Fuel Your Productivity with the Power of Documentation

Documentation changes our behaviour. Imagine if you asked your team members to record what they ate that week and then told them you will post their results on the corporate intranet at the end of the week. What do you think would happen? First, most people would lie (at least a bit). Some would feel embarrassed. Some would love the assignment. And guess what? Everyone would eat better that week. This is just how human behavior works.

Documentation gets you in the right mental state for productivity and success. No matter your education, credentials, ambitions, or background, you need to have your “mental game” on to succeed. Documentation forces the right mindset to halt procrastination, propel your ambitions forward, maximize value, and make things happen.

Like any lasting behavioral change, developing documentation as a skill takes discipline and consistent focus, but for those willing to put in the effort, the rewards are exponential. It doesn’t matter where you work—in a small or large company, with the government, or for yourself—good documentation is essential for any career for getting the results you want.

Strong documentation skills play a key role in making sure:

1. You are trusted.

2. You can drive momentum on your projects.

3. You are perceived as competent.

4. You are confident in every situation.

5. You are organized and prepared.

6. You are more helpful to co-workers and clients.

7. You are a better communicator.

8. You solve problems faster.

9. You complete tasks and projects.

10. You are perceived as possessing an amazing superpower.

How does the personal productivity side of documentation help your team and your organization?

My experience with documentation projects, implementations, and training is that companies put too much emphasis on fancy systems, processes, policies, and metadata and not enough on changing their team’s behaviors.

You can implement the most expensive sales system, but it won’t increase your sales by even a dime if your people don’t have good practices for recording sales calls and following up. You can have the world’s most successful documentation project, but without changing the human factor, you will be back to where you started again soon.

Have you ever worked on a team where no one writes anything down? I have pulled my hair out with these teams many times. No one knows or remembers what was said in the previous meeting. So, we have another meeting. And the cycle of futility rages on.

You need to understand and train your team on the personal productivity side of documentation. Why? Because “productive” documentation is contagious, and so is the opposite. Productivity and good habits (or else lack thereof) will spread like wildfire across your team.

Documentation makes your team more efficient, effective – that is, smarter. Documentation boosts communications, momentum, and learning and creates a culture of clarity. Documentation helps you to meet your team’s goals in sales, profit, cost-cutting, innovation, high-performance, employee engagement, and beyond.

In today’s corporate world, it’s easy to get lost in the big ideas and ethereal concepts like transformation, knowledge management, change management, reengineering, streamlining, or other jargon. Documentation pulls you back to Earth. It focuses you on taking the next step, clarifying what was said last meeting, working in daily chunks, and getting things organized.

Without that connection to personal productivity – to day-to-day reality – documentation can’t take your team or your company where you want to go. So, pump up your productivity with documentation!