Inputs, not instructions

Step out for a one-hour meeting and you come back to dozens of project notifications.

Status updates. Comments. @mentions. Automated alerts telling you a due date changed on a project you’re barely involved in.

You weren’t gone long. But the tools kept churning out noise without you — and now they want your attention.

This is the hidden cost of systems built for transparency. They show everyone everything. All the time.

In theory, that makes coordination easier.

In practice, it means you’re always a little bit behind.

Worse, none of it tells you what to actually do next.

An inbox full of updates tells you what’s happening — not what matters, not what’s required of you, not what should happen today. Figuring that out is its own work, layered on top of the actual work.

The fix I’ve landed on: one list, maintained separately from the project tools my team uses. Not a replacement for those tools, but a filter.

I treat the notifications as inputs. When something actually requires action, I pull it out and add it to the list, alongside everything else competing for my time. Then I decide what to work on next.

The project management tools tell me what’s happening. My list tells me what to do.

Only one of them should be in charge.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​