<aside> <img src="/icons/info-alternate_yellow.svg" alt="/icons/info-alternate_yellow.svg" width="40px" /> This page is part of The Toolbox by Danny Smith.
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Handoff is a process of putting down work in order to be picked up by someone else you’re working with or your future-self. The process provides the means to capture "open loops". It's also a powerful tool for fighting burnout and giving us a better work-life balance, while making sure the work will continue progressing.
Good handoff is important in any organisation, but it’s especially important for globally distributed companies where work Follows the Sun (see Follow The Sun).
In simplest terms, a handoff is the process of putting work down where it can be picked up by someone else (or your future self).
We all have a lot on our minds on a daily basis, both work-related and personal. Our brains can only focus on a limited number of things at once. Trying to remember where we're at with too many tasks and conversations at once creates a build up of “open loops”— which make it hard to focus properly on what's in front of us. It also makes it difficult to switch off at the end of the day.
For us to feel comfortable putting down our work at the end of a workday or work week, we need to close any "open loops" by putting this work somewhere where we feel comfortable and confident that it will be picked up and worked on at the right time. Either by us, or by someone else.
🧠 Brains are for having ideas, not holding them.
Working longer hours to close open loops is not a good solution. In a globally distributed company, new things will keep showing up and we'll be caught in a never ending game of whack-a-mole while working longer and longer hours to finish our to-do list.
Besides actually finishing a task or closing a conversation, we can temporarily close an open loop by handing it off to a trusted system, confident that it will be picked up by the right person at the right time without you needing to worry about it. This might look like: