“It’s quicker if I just do it myself.”
Most small business owners have said it. Often, it is true - at least today. Explaining a task can take longer than doing it, especially when the useful knowledge lives in your head.
The problem is that the same task comes back next week. Then again the week after. You remain the person who has to do it, check it or answer the same questions.
Waiting for a quiet afternoon to write everything down rarely works. A more practical approach is to capture the task while you are already doing it, then use AI to help turn what you recorded into a useful first draft.
I recently came across a useful demonstration from Layla Pomper at ProcessDriven. The idea is simple: record yourself completing a task while explaining what you are doing, take the transcript and ask an AI tool to organise it into clear instructions.
These are often called Standard Operating Procedures, or SOPs. Think of them as task guides: clear instructions that help someone else complete the work.
The process has four parts:
Record yourself completing and explaining the task.
Export or copy the transcript.
Use AI to turn it into a structured first draft.
Review the draft and ask somebody else to test it.
This gives a business owner a practical way to capture knowledge that might otherwise remain in their head. It can make training new starters easier, improve consistency for clients and reveal opportunities to simplify the work before considering automation.
It can be especially useful for a task within a keystone process, where the quality of one result affects several activities downstream.
Capture the judgement, not just the clicks
The useful knowledge is often in the decisions. Explain why you check whether an enquiry is within your service area, why you ask rather than guess when information is unclear, or why you confirm availability before promising a date.
One caution matters: recording an experienced person captures their current method. It does not automatically prove that method is best practice. Before documenting the task, ask whether it still needs doing and whether any obvious waste can be removed or simplified.
AI can organise the first draft. The owner still needs to check the facts, fill the gaps and decide whether the guide is safe to use.
ONE PRACTICAL STEP
TRY THIS THIS WEEK
Choose one recurring task that you regularly explain, redo or struggle to hand over.
Before recording it, ask:
Does this task still need doing?
Could it happen less often or contain less information?
Can any unnecessary steps be removed first?
If the task is still useful:
Record yourself completing it while explaining your decisions and checks.
Draft the task guide from the transcript using AI.
Check the facts, correct any gaps and ask somebody else to test it where practical.
Keep customer details, passwords and other sensitive information out of the recording, transcript and AI tool.
WORTH YOUR TIME
FREE RESOURCE
Do It Once Task Guide Starter Kit
Want to try this with one of your own tasks?
I have put the method into a free Starter Kit. It includes:
a quick-start guide and recording checklist
the copy-and-paste AI prompt
an editable task-guide template
a completed small-business example
a short review-and-test checklist
The PDF, editable templates and separate AI prompt are available below.
Download the guide and supporting files:
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Published from Sydney, Australia by Rob Edgar, trading as eliminAIt Process Partners. Questions or feedback? Reply to this email or contact [email protected].
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