Documentation is part of the process, not an afterthought

One of the best productivity hacks ever is to change your thinking about documentation. Most documentation is done after the fact, which is a rather distasteful task at this phase.

If we learn to use documentation as part of our thinking/design/implementation process, it can be enjoyable, and help us do a better job in the first place. A few ideas:

• Write code comments before we write the code, describe what we are going to do, etc.
• In a schematic, document constraints and design criteria as a note in the schematic before drawing a new section of the schematic. As you go, think in your notes.
• Write the user documentation before implementing a feature -- this may help us think more from the user perspective upfront.
• If we are stuck on a problem, write documentation about it and check it into Git. This allows us to still ship something.
• As we are doing something, create careful notes about all the resources we need to do the job, summarize important parts with screenshots, etc. It will be much easier next time.
• Create a checklist before you do something.
• When someone asks you about something, instead of writing an answer in an email, create a document and point them do it.

A small shift in our habits can have a big impact!