Turn Any Task Into an SOP by Narrating It

The step-by-step you've been "meaning to write" for months? You don't have to write it. Do the task once, out loud, and let AI turn it into a clean, repeatable SOP. Perfect for anything you'll hand off or train someone new on.

Takes as long as the task takes, plus five minutes. You need: a screen recorder or your phone. You end with: documentation that exists, which beats the excellent one you keep not writing.

The idea

Don't document a task from memory (slow, and you forget steps). Document it while you do it, narrating is faster than writing, and you catch every real step.

Memory writes the tidy version. You'll skip the bit where you check the old file first, and the bit where you fix the thing that's always wrong — which are exactly the bits a new person gets stuck on.

The simple version (works today)

Screen-record yourself doing the task once (Loom, your phone, or any screen recorder), and talk through each step as you go: "First I open this, then I check that…"
Get the transcript (most recorders give you one, or upload the video to an AI that reads it).
Paste it into AI with this prompt:

Here's a transcript of me doing a task while narrating it. Turn it into a clean, numbered SOP anyone could follow. Include: the goal, what you need before you start, the steps in order, and a "done when…" check at the end. Flag anything I did that was unclear so I can add detail.

The hands-free version

Some newer AI tools (like Claude's Cowork, or ChatGPT's screen-aware modes) can watch your screen and listen while you narrate, and produce the SOP on their own, no recording or transcript step.

What you get back

SOP: [Task name]
Goal: ...
Before you start: ...
Steps:
 1. ...
 2. ...
Done when: ...

The power move: make it interview you afterwards

The narrated version captures what you did. It misses what you know — the judgment calls you make without noticing, which is the whole reason handing the task off usually fails. So add a second pass:

Now interview me about that SOP. Ask me one question at a time about anything a new person could get wrong: what I'd do if a step failed, how I decide between options, what I checked without saying why, and what would make me stop and ask someone. Keep going until you can't find another gap, then rewrite the SOP with my answers included.

This is the difference between a checklist and actual training. It'll ask things like "you said 'if it looks right' — what does wrong look like?", and your answer to that is the thing you were never going to write down.

Ten minutes of questions after a five-minute recording usually doubles the value of the document.

Tips

Do it during real work, not a special "let me record an SOP" session. You'll never schedule that session.
One task per recording. Keep them short and findable.
Save them in one folder so your team has a place to look before they ask you.

When it goes sideways

"The SOP is too vague to follow." Your narration was probably at the wrong altitude — "then I sort out the invoice" is a sentence, not a step. Ask it to "rewrite any step that doesn't say exactly what to click, type or check."

"It's 40 steps and unusable." You recorded a process, not a task. Split it: "break this into three separate SOPs with clear handoff points, and tell me where one ends and the next begins."

"It included my mistakes and detours." Good — that means it was honest. Tell it: "Remove the parts where I got lost or corrected myself, but keep any correction that a new person would also need to make."

"I sound scattered and unprofessional in the transcript." Everyone does. Nobody reads the transcript, and the SOP that comes out reads nothing like it.

"Nobody uses the SOPs I make." Usually a findability problem, not a quality one. One folder, named after what people would search for — "how to send the monthly invoice," never "SOP-014."

Make it yours

Onboarding someone: have them do the task from your SOP while narrating, and turn their transcript into version two. Everywhere they hesitated is a gap you couldn't see.
Client-facing work: add "mark any step where the client sees something, so I know where the experience matters most."
Studio or shop: record the opening and closing routine. It's the highest-value documentation in the building and it lives entirely in two people's heads.
Solo, no team: these are for future you, after a holiday or a busy season. The monthly and quarterly tasks are worth more than the daily ones — you actually forget those.

Do this next

Start with the task you get asked about most. Record it once the next time you do it, and you'll never have to explain it live again.

Next guide: Ready-Made Skills — once you've documented a task, the next step is packaging it so AI can do it the same way every time.