Weekly Project Updates
Trade status update meetings and endless messages for simple, async weekly project updates that document progress, reduce back-and-forth, and keep everyone aligned.
PREP TIME
0m
Run TIME
15m
Persons
1+
5-second summary
- Share a clear, accountable record of project progress made over the last week or what’s expected in the week ahead.
- Ensure you’re staying on track and keeping up momentum.
- Help teams make informed decisions and prioritize accordingly – without more meetings.
WHAT YOU WILL NEED
- Project management tool, like Atlassian Home or Jira
- Team communication tool, like Slack or Teams
PLAY resources
How to share weekly project updates
Share weekly project updates to document progress, reduce back-and-forth, and keep everyone aligned – without another meeting.
What is an asynchronous weekly project update?
Async project updates are progress reports in writing or a video that share the current status, wins, and challenges you and/or your team are working through. It can also highlight key project decisions and rationale, risks, and recent learnings.
Sharing these updates asynchronously helps communicate and collaborate without the need for real-time interaction (sync time) or immediate response.
Why run the Post Weekly Project Updates Play?
Many companies and teams default to status meetings or tons of messages to share project updates. However, meeting overload makes it hard to focus and keep work flowing. Messages are difficult to keep track of and don’t make updates visible to others who need and want that information.
Sharing weekly project updates asynchronously:
- Creates a clear, accountable record of project progress
- Ensures the team stays on track and builds momentum
- Help teams make informed decisions and prioritize accordingly
- Reduces time spent on messages and meetings by keeping collaborators informed asynchronously
When and how should weekly project updates be shared?
Once a week at the end of the week.
Benefits of weekly project updates
Atlassian’s research shows weekly project updates can improve:
- Clarity: Teams who effectively document key information to get the context they need are 4.6x more likely to meet deadlines. Providing regular updates helps your team stay on the same page with your progress, see how you’re tracking against goals, and catch problems before they become a big deal.
- Impact: Documenting key information also makes teams 2.3x more likely to focus on the work that matters most. Making time each week to pause and reflect on your progress gives you the opportunity to examine which tasks drive the biggest business impact so you can work smarter, not harder.
- Efficiency: 70% of knowledge workers say meetings are ineffective for status updates. By sharing updates asynchronously, you can use your valuable meeting time on the parts of your job that require sync time.
- Provides context for AI: When project managers explain why priorities changed, what leadership is worried about, and how tradeoffs were made, AI can learn from the nuance instead of just static OKRs or project documents
1. Reflect on the past week
Est. time: 2 MIN
At the end of the week, document what you and your team accomplished, focusing on high-level information for the broader stakeholder team. You can use this Weekly Report Template as a starting point.
The basics: wins, needs, and focus areas
- Wins: What was accomplished this week
- Needs Input: Any blockers or questions
- Focus: What’s next
TIP: Add images and video
Help stakeholders see the work in action by sharing a quick Loom demo to visually showcase progress, screenshots, and links to completed work for review.
2. Note decisions, risks, and learnings
Est. time: 2 MIN
In addition to the basic project updates in Step 1, you can also note any decisions, risks, and learnings.
Key decisions:
Record key project decisions, along with their rationale. This keeps all contributors and stakeholders aligned, while creating a record of pivots and adjustments for future planning.
Risks:
If there’s a potential risk – big or small – that could impact project success, document it. This allows leaders to take proactive steps to mitigate issues and ensure transparency with teams who may depend on your work.
To assess potential risks, ask yourself:
- What could cause this project to miss its success criteria?
- Has new information surfaced that makes the timeline or execution more challenging than expected?
Is the team spread too thin to meet the deadline without adjusting priorities or adding resources?
Leaders and managers:
Remember that projects being at risk or off track is a natural part of setting ambitious goals. If teams are penalized for setbacks, they’ll either set less ambitious goals or hide when projects veer off course. Neither leads to the growth or transparency we need.
If a project goes off track, act fast by helping unblock the team or reprioritize. It’s okay to pause work if it’s not top priority right now. Just set a date to reassess.
Learnings:
Share your insights from the project so far. These takeaways can benefit both your immediate team and others working in similar areas.
- What do you wish you knew when you started this project?
- What advice would you give to someone tackling a similar challenge?
TIP: Be transparent
Sharing context around decisions, risks, and learnings helps both your immediate team and others working in similar areas. Tell stakeholders the solutions you’ve considered so far, where you’re hitting roadblocks, next steps, and specific help you need – even if it's just help figuring out what to do next.
3. Update project status and due date
Est. time: 1 min
Accurately mark your project's status (e.g., “On Track,” “At Risk,” or “Off Track”) in your project management system, and add the basic updates from Step 1.
If deadlines need adjusting, edit them and say why. (And if the timeline stretches far out, consider structuring the work into phases for better tracking.)
TIP: Keep it brief
Most project management tools have a character limit for status updates. Even if your doesn’t, keep the message as short as possible, clear, and direct so others can quickly understand it and take action.
4. Add comments with details
Est. time: 1 min
Finally, add any other relevant information, like the decisions, risks, and learnings from Step 2.
Attention is scarce and fragile, so keep your comments short and sweet to ensure as many people as possible read and understand them. A tight headline and 1-3 sentences help a busy person quickly understand what is happening, why they should care, and what you need from them. (If you need feedback from stakeholders, tag them and provide clear direction on what you need and by when.)
You can follow that short summary with extra detail in clearly labeled sections (e.g, “Go deeper,” appendices, expandable notes, linked pages, etc.) to support people who want or need nuance, while respecting everyone’s time and mental load.
If your project management tool isn’t integrated with your team's communication tool (e.g., Jira and Slack), post the update in your team’s communication channel as well.
TIP: Integrate your tools
If possible, integrate your project management system and your communication tool (e.g., Atlassian Home and Slack), so updates made in the project management system automatically post in the communication channel.
Follow-up
Schedule updates on your calendar
Block off a few minutes every Friday to craft your update. Need extra accountability? Try the Virtual Coworking Play to make sure you’re writing your updates every week.
Variations
Weekly Team Updates
Celebrate progress, share information, and boost performance — no meetings required.
Still have questions?
Start a conversation with other Atlassian Team Playbook users, get support, or provide feedback.
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Weekly Report Template
Atlassian Home provides individual areas to add notes, risks, decisions, and learnings
Posting weekly project updates in Atlassian Home
Updating project status in Atlassian Home
Share your project board with collaborators and leaders
