What never goes in: your data rules

Write the rules before the notes fill up

Later your team will ask these notes questions, and in the paid course an AI will answer from them. Both are safe only if you have decided in advance what the notes may hold. It takes ten minutes now and is very hard to untangle later.

What never goes in

Start with this list and add to it for your business:

• Passwords, logins and client credentials. Link to your password manager instead.
• HR files, performance issues and anything about one person’s conduct.
• Pay, salaries and personal financial details.
• Health information about anyone.
• Data a client contract keeps from AI services, or from staff who do not work on that client.

Who writes, who reads, who keeps it tidy

Name them now, even if it is only you for the first month:

• Who writes: usually you and one or two others.
• Who reads: everyone the notes are for.
• Who keeps it tidy: one named person, about 30 minutes a week, once there is a team using it.
• Who signs off a Decision note: only you.

Decision notes say what to do, not who did what

A Decision note holds the rule and the reason, not the story of the client who caused it. "A client" is enough. If a note would embarrass someone when read aloud to the team, it is the wrong note.