I agree completely. Reading these responses, there's a lot of negativity to communicating with your manager. While I've been in times that I completely understand this, I chose my latest job purely on manager. It pays less and I couldn't be happier. He was innovative in using a shared Google doc that gets updated with tasks, goals, and progress by both of us daily. We meet officially on a schedule once a week, but often chat in the interim. Personally, I use the Google doc as my running, living Todo list. It helps keeps thoughts organized, and my manager sees a lot more than he ever could in a daily stand up. Sometimes, here's even able to proactively assist. Which, if you work hard, is an excellent thing. My manager and I would never hang out as friends, but we're both fascinated by technology and business culture and speak on it often. Worry more about positive relationship than specific method, I'd say. And if you hate your manager, job search on primarily that criteria and take a job your want with enthusiasm even if it pays less. You can't quantify peace in dollars.
I use it with my manager to asynchroneously share updates and todos. It's in reverse chronological order, with a big heading for each weekly 1-1. We both write directly in the doc, and tag each other with comments for updates.
An extreme of this, is that some teams (was it Netflix?) basically use google docs as project trackers. The project is described in the google doc, and you talk about it via comments - whenever you want, and as a replacement for meetings (who doesn't love getting rid of meetings?)
In general, the idea with a gDoc is of a central repository of useful knowledge, an improvment over searching through chat messages and endless meetings.
The way I personally use it may differ from my other coworkers, but there's a heading for each day. I start the day by copying everything up from the previous day that wasn't completed, then I prioritize the bullet points and highlight what I hope to finish that day. Each week has an "accomplishments" header that is used at review time. I choose what goes there. My boss rarely adds things other than just prior to our one on one so he doesn't forget. Having a running daily Todo that begins as a copy of yesterday's mind map makes focus so much easier. Then when I have a status update that I don't want to disturb his busy schedule with, I tag him in a document comment or assign a task. I can message or email for urgent needs, but this is a lower percentage occurrence. Hope that gives some insight. Happy to answer any other questions.
Just to provide the opposite perspective, that sounds like my hell. A weekly catch-up, fine, and the rest of the time if I have anything worth chatting about I will. I can't stand the ritual ceremonies.
