diff --git a/internal/manager/api_impl/workers.go b/internal/manager/api_impl/workers.go
index ed7c0e6f..e375bdf9 100644
--- a/internal/manager/api_impl/workers.go
+++ b/internal/manager/api_impl/workers.go
@@ -414,6 +414,14 @@ func (f *Flamenco) doTaskUpdate(
 		dbErrActivity = f.persist.SaveTaskActivity(ctx, dbTask)
 	}
 
+	// Write the log first, because that's likely to contain the cause of the task
+	// state change. Any subsequent task logs, for example generated by the
+	// Manager in response to a status change, should be logged after that.
+	if update.Log != nil {
+		// Errors writing the log to disk are already logged by logStorage, and can be safely ignored here.
+		_ = f.logStorage.Write(logger, dbTask.Job.UUID, dbTask.UUID, *update.Log)
+	}
+
 	if update.TaskStatus != nil {
 		oldTaskStatus := dbTask.Status
 		err := f.stateMachine.TaskStatusChange(ctx, dbTask, *update.TaskStatus)
@@ -427,11 +435,6 @@ func (f *Flamenco) doTaskUpdate(
 		}
 	}
 
-	if update.Log != nil {
-		// Errors writing the log to disk are already logged by logStorage, and can be safely ignored here.
-		_ = f.logStorage.Write(logger, dbTask.Job.UUID, dbTask.UUID, *update.Log)
-	}
-
 	// Any error updating the status is more important than an error updating the
 	// activity.
 	if dbErrStatus != nil {