How to Harness the Power of Documentation While Working Remotely

To keep everything working smoothly, you need to manage a constant flow of information, projects, and feedback—that’s easier said than done! Without proper documentation it can be overwhelming to ​​sort through your inbox for information, maintain your team’s workflows, and stay on top of all the little things that matter.

With so much to keep track of, it is crucial to organize and store your information so you can centralize information and streamline your processes.

To break it down: documentation is the storage of your information. It can be simple–like meeting notes uploaded to a shared folder. Documentation can also be complex–like developing a step-by-step process for tackling new projects or advanced explanations in code.

What is project documentation?

By documenting information, you establish a shared understanding of the details. For example, when you create a process for addressing client feedback, you can document that process to make sure nothing gets missed. Documentation is always available. It will be there for your team to reference–no matter where they are or when they log on.

Project documentation helps establish processes, reduces the amount of communication needed, and keeps everyone up-to-date. Especially for remote work teams. For example—with a step-by-step process for your team, it will be easier for your team to be consistent when completing tasks and projects.

Anyone can reference procedure documentation when they have questions, which will reduce the number of emails and calls needed. You also reduce the chance of confusion or miscommunication when information is well-documented. With established and clear expectations, you and your team can spend more time focusing on your work.

Why is documenting work information important?

Documentation makes your life easier! With thorough documentation, it’s easier to stay organized and get clear insights into your work. Anyone can use documentation to standardize and simplify their workflows and streamline their communications.

Documentation is essential for asynchronous work (which relies on interactions that are not real-time). Examples of asynchronous communication are task boards, notes, and shared files. After you document something, anyone can reference it whenever they need to.

You can look at a task board to check a project's status report or brush up on the most recent details. Catch up on a meeting you missed by referencing a shared file where your team keeps meeting notes.

When you document information, do it right

Documentation can save time and make work easier. It can reduce stress and make collaboration smoother.

However, when documentation is bad, your team could be headed for trouble. Confusing or outdated documentation can be worse than no documentation. Communication can fall apart and your work can get derailed quickly if files or notes are not regularly updated.

For the best results, communication and documentation should go hand in hand. You can email or chat with a team member about things not covered by the documentation. Not many platforms do a good job storing documentation and offering smooth communication, like messaging or chats. You end up switching between different apps and platforms.

Eventually, you might get overloaded with tools, waste valuable time, and you'll have a harder time finding important information. You need a platform for documentation that also incorporates key parts of work like messaging or virtual meetings.

You can pack a lot more action into one platform when you use multimodal tools. Since these tools centralize different functions, your team won’t have to switch between apps to do their work. Multimodal tools make it easier to collaborate because communication is smoother and better organized.

Rock makes documenting information easy

Rock keeps messaging, task management, notes, files, and meetings in one place for you. With Rock, you can combine communication strategies to get smooth discussions and helpful documentation.

You can easily document the different work that your team is doing with the tasks feature. With the notes and files features, you can create onboarding processes or folders with everything a new team member needs.

There is a comments section in every task so you can refresh yourself on the history of that task when you need to.

With the notes feature in Rock, you can store anything and keep the most important information at your fingertips. The notes feature makes it easy to keep details where everyone can find them. Rock also has built-in messaging! That way, you can talk about your tasks and notes without switching to a different platform or app.

You can also add remote work tools such as Google Drive, Dropbox, One Drive, Smartsheet, and other services to a space in Rock. All your docs, sheets, and presentations will be just a click away. A client or team member can review project deliverables when it's convenient or leave feedback where everyone can access them.

With your documents in the right space, you won’t need to dig through files or folders to find what you’re looking for. Get started with Rock today, all for free!