Your goal becomes sending the “status update” email, and the feature is a means to an end.

In order to click “Send,” you must first complete everything you promised to yourself you would. For whatever reason, I find this to be way more compelling than exterior deadlines imposed by someone else. It becomes little mind-game with yourself, as you try to make good on the bet that you’d accomplish what you set out to initially.

You become focused on the important things.

You’re less likely to waste time working through a random edge-case if it doesn’t move you closer to sending that email. The “Status Report” acts as a litmus test throughout the day, similar to a To Do list, but more pointed and more personal, because it’s a communication, chambered, ready to be sent to your boss or client as soon as possible.

Stay connected and reap the rewards.

There’s definitely a happen medium to communication. Eamil your boss every 10 mins with an update, and you’ll shortly be disregarded and relegated to a pile of other annoying, unimportant unread emails they’re sure to get throughout the day. Collate your thoughts into a concise list of accomplishments, and sent 3x — 5x a week, and you’ve effectively communicated your progress to someone that matters. Connected clients/bosses are a good thing.

But, how?

I don’t usually do this right away. Any any sizable task (something that might take you 1–3 days to complete), there’s always that lull. After you’ve started into the project, and gained some momentum, you might find an issue that just dissolved your motivation a bit. It’s not that it’s a show-stopping issue or anything, it so happened to hit you at the right time and, along with all the other work you’ve done, you might decided it’s time for a break.

Since you’ve started the project, you already have a pretty good idea of what you are going to deliver, you haven’t seen anything that makes you want to run for the hills, and you’ve made enough progress to establish momentum and velocity.

You’ve just found the perfect time to write up a status update.