. Instead of an ultra-lightweight means of keeping everyone in the loop, it's a 15 minute daily status report. Discussions about work relevant to 2 or 3 people block the whole team.
Unless the standup is fast, I think it's bad to start every day slowly. I didn't really realise until I stopped doing them. In theory, they are a nice thing; it's nice to catch up with the team, nice to hear what everyone's doing, nice to discuss issues openly in case anyone has an insight to contribute.
But there are significant costs if 6% of your work day, probably 10% of your productive time, is spent producing absolutely nothing. Is it ROI positive?
As with all meetings, they're synchronisation, and all good programmers know that synchronisation kills performance. Deleting standups improves productivity, so try it. Just delete it for 2 weeks. Nothing bad will happen, the software will still be produced. And if you find you need them, try making them async: everyone write an update somewhere, and pick up discussions if needed. A project I just joined has a weekly meeting, it takes 5 minutes, and I feel an enthusiasm I'd forgotten I had 2 years ago coming back. Seriously.
Let's leave the daily register back in school, and remember that we're all professional, talented adults who can solve problems independently, ask for help when we need it, and push status updates when there's something to report.