Let's be honest. Documentation is boring.
When you work in IT, you’d probably rather be fixing something or poking at a new setup than writing it up.
I get it. I feel the same way sometimes.
Why I started taking it more seriously
As the only IT person where I work, I’m seeing why documentation matters more than I expected.
Imagine spending hours troubleshooting an issue, finally getting everything working, and then a few months later the same problem comes back.
Except this time, you have forgotten what you did to fix it. Now you are back to square one.
That is one reason I try to document the work I do and create SOPs wherever practical. I keep those SOPs in SharePoint so they are in one place and available if I am away.
I want the important IT details to be somewhere other than just in my head.
If I am unavailable one day, could someone else follow the instructions to carry out a routine task or understand how a system was configured?
That is the kind of question I try to keep in mind.
I’ve also written up a rotating daily security check. I look at a different area each day, such as SharePoint sharing, Intune device status or Exchange activity. It makes the checks easier to fit into the day, and may help me spot unusual access earlier.
Key person dependency
There’s a name for this: key person dependency. That’s when too much of how things work lives with one person.
In a one person IT setup it’s easy to shrug that off, until you’re on leave or slammed and the same issue comes back. Written steps won’t replace experience, but they mean the place isn’t stuck waiting on my memory alone.
Docs aren’t magic either. They need to be clear, current, and findable. Old instructions can be worse than none if someone follows them confidently.
Takeaway
I’m still working on my own documentation habits. A few notes now can save me time when the same problem comes back.
Now, if only documenting everything were as satisfying as fixing the actual problem.
For those working in IT: do you enjoy documentation, or is it also the task you keep putting off until later?
Originally shared on LinkedIn.