Stop being the "Project Police": How I automated the follow-ups I used to forget.

[#1]

We’ve all been there. You open Jira, look at your dashboard, and realize a critical ticket hasn’t moved in four days. Why? Because someone was waiting for feedback, someone forgot to ping a stakeholder, or someone (let’s be honest, it’s usually us) simply lost track of the "mental tab" we had open for that task.

I hate pinging people. It feels like nagging, and honestly? Half the time, I forget to do the follow-up anyway. But pinging your boss? That is THE WORST. 🥴

In project management, our brains are constantly overloaded. We try to solve this with sticky notes, phone alarms, or massive to-do lists, but these are just "anxiety monsters" in disguise.

I’ve been using Power Tools for Jira to offload my memory and keep my team’s workflow seamless with simple reminders. Here is how it looks in action across two very different worlds

Use Case 1: The Marketing & Work Management Flow

The Scenario: You’re launching a campaign. You’ve sent the final assets to your manager for approval.

The Conflict: Managers are busy. If they don't approve it by Wednesday, the launch is delayed. You don't want to be the person "nagging" them every three hours, but you can't afford to forget.

The Reminder Solution: Set a reminder directly on the Jira ticket for Tuesday morning. If the status is still "In Approval," PTJ pings you (or the manager!) to take action.

The Benefit: You stop playing "Project Police" and start focusing on the next strategy. Your brain is free because the tool is doing the remembering for you.

Use Case 2: The Software Development Sprint

The Scenario: A developer finishes a feature and moves it to "Ready for QA."

The Conflict: The QA team is swamped. The ticket sits there, and by the end of the sprint, you have a bottleneck that prevents the release.

The Reminder Solution: As soon as the ticket hits the QA status, a reminder is triggered to alert the QA lead after 24 hours of inactivity.

The Benefit: No more "Status Rot." The team maintains a high velocity because the reminders ensure that tickets don't gather dust in the transitions.

I recorded a Loom about how it works :) 

Why wait? Clear your mental tabs today.

If you’re tired of Jira feeling like a "black hole" of tasks, it’s time to try a smarter approach. Power Tools for Jira isn't just a notification tool, it's a productivity engine designed to make your tickets flow.

Just try it for free, and see if it works also for you 😊 

PS. Reminders are just the beginning. Power Tools for Jira is a comprehensive, all-in-one solution, not just a single-feature app. From Checklists and Sprint Automation to Secure Fields and Usage Analytics, we’ve packed everything you need to optimize Jira into one listing. Check out the full feature set here.

[Calogero Bonasia]

I completely share the frustration of forgotten follow-ups. In my experience with Jira since 2004, I've seen too many critical tickets stall in silent transitions precisely because of this issue.

Automating reminders represents an effective solution to free up mental space and maintain operational flow. The two use cases you present are particularly relevant: managerial approvals that slip and bottlenecks in the quality assurance phase are recurring patterns in every organisation.

A practical consideration from my experience: the effectiveness of reminders depends heavily on initial calibration. When timeframes are too tight, you generate alert noise that ends up being ignored. When they're too loose, you defeat the purpose. It's worth investing a few weeks to observe the actual patterns of your workflow and calibrate the time thresholds accordingly.

Another aspect that further amplifies the value of automated reminders: when the workflow faithfully reflects your actual operational processes, the prompts become even more effective because they arrive at precisely the critical moments. This can be an excellent opportunity to verify that states and transitions correspond to the way the team actually works, transforming automation into a true efficiency multiplier.