🎙️ Process documentation never ends—but it doesn’t have to consume you. Build a simple pipeline that keeps it moving.
Documenting your tasks changes everything.
It’s how you get work out of your head,
And into the hands of someone else—reliably.
But here’s what often happens next.
You create a few SOPs.
Then a few more.
Then dozens.
Before long, there are hundreds of tasks that should be documented.
Some are half done, some need updating.
Some are sitting in a forgotten corner of your drive.
And suddenly, the thing that was meant to create freedom,
Starts to feel messy and overwhelming.
The real problem isn’t writing SOPs.
It’s not having a system to manage them.
Because documentation isn’t a one-time job.
As your team grows…
As tech changes…
And as you refine how you work…
Your processes evolve.
If you don’t have a simple way to manage your SOP creation and updates, you end up either ignoring it—or doing the admin work yourself.
Neither leads to freedom.
In this week’s episode, I walk you through the simple pipeline we use to manage every new and updated Operation Manual in our business.
It’s not complicated.
It’s not heavy.
But it’s given me real peace.
More importantly, it keeps me and my team focused on high-value work—not documenting tasks.
Because the goal isn’t more SOPs.
It’s the structure that protects your time.
🎧 Listen to the full episode and see how we keep it clean, clear, and moving.
KEY TAKEAWAYS: Why Process Documentation Needs a System
- Updating Process Documentation Cannot be Avoided: Documenting and updating your Operation Manuals and Standard Operating Procedures never ends. As technology, regulations, and customer needs change, how your business does things also has to change; otherwise, you become inefficient.
- Use an Operations Manual (OM) Pipeline to Free Yourself from Admin: You and your team's key experts need to focus on the work that actually makes money and drives innovation in your business. An efficient OM Pipeline ensures you don't get caught up in admin tasks.
- Make the System Teach Itself: Use a single OM Pipeline Task Template that explains every step so even a new hire can run the process without hand‑holding. I explain exactly how I use a task manager app to do that.
BEST MOMENTS: How Structured Process Documentation Creates Leverage
02:26 – 💬 “This is a job or task that's never going to end. As long as my business exists, as long as technology doesn't stop, which it won't do, then the way that we actually do the work in our business is going to keep changing.”
03:42 – 💬 “This process is about freeing you as the business owner and also your key staff to keep focusing on doing the high-value work, the work that actually generates either revenue or innovation in your company.”
09:00 – 💬 “This means it doesn't interrupt work. It's not lost and then forgotten about, and it's also put into place. So, when the operation manual creator has time to create this, they can go away and do it.”
TIMESTAMPED OVERVIEW
00:00 Intro: “Managing Operation Manuals or SOPs”
03:42 How to build an Operations Manual Pipeline
07:02 The Perfect Process Pipeline Methodology
11:32 Operation Manual Creation and Update Process
Episode Transcript
Please note: This transcript was generated using automated transcription tools and may contain typographical errors or inaccurately captured words or phrases.
Dr Steve Day: Documenting what you do in an Operation Manual or SOP is fundamentally the easiest way to get stuff done in your business by somebody else reliably without your involvement. The challenge is most small businesses have literally hundreds of tasks which need to be documented. And that itself can become quite overwhelming and quite disjointed and disorganized and messy.
And if you\'re not careful, before long, you can be in a total pickle. As to what has been documented, what\'s not been documented, what needs to be reviewed, et cetera. And so having a simple system to manage your Operational Manuals, your SOPs, or your Standard Operating Procedures, whatever you call them in your business. Having a simple system to manage the creation and the updating of those is essential so you don\'t get yourself into a pickle.
Today, I wanna talk about how we do it in our business. It\'s super simple to set up. And hopefully by the end of listening to this, you\'ll be able to set up something similar in your business.
Okay, so when I started creating SOPs or Operation Manuals as we call them, it was just like a night and day in my business. Suddenly, I had a method to get stuff outta my head in a reliable way that someone else could do it for me. I talked about in previous episodes on this podcast about our DIDACT method or a RED method.
Where we hit record, we explain what we\'re doing and we use DIDACT to structure our explanations. That somebody else can go in and actually create Operation Manuals for me. So I haven\'t written Operation Manual for literally years in my business. I record videos if I do something new. And then somebody else takes that video and turns it into a completely standardized, complete Operation Manual. That has every detail needed to both delegate that task and do that task.
And this is documented in our system for creating Operation Manuals. But the problem came when the volume of Operation Manuals grew. And not only in creating new Operation Manuals, but also in maintaining and updating things. That have been documented in the past.
So as we\'re working on stuff, we use something I\'ve talked about recently in the podcast are Optimize With EASE™ Framework. To actually identify tasks that could be done more efficiently to be streamlined. And so when we identify those types of tasks, that means that there\'s gonna be updates on those Operation Manuals. That then needs to be documented and we to make sure that everything lines up and it\'s all hunky dory.
So this creates a continual flow of new and updated work, or new and updated Operation Manual that need to be managed and maintained going forward. Basically infinitum. This is a job or task that\'s never gonna end. As long as my business exists, as long as technology doesn\'t stop, which it won\'t do.
Then the way that we actually do the work in our business is going to keep changing. Or when we bring new people in with new expertise. Or we expand the team and just have more capacity. We may need to update how we do stuff. And so what I\'m gonna talk about today, which is a really simple system for managing all of this continual updates and creation of new Operation Manuals. Has just given me so much more peace in terms of knowing like where I am up to with regards to Operation Manuals. Where the team needs to focus on like what\'s actually in the backlog, what\'s been done.
It actually gives a feedback system as well. So the task owner or the expert, or the person who does the task on a daily basis, who\'s the expert doing it. There\'s a system as well in place to allow them to get involved in a back and forth if needed while these updates are being done. And just to stress, the whole point of this is to avoid the expert, the practitioner, or me, the business owner, having to do the documentation of tasks myself. Demeaning, we\'re not focusing on a high value work. And we\'re do something which is actually a very low value admin type task. Which is just documenting how something is done.
So this process is about freeing you as the business owner and also your key staff. To keep focusing on doing the high value work. The work that actually generates either revenue or innovation in your company. To allow them to focus on that while somebody else takes care of managing the writing and updating of Operation Manuals or SOPs.
Okay so, this is all about our Operation Manuals Pipeline. And we use Asana in our business. And so we simply create a project for this, and it\'s called our OM Pipeline, and it has a number of columns. We\'ve got the first column, which that\'s called the Initiate Pipeline column. And explain exactly what that is in a second. We then have a Create / Update column, we have an Input Required column, we have a File and then we have an End. And that\'s it.
So it\'s a very simple project with five columns. And the word Pipeline is indicative that we move something from left to right through this Pipeline. So first of all, we\'ll land and initiate Pipeline that kicks off this process. We then create a specific task for updating or creating a new Operation Manual, which lives in this Pipeline. And that\'s moved from the create stage to the input required if needed. So if we need input from the expert who\'s actually doing the work. If it\'s not quite clear what the in the video, you know, what the next steps were, for example. So we can go into that column so we can actually then have a back and forth without losing track of, you know, where that is up to in the process.
And then once we\'ve got all the information we need, it\'ll pop back into our create or update column. That work will be done by our Operation Manuals Creator. And then once that\'s been done, it\'ll be reviewed, it\'ll be filed by the Operation Manager. Who will have access to the backend of the filing system or wherever it is you are saving your SOPs or your Operation Manuals. And then finally, we clean up the Pipeline in the End Pipeline stage. Which is when we remove our task from the Pipeline and make sure everything is filed and hunky dory.
Hey, I just wanna interrupt the episode for one second. To explain that if you want access to all of the templates, the Operation Manuals, frameworks, everything\'s discussed in this episode, you can head over to join.sys.academy. And join our paid community. Where you have access to all of our courses, all of our frameworks, all of our SOPs, all of our Operation Manuals. Access to our ChatGPT GPTs. Everything that we use in our business, everything we share with our clients is all available through our paid community. It\'s at join.sys.academy.
And joining the community will not only give you access to everything I talk about in this podcast, but also to an amazing community of like-minded entrepreneurs. Who are building businesses to live with more presence, purpose, and peace. So head on over to join.sys.academy and hopefully see you on the inside. Thanks for listening. Let\'s get back to the episode.
So that\'s really the quick overview. And I\'ll just talk through in a little bit more sort of detail about how we actually do this in practice. And what each of those stages are. Because some of this is obvious and some of it is the nuances which have taken literally years to refine and get right. So listen in just to make sure that when you\'re setting something up like this, you don\'t end up doing the same mistakes that I did as I was setting this up over the years. And having to refine it as we went through it.
And just aside, before I get into the detail, the methodology I\'m using here to create this is our Perfect Process Pipelines Methodology. Perfect Process Pipelines is about creating standardized process maps for how work is done in your business. Especially work, which has multi-steps, often multi people, could be multi app, and also high iteration. Like for example, creating or updating Operation Manuals. Also, for example, onboarding clients or tenants or buying property or paying invoices.
Anything that happens multiple times in your business, you wanna track where that\'s up to. For example, our podcast, so creating our podcast or publishing our podcast or publishing social media posts. All of that is tracked through Pipelines within our business. And this is just an example of one of our Perfect Process Pipelines implementation in our business. And so going back to our Operation Manual Pipeline, the first column, as I said, is the Initiate Pipeline column. Now in Asana, we can do something called multi-homing for our tasks.
What that basically means is that, you can have a task on someone\'s task matrix. So say if I\'ve got a daily task for someone to post on Twitter. And that\'s on their daily column in their task matrix. And they need to then update that Operation Manual. So maybe they\'ve got a new way of doing it, maybe Twitter\'s now called X for example, as it actually is. And we need to actually just update the Operation Manual to reflect the new way of working. And so the practitioner would then record their work using the DIDACT method. They would then put that new video into the task and add that task onto the Operation Manual or the OM Pipeline.
So it remains on their task matrix. It remains in their daily columns. They\'re still gonna be doing this, but now we\'re gonna actually add the same task to the Pipeline. So that the Operation Manual creator can go make whatever updates are required. That may be updating the Operation Manual with a new video. It may be updating the checklist or any, of the other parts of DIDACT. But by leaving it on the practitioner\'s board and adding it to the OM Pipeline, it means it doesn\'t interrupt work. It\'s not lost and then forgotten about. And it\'s also put into a place so when the Operation Manual creator has time to create this, they can go away and do it.
This is not highly urgent, important work. This is not urgent, important work. So this is work that should be done, but it doesn\'t need to be done now. It could be done tomorrow, next week, whatever. As long as it\'s clear on the task itself. Like of the updates that are pending, then you know a clever person or half intelligent person be able to look at that and say, oh yeah, there\'s the original video, but I can see there\'s an update pending here. I can watch that, you know, new video and get the insights which are going to be updated in the future into the Operation Manual.
So even if you know the person who\'s recorded the video goes off sick and somebody else has to step in because we\'re documenting in this way. Because we\'re putting the new version of the work or of the instructions on the task itself on their task matrix, then the latest version\'s always there.
This job we\'re talking about now in the OM Pipeline, it\'s just about documenting it in a standardized way and tidying up and get rid of old videos, for example. So it\'s just the crossing the T\'s and dotting the I\'s. It\'s the nice to have stuff. Whereas actually recording the new way of doing it is the must have, the urgent work.
So now we\'ve got this task on the Pipeline. And if you don\'t have a task management app where you can do multi-homing, so have the same task in two projects. Then you would simply need to comment on that task, tag in the Operation Manual Creator and say, hey, can you create the Operation Manual for this? Or can you update the Operation Manual for this? So if you don\'t have multi-homing, then that\'s how you do it.
Once it\'s on there, the Operation Manual Creator would then come in, and they\'ve got a task on their board. So it\'s something we call a project placeholder. So on their task matrix, they\'ll have a project placeholder. Say once a week for example, they\'ll block out, you know, a couple of hours to go and do some Operation Manuals. And on their board, so say it\'s on a Friday morning, it\'ll say, go to the OM Pipeline. Look in the first column, which is that Initiate Pipeline column. And then kick off the Pipeline for any new task that are being added. So where wherever we need a new Operation Manual or an updated Operation Manual.
And the Operation Manual Creator will then duplicate our Template, which is the OM Pipeline Template. And then that it has all the instructions on how to create or update the Operation Manual. How to update the Task Template. How to get input required, if needed from the practitioner, if that something\'s not clear or they need some extra information. And also for the OM Manager how to review and then file the Operation Manual on the Task Template. And then how to close off the project and tidy everything up.
So that is the key for this working. No matter who is in this role. So you get a brand new person coming into the business who\'s never created operational Manual before. But because we\'ve got this Operation Manual Pipeline task, which we create for each Operation Manual that we want to actually update or create, all the instructions are in there. So that nobody needs to teach them how to do this. They can just go follow the guides and then they can actually go away. And actually use this Pipeline and understand how A, the Pipeline works, and B, how to actually update and or create the Operation Manual and Task Template as they\'re going through this process.
Once they\'ve created it, maybe they\'ve got some input. As I said before, we\'ll move back and forth between those two columns until we\'ve actually got this nailed. Then it\'s done. It\'s ready to be filed. The Operation Manual Manager will then add the job of actually filing this. So they will go into the backend of your file storage. So Google or Microsoft or whatever, your OneDrive, whatever you are saving your OMs in. They wanna put it in the right place. Make sure the sharing\'s correct. Make sure, for example, if the task, if it\'s got a Task Template, if that\'s added to the right projects in your task management app as well.
And then finally, they\'ll then tidy things up by removing the original task from the Operation Manual Pipeline. So that needs to be removed and tidied up. And then we\'re left with just completing the actual task, which was the create the actual Operation Manual task. And we complete that. And that\'s it. It\'s done.
So a very simple project. Five main columns are Initiate Pipeline, Create or Update the actual Operation Manual and the Task Template. Input required, so if we need some help from somebody. File, End Pipeline. And finally, I forgot to mention this before, we have a column called TTs In Progress or Task Templates In Progress.
So any task is added to our Initiate Pipeline, sits there until it\'s picked up. And then it\'s actually, we create a, an OM Pipeline task for that particular update. And then while the updates are in progress, we will then move that into the TT In Progress column. So that we know that is an ongoing live, update of the Operation Manual. That means that when it\'s completed, we\'ll remove this task from the project.
Cool. So that is how we manage our Operation Manuals. If you are listening to this on audio, you might wanna check out the YouTube videos. If you head over to systemizeyoursuccess.com, you\'ll find this episode. And then you can check out the YouTube video, which will then show you exactly what I\'ve been talking about as I\'m going through this episode.
Cool. Thank very much. I found this useful. If you have, please do remember to hit subscribe for more useful and entertaining videos or podcasts such as this one. Thank you very much. Bye.
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ABOUT THE HOST
Steve moved to Sweden in 2015 and transformed how he ran his businesses—switching to a fully remote model. A former NHS doctor, with a background in computing and property investing, he now helps overwhelmed business owners systemise and outsource effectively. Through his courses and coaching, Steve teaches how to automate operations and work with affordable virtual assistants, freeing up time and increasing profits. He runs his UK-based businesses remotely with support from a team of UK and Filipino VAs, and is passionate about helping others build scalable, stress-free companies using smart systems and virtual support.
For more articles related to process documentation and building pipelines, you may also like:
The Game-Changing Approach we use to Rapidly Delegating Tasks that get results
From Chaos to Clarity: How Perfect Process Pipelines Transformed My Business Operations