Stop Wasting Time with Status Updates: Use Lists Instead!

Happy August! Let’s talk about something that’s quietly draining your time and energy: inefficient meetings and email updates. Today, I want to share a simple solution that’s been working for us for over twenty years—one that can dramatically improve how your team communicates and collaborates.

This isn’t a new trick. In fact, it’s something we’ve used hundreds of times since we first got our hands on SharePoint in the early 2000s. And if you’ve ever explored SharePoint Lists, you know they’re a hidden gem for lean office operations—at least for the teams that learn how to use them well.

Let’s start with two scenarios that might sound familiar.

First, those recurring meetings where everyone goes around the room giving updates. One by one. Department by department. It’s not that the updates aren’t important—it’s just that the format is inefficient. You’re stuck listening to information that could’ve been shared more effectively.

Second, if you manage people and ask for weekly update emails, you know the drill. Every Friday, your inbox fills up with a message from each direct report. You open them, read them, maybe file them away. It’s a lot of effort for something that should be simple.

Now imagine this instead.

You open a single web page. It’s clean, organized, and updated. You scan it in five minutes—maybe while sipping your morning coffee—and you’re fully caught up. No meetings. No emails. Just clarity.

And here’s the kicker: all those updates are automatically stored and searchable. So when performance review season rolls around, you’ve got a goldmine of weekly updates at your fingertips. No digging through emails. No memory games. Just facts.

Same goes for those weekly update emails. Instead of opening ten different messages, you check one page. Progress, milestones, blockers—it’s all there, grouped however you want. By person, by project, by date. No more siloed updates. Just one source of truth.

So how do you make this magic happen?

It’s easier than you think. Grab your tech-savvy teammate—or better yet, ask Copilot to help—and follow these steps.

Start by creating a SharePoint list. Set the permissions so everyone has “contribute” access, not “edit.” That’s important. Contribute lets them add and update their own entries without messing with the structure of the list.

Next, build your columns. Think of it like a spreadsheet, but browser-based and way more powerful. Use the title field for a short summary—something like “This week went smoothly” or “Hit a major milestone.” Add a description in the column settings so people know what to write.

Then add the good stuff. A long description column for details. A milestone column for wins. A barrier column for issues that need your attention. If your team works on different types of projects, maybe add a dropdown for categories like “electrical,” “mechanical,” or “software.” Whatever makes sense for your world.

Once your columns are set, build views. This is where the list really shines. Create a view that shows only this week’s updates. Another that shows all updates in chronological order. One grouped by employee. One grouped by category. You can slice and dice the data however you want.

If you’re new to SharePoint Lists, go back and listen to Episode 57. And don’t forget—Copilot can help you build the list step by step. You might not even need your tech guru after all.

Now, here’s how you roll it out.

Tell your team that status updates are no longer part of meetings. Meetings are for discussion and decision-making—not for reading off a list of what everyone did last week. Likewise, let them know you don’t want update emails anymore. From now on, updates go in the list.

Share the link to the input form and the list itself. Better yet, embed them in your Teams channel as tabs. One click, and they’re in the form. One click, and they’re reviewing updates.

And this part is key: make it clear that everyone is expected to review the updates before the meeting. That way, you walk into the room—or the call—ready to solve problems, not just hear about them.

And that’s it. No more Friday email marathons. No more meetings that feel like a slow-motion parade of updates. Just clean, efficient communication that respects everyone’s time.

Updates are entered into a simple web form. They’re compiled automatically. They’re easy to read, easy to find, and easy to use when you need them most.

Now go build your update list—and let us know how it goes.