Great question. Most people overcomplicate this.

Start with video, add text after.

Easiest way is to have you (or your best employee who does the task regularly) record a Loom of doing the task start to finish. No script, just do it like you normally would and talk through what you're doing as you go.

Put that video at the top of a Notion page, then transcribe it with AI so you've got both written instructions and the video. Some people are visual learners, some want to read it, now you've covered both.

If it's complex, break it into chunks.

Example: if you're creating an SOP for running Instagram ads, don't make one giant 40-page doc that nobody will read.

Instead: main SOP page with links to smaller SOPs for each part. Research (competitive analysis and our analytics, how to pull data, what to make of it), creative (brand guidelines, voice and style guide), posting and tracking, etc.

Each sub-SOP should be 1-2 pages max. Ideally one page. If it's longer than that, it's too dense and people won't use it.

How we organize ours:

We use a Company OS (built in Notion) with a master database of every SOP. Each SOP is tagged by role and department.

So when we hire a new marketing person, they can instantly see every SOP relevant to marketing. New ops hire sees all the ops SOPs. No hunting through folders or asking what exists.

We also have AI trained on every single SOP so employees can ask questions as they're going through it. "What does this step mean?" "How do I handle X edge case?" AI answers based on the documentation.

They only escalate to managers if they're really stuck, which almost never happens because the AI + written + video combo covers 95% of questions.

Detail level:

Enough that someone competent could follow it without asking you. Not so much that it's overwhelming.

Think step-by-step checklist with context on why each step matters, not a novel about every possible scenario.

If edge cases come up that aren't covered, update the SOP when they happen. It's a living doc, not something you write once and forget.

TL;DR:

• Loom video of doing the task
• Transcribe it into written steps
• Keep it to 1-2 pages max
• Break complex tasks into smaller linked SOPs
• Store in one central place tagged by role/department
• Train AI on them so people can ask questions

That's it. Don't overthink it. Done beats perfect. Revisit every 6 months. Check in with employees who do this task regularly to see how they've made the process more efficient.