If You Work in Tech, This One Habit Will Save You More Times Than Any Tool Ever Will

You had corrected that server problem previously. Three times you have set that very setting. You have debugged that integration, you have written that script, you have resolved that specific problem and then six months on, you are faced with a blank screen and you are in a position to recall how you did it.

The problem isn’t your memory. It is not telling you that documentation is an individual survival measure and not a group requirement.

This is the way to make a habit that will work:

Begin with a today I learned journal. Write it down every time you have done something that has taken you over half a day. What you tried, what worked, what your problem was, and why. Three sentences minimum. This one habit built up to a precious personal knowledge foundation in a few months.

Do not use perfect language; use plain language. Your docs will belong to future-you, who will be exhausted and irritated. Write as if you are sending a text to a smart friend; there should not be any jargon or complicated wording.

Pick one tool and commit. Whatever, Obsidian, Confluence, or even a simple markdown folder, it does not matter which one. The end of documentation habits is tool switching. Take something dull and occupy yourself.

Decisions, not solutions, in a document. Nothing is as unrecognized as what you did; it is why. You go through the motions, but half a year later, what counts is the rationale of a decision.

Break 10 minutes at the end of each day. Not after each task. Just the end of the day. No pressure to exhaustively do it, low friction, timely, unobtrusive, non-thus.

Those who are most swift in technology are not the people who are well-informed. It is they who do not need to solve the same thing once again.