Why Documenting Work is So Important as a Software Engineer

I speak strictly from my experience, documenting my work has also been an important facet of my everyday work. Aside from coding, joining meetings, and researching. Keeping notes reduces my cognitive load which is instrumental to my success. Here are the reasons why:

Mental Notes are Bad when used in Excess

Keeping mental notes puts more strain on the brain. I believe it leads me to be more unfocused and unreactive to newer changes within the day. For example, say I need to get several tasks done. Task A, Task B, and Task C. My cluster size (my attention span) has a limit of two. Task C can easily be forgotten and It would take much longer to get back to what I was working on if I forgot the important elements of Task C. Therefore, as a way to retain and keep performing optimally, I write down a set of facts related to each task and current progress, and if I need to reach out to the necessary parties to acquire more information, I will usually jot the names down.

Keep it short and sweet, and you’ll be neat. These cheesy one-liners, can’t be beat. But seriously, these bullet points have saved me so much headache and stress, and often times I felt the most prepared to attack my tasks optimally.

Coming back to work after so long

Vacations are crucial for everyone. A way to refresh and relax. Move away from the stress of work and the real world. An escape we can have. However, after that break, jumping on a task and remembering where you left off is challenging. This is especially true in software engineering. It’s hard to remember that last line of code, or trail of logic you had when you started to code out your implementation. So having documentation, or notes among other things can be crucial. It helps make you an efficient engineer and helps to let others know that you haven’t faltered in your abilities to catch up. Future vacations have been saved by your actions.

Help you Go Up the Latter

I know that notes don’t directly correlate with getting promoted, but organization and being effective at what you does. It shows to others that you’re capable. That’s why I believe in documenting your notes. By documenting, you’re choosing to actively learn and study the information being brought forward to you. As you write down, you are also keeping a record, not just for yourself but for your bosses. If a question is brought up, you can easily bring out your notes and instantly share the info. You’re likely to get noticed by your organization, responsibility, and trustworthiness. Better alliances are formed between you and the ones you want to be allied with. Because you help them out when they need the help and they’ll come to you as a source. It’s always nice when this happens because you can use this to your advantage, just as much as your boss wants to utilize your skills to their advantage.