I often emphasize the importance of using systems to improve your practice.

I even run a workshop focused specifically on systems, which is mostly about documenting procedures.

That is, creating some kind of checklist for how various things should be done.

But using the word “checklist” makes the process seem easier than it usually is.

Here’s the rub

When documenting your procedures you invariably discover there are many nuances and petty details that you need to consider and include in the documentation.

And this is one reason why it helps to document each procedure while you’re actually doing the task.

You can more easily see and remember those nuances and details.

But there’s another reason for doing it this way…

One that isn’t obvious.

One that comes into play only when you start delegating work to others and having them use the procedures you documented.

And that reason is…

The Curse of Knowledge

Basically, this term means that the better you know something the harder it is to imagine what it feels like NOT to know it.

And this comes into play when documenting procedures because it’s very hard for you to put yourself in the mind of the novice —i.e. someone who has never done the procedure.

The closest you’ll come to re-experiencing that mindset is by doing a procedure yourself, and then (ideally) thinking deeply about all of the nuances and petty details that come into play.

At that point, you’ll have a good chance of seeing the world through the eyes of the novice.

It helps to feel like a novice

The more you learn to feel what a novice experiences when trying to do a task for the first time, the better your documented procedures will become.

Unfortunately, I can’t explain this phenomenon very well using just words.

It’s something you’ll understand from experience.

The more you teach people how to do things (or help them learn, which is what actually happens when you “teach”), the more you start to grok this phenomenon.

Yes, I just wrote the word “grok.”

It’s an actual word, by the way. Go ahead and  if you want.

And go read about the Curse of Knowledge also.