What Is the Simplest Way to Document Processes When You Are Still in Delivery Mode?
The simplest way to document processes in delivery mode is to capture them while you’re doing them, not after. A two-minute Loom recording of a task you just completed beats a 40-page manual you wrote on a Saturday morning and never touched again. The goal is not perfect documentation. It is the first usable version, built from what you are already doing.
Why Documenting After the Fact Almost Never Works
Most founders I coach have tried the Saturday morning documentation session. You block two hours, open a Google Doc, and try to write down how you do everything. By hour one you are writing in circles or inventing steps you cannot quite remember. The output looks complete but it does not match what your team needs to follow.
The fix is to stop separating documentation from delivery. When you are doing a task that someone else will eventually own, record it. A screen recording takes two minutes. A voice memo while you are thinking through a decision takes three. Neither requires a dedicated block of time, and both capture the thing written documentation almost always misses: your real-time reasoning.
I built this habit in my own business before I started teaching it. The first version of my onboarding process was a Loom I recorded before a client call. Rough, unedited, and immediately more useful than anything I wrote from scratch later.
Which Processes Should You Document First?
The temptation is to document everything at once. That is where the Saturday marathon comes from. But the processes worth systemizing first are the ones that create rework when left undocumented.
A useful filter: pick the three tasks that return to your plate when you delegate them. That returning task is your documentation gap. It keeps bouncing because the person you handed it to had no instructions or had instructions missing a critical decision point. A recording of you doing it once, narrating your reasoning out loud, closes that gap faster than a written SOP.
Six of the last fifteen founders I worked with identified client onboarding as the returning task. Not because it is complex, but because it requires judgment calls the founder never wrote down: how you frame the first week, what you skip when the client is anxious, how you set the tone for the engagement. That is the part that lives in your head. Get it on video first.
How to Make the Recording Actually Useful for Your Team
The tool matters less than placement. Loom, Notion video, even a voice memo in the right location does the job. What matters is that the recording lives next to the actual task. If the work happens in your project management tool, the recording goes there. If it happens in a shared doc, the recording goes in that doc.
This is where most founders lose the gains. They make the recording and save it to a folder nobody knows exists. Two months later, the process doc is sitting somewhere no one opens, because nobody knew it was there. The recording is only as useful as its placement.
My rule: if the person doing the task has to leave the workspace to find the documentation, you have already lost them. Keep the instruction inside the workflow. According to a survey by The Alternative Board, business owners spend 68% of their time working inside the business on day-to-day tasks. Good process documentation reduces that load; documentation buried in folders adds to it.
When Should You Upgrade from Recording to a Written SOP?
A recording is a first draft. It captures the process but does not surface what is confusing until someone tries to follow it. The first time a team member gets stuck, that is your signal about which part needs clarification. The second time they get stuck on the same thing, you have the data to write the SOP correctly.
Delegation without a documented standard almost always creates a loop where the task returns to the founder. The SOP breaks that loop by converting your live decision-making into something the team can reference without asking. The recording gets them started; the written SOP is what removes you from the middle of it.
Research from Harvard Business Review on the founder’s dilemma found that by year three, 50% of founders are no longer CEO of their own companies, often because they stayed too deep in delivery to build the infrastructure that would let them step back. Process documentation is part of that infrastructure, and the recording method is how you build it without stopping the actual work.
The SBA’s 2026 small business data shows 36.2 million small businesses operating in the US. Nearly all are founder-led at some stage. The ones that scale figured out how to document work while the work was happening. Start with the accountability framework that makes process docs stick once you have the recordings in place.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the fastest way to document a business process?
Record yourself doing it while you are doing it. A screen recording with narration captures the actual steps and your real-time reasoning in under five minutes. Written documentation comes after you have confirmed what is actually unclear from the recording.
Do I need special software to document processes in delivery mode?
No. Loom, a Google Drive video, or a voice memo saved in the right place works at this stage. The tool matters less than whether the recording lives inside the workflow where your team does the actual work.
How long should my first process documents be?
Short enough that someone can follow them without stopping to ask a question. For most tasks at the $200K to $700K stage, that is a three-to-five minute recording or a one-page written document with the key decision points called out clearly.
When should I replace recordings with full written SOPs?
When the same person asks you the same question twice about the same recording, that is your signal. One question means the recording is unclear. Two means you have enough data to write a proper SOP, because you now know exactly what the gap is.
Start With One Recording This Week
If your business is between $200K and $700K and you are still the one doing the work, the Phase Check tells you which process is costing you the most time. It takes a few minutes and I read every result myself. Take the free Phase Check here. If you would rather talk through where to start, here is how working with me looks.
Anthony Spitaleri
Performance Coach
anthonyspitaleri.com
About Anthony Spitaleri
I coach founders and operators through what actually stops them from building businesses that run without them. I scaled a 7 figure firm from 5 to over 100 people across two countries in under three years. Today I run two businesses of my own and coach a live roster every week, so the coach you watch is the coach you get. I’m a performance coach certified by Coaching Services International. Start with the free Phase Check, or read about working with me.