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A 6-hour job cut down to 30 minutes - Why it is important to write down the step-by-step

Updated July 19, 2024 12:50 AM

The first time I did this task, it took me 6 hours. The second time it took me 3 days because I forgot what I did the first time. The third time it took me 30 minutes because I wrote down all the steps that I went through, step by step, in order to accomplish that repetitive task.

What is this task you ask?

I am in the process of moving many of my websites from one hosting web hosting to another.

I have finally decided to make all my websites secure using SSL so there are important steps to be taken and script updates to be made among other things to make that happen.

How do you remember everything that you did the first time so that you can do it over, and over, and over again. I am used to kind of like a brain map to get things done in a multitask kind of way but lately I'm getting older my brain map doesn't really work anymore.

I've discovered that writing down the step by step makes my life so much easier.

If only I listened to my friend Roland. He always wrote down the step by step. Now I know why because I am his age now when he met me in my 30s.

"You think it is simple," Roland always said to me, "but what happens when I go home and I have to repeat the process three days later without having to call you?"

Now I understand perfectly what he said to me more than 20 years ago when I was a young boy.

Migrating a website from one server to the next requires many different steps. From making backup copies of all the files, backing up the database, exporting it, importing it to the new server, creating a new database and everything else that is required including updating DNS records, all of that is a complex web of tasks that you have to do just to make the website migration run smooth and without any hiccups.

Now add to that the fact that I have to modify scripts to get the website to work on the new server because the PHP version is different; I have to tell the script to point to https and not http; and all the technical gibberish associated with it that you probably do not even care about. It takes a long time just to get it to work the first time. But if you write down the step by step, the next time it will be easier, and easier, and easier.

In my case it took me about 6 hours the first time I did it and finally I got it to work. Then, when I went to do it the second time a few days later, I forgot everything that I did the first time.

With my busy schedule and the frustration of having to do it all over again not remembering what I did the first time, it took 3 days to get the second website to work. That's between trying to get it to work, troubleshooting and putting it off for later but this time I took notes.

Believe it or not, I now narrowed it down to seven simple steps.

Of course each step has a whole set of things that is associated with it but nonetheless now it takes me about 30 minutes per website when I have the time to move it.

Take it from me right down to step by step in whatever it is that you have to do, even if you have to leave your house to go get milk, bread, wash the car, and add more air to one of your tires.

Believe me, you will be happy you did a to-do list which is exactly the same thing: Writing down the step by step.

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