Weekly: compare your documented system to your actual…
Add a single recurring check at the end of each weekly review that compares your operational handbook to your actual operations and updates discrepancies immediately.
When This Fires
- At the end of every weekly review
- When you reference your operational documentation and find it outdated
- After changing a workflow, tool, or routine
- When setting up an operational handbook or personal system documentation
Common Failure Mode
Skipping the comparison because the review is already running long. The check takes 2-3 minutes — if your documentation is short (which it should be). If the documentation is so long that comparison takes more than 5 minutes, it's too detailed and should be simplified. The check becomes unsustainable only when the documentation is over-engineered.
The Protocol
Last step of every weekly review: (1) Open your operational documentation (handbook, system description, routine checklist). (2) Scan each section: "Is this what I actually did this week?" (3) For any discrepancy: is the documentation wrong (update it) or is your practice wrong (fix it)? (4) Update immediately — not a note for later, an actual edit right now. (5) Total time: 2-3 minutes. The weekly investment prevents the multi-hour documentation rewrite that becomes necessary after months of drift.