Use a ‘Single Source of Truth’ to Be More Productive

When you get your first office job, you learn a whole new language. Suddenly, you’re learning about your team’s “workflow,” being forced to declare if you have the “bandwidth” to take on a new responsibility, and forever “circling back” and “drilling down,” all in the name of achieving “learnings.” One piece of workplace jargon you may not have yet learned is the “single source of truth”—and it’s actually a helpful tool for staying organized. Here’s what a “single source of truth” is and why you should implement one in your (forgive me) workflow. 

What is a single source of truth?

When your boss refers to a single source of truth, they’re actually talking about a repository for all the information and resources related to your work. That’s really it: It can include anything you need for a specific project or your job altogether, like contracts, instructions, timelines, contact sheets, templates, reviews… the list goes on. 

It should be well-organized and accessible to everyone who has anything to do with a given project. Back in the day, it might have been a big old binder, but the modernized version likely involves cloud-based software. A Google Drive, for instance, is perfect for an SSOT. 

Using an SSOT is similar to the “action method” of productivity, which asks you to sort your tasks into action steps, references, and back-burners using a spreadsheet. The column dedicated to references contains information related to accomplishing your task and can be considered a small-scale SSOT. 

How do you use an SSOT? 

If you’re on a team, you can use software or a project-management tool like Google Drive, OneDrive, or SharePoint. The first document in there should be a list of everyone on the project or team, plus their contact details. Use this to make sure everyone on the list has access to the SSOT. It’s also helpful to have a naming scheme in place, so files are easy to identify as the folder fills up. Something like LastName_DocumentTitle_Date.extension works great. 

If it makes sense, give everyone editing access, so they can mark off what they’ve done or add resources as they become available. If there are too many team members or you want some oversight, keep editing permissions limited to managers. 

SSOTs eliminate confusion about who needs to do what and how they can go about it, plus they make it easier for team members to step up. For example, if someone is out sick, their duties and the tools they use to get their tasks taken care of are immediately available in the single source of truth. 

You can also use the SSOT plan for personal use, whether to track your own progress on a work project or something else, like the management of your home. Have a folder for contacts related to your kids’ activities, maintenance and cleaning professionals and tasks, or whatever else you need. This is helpful if you ever need to share details for some reason, like if you need to go out of town and have a friend watch your place.

As lofty as a “single source of truth” sounds, this is one of those corporate ideas that has real-world benefits and will actually make your life easier, giving you (forgive me again) more bandwidth for other things.