One of the most expensive sentences in knowledge work is:
“I know I figured this out before.”
Maybe it is the setting that made the export work. The place a file actually lives. The reason a template has one unusual step. The person who knows how a particular process works.
You solved it once, moved on, and kept the useful part in your head.
Then a month later, you have to solve it again.
This is not really a memory problem. It is a knowledge-placement problem.
We often think documentation means writing a long guide. Most of the time, that is unnecessary. What helps is capturing the small piece of context that was hard to discover and putting it where the work happens.
Leave a note for the next round
When you finish something that required a non-obvious step, leave a short note before you move on.
Three lines are usually enough:
- Start here: the first place or file to open.
- Watch for: the step that is easy to miss.
- Source: where the information came from, or who to ask if it changes.
For example, imagine you only update a presentation for a quarterly review every three months. Last time, you spent 20 minutes figuring out where the latest numbers came from.
Your note might say:
Start here: Open Quarterly Review > Master Deck and duplicate the latest version.
Watch for: The revenue chart does not update automatically. Refresh it from the Finance sheet before exporting.
Source: Finance sheet, tab “Monthly Summary.” Ask Maria if the reporting format changes.
Three months later, you do not have to reconstruct the process from memory.
Put the note in the project folder, template, checklist, or document you will actually open next time. A perfect note in a forgotten notes app will not help much.
This is especially useful for work you do only occasionally. Frequent tasks become familiar. Infrequent tasks are where small bits of context disappear.
Good documentation is not more writing. It is less rediscovery.
What is one thing you keep having to figure out again that deserves a three-line note?
