Every year on the day before Thanksgiving I drag storage boxes containing our Christmas decorations from the shed into the house. 

Unfortunately, after 11 months in storage, the contents of these boxes look completely foreign to me. I start to get my bearings after I sort through the boxes for a few minutes, but there are always questions like, “where did we put this last year?” and, “do you remember what I used to hang this?”

A few years ago, I finally got wise and took photos of all the completed decorations before I took them down for the year. I made notes about how I hung things and labeled the ends of light strings so I would remember where they went.

Now, as soon as I open the boxes I have a stack of printed pictures and notes to remind me what this box of garland and lights is supposed to become. Instant orientation to the goal.

This is a simple example of something you can do in your business any time of year: do your future self a favor and capture best practices as you go.

The next time you need to tackle a task you’ve done before – especially one that is repeated infrequently – you won’t need to remember all the steps and waste time reinventing the wheel.

Throw a note in the box, film a quick video detailing the process, type up a checklist and save it in Google Docs… The medium doesn’t matter. Just make sure you can find it easily the moment you need it.

When you take a minute or two to capture these details, you save a future version of yourself a lot of time and frustration.

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