While being obsessed with speed and action, the act of stopping to document feels counterintuitive to many. That’s why most of us never take up journalling. That’s why we tend to forget our past convictions or assumptions or failures. When events unfold linearly, as they usually do, the ‘why bother’ mindset gets in the way of contemplation and makes understanding our past decisions even more elusive.

We seem to excessively overlook the idea of journalling especially if things are going our way. Though some get an itchy feeling about not reflecting on the reasons behind why something is finally happening or not happening, people when in group settings default to thinking that every party is on the same level information-wise, and lean on moving forward rather than taking a journey inwards in order to hide and not face any gaps in their knowledge. The same behaviour is also observable in upper-level management, the ones who supposedly know everything may put on a mask and justify going ahead without materialising or refining their thoughts.

Despite sounding boring, even illogical to some —taking notes while speeding— leaving legible breadcrumbs, regardless of its format, is analogous to speed boosters in race games. No matter how gibberish the notes are, they turn out to be immensely time-saving forces to help you leapfrog. At a civilisational scale, the proof is actually evident, humanity progresses through the accumulated notes taken across centuries. The notes about experiments, failures, calamities, and achievements lay the foundation for all inventions. Knowing or even mindfully guessing why something particular happened in the first place is the essence of our scientific prowess. Zooming on into our daily struggles, by refining your ideas, allocating a dedicated space to observe your thought process and making connections, you develop a distinct competitive advantage.

Documenting extends your lifetime. A flip toss is always a flip toss. Whether you take extensive notes about each flip, from weather conditions to how you trim your nails, it’ll always be a toss. But luckily, the business world is much more deterministic, governed mostly by causality. So from any addition to your codebase to any specific word you used in your product release, details trigger ripples. And if you have the power to trace back, you hold the power not to repeat mistakes or re-apply your winning strategies. It, one way or another, reduces the chances of getting surprised at your results.

Your future success is predicated on how surprised you get at your results presently. Results could come at bizarre times. You can get tails six or even ten times in a row. But, the more you’re surprised at your results, the lower your ceiling gets. On a road from 0 to 1, you’re neither established nor experienced as you just start your journey and any object on your road looks unfamiliar to you. But, if you’re good enough at packing your bag accordingly and anticipating weather conditions, good enough to visualise how you’d steer your ship through rough conditions, you can get to the checkpoints and that may not surprise you at all despite taking the journey the first time.

Documenting makes you valuable. Proofs make the cases, not claims. Whether responding to a customer complaint or having a talk with an interested investor, you make your case by showing tangible stuff. Activity logs, audit reports, hypothesis backlogs, and even meeting notes: all come to your aid when you make your stand. And in the game of trust, being trustworthy makes you more valuable.

Documenting improves your storytelling. The chances you collect targeted feedback on your written content are a lot higher than your speaking. Ideas discussed on paper, physical or digital, show a clear exhibition of a dialectic attempt which naturally x-rays how ideas are formed, and how a thought process moves along. Having discussions revolving around artefacts, rather than voiced ideas, helps you grasp the dynamics of different approaches, which hands you the best toolset to sharpen your skills.

Documenting makes re-work easier. When something feels off, what makes operators relaxed is knowing where to look. If a dual engine fails, there is a procedure for that in the checklist. Fuel leak, it’s there too, in the checklist. Why those things happen, it’s also there in the maintenance logs. Or in the VCR. One way or another, it’s somewhere in the records. And it’s why aviation is getting better and better each day. Building upon things that were put in place as a result of a series of deliberate acts.

Documenting makes organisations function. For anyone and any group, agreeing early on how to think and exchange ideas should be the very first step before rolling sleeves and jumping on anything. Despite being rather rare, a founding team talking about how to discuss and communicate beforehand establishes the ground for creating a shared consciousness, which allows autonomous movement of organisational building blocks in the same direction. It is contingent on speaking the same language and using the same toolset when thinking, writing, doodling, and discussing. More importantly, it is all enabled when the idea of mindful thinking and the power of reflection are deeply embedded in a company culture.

Establishing taxonomies, defining mediums, and deciding on do-not(s) are the hidden superpowers that carry an organisation forward. Once the rules are set, you can take off, and fostering a culture in which writing is valued shows its value over time. A great addition to due diligence processes would actually be spending time understanding how a company thinks, writes, and acts upon its ideas. The better you understand how an organisation think, the more clarity you get into their results, whether they are flukes or educated wins.