Write the lesson down now, not at the end
Why I write down a decision, lesson or agreement the moment it appears, and what happens to it afterwards.
I used to put notes off until later: finish the task, then write down what I learned. Then “later” came, and half of it was gone. Especially the most valuable part: why we chose this option and not the one next to it.
Now the rule is different: a decision, a lesson, a procedure or an important fact appears — I write it down right away, as a short note in a shared inbox folder, and carry on working.
What goes into such a note
Just a few lines in four parts:
- Essence — what we decided, what we understood, how to do it;
- Reasons — why; this is what’s forgotten fastest;
- Rejected — which options there were and why they didn’t fit;
- Open — what is still unverified.
Empty parts are left out. Formatting, choosing a type, looking for duplicates isn’t needed at that moment — that’s separate work, done by someone other than the writer.
Who sorts it
Once a day a collector goes through the inbox: merges duplicates, assigns numbers, files everything into the knowledge base — decisions with decisions, lessons with lessons. The inbox becomes a knowledge base, and I don’t spend attention on it in the middle of work.
Why it works
- Writing is cheap: a couple of minutes and no decisions about form.
- Nothing is lost, even if the work was interrupted halfway.
- A month later you can see how understanding changed, not just where it ended up.
I gave the same rule to the agents I work with: they write to the same folder in the same format. So the knowledge base keeps growing even when I don’t write anything myself.