The 5-Minute Documentation Rule That Saved My Sanity (And My Team's)

I used to hate documentation. It felt like extra work that slowed me down. Then I discovered a simple rule that changed everything: If future-you will need more than 5 minutes to understand it, document it now. Here's why it works: The 5-minute threshold is the sweet spot Too short (like variable names), and you're wasting time. Too long (like full architecture docs), and you'll never finish. Five minutes is just enough pain to motivate action. What to document Non-obvious function behaviors Why you chose approach A over B Environment setup quirks API endpoints and their gotchas That weird bug fix that took 3 hours How I apply it When I'm about to commit code, I ask: "If I saw this in 6 months, would I understand it in under 5 minutes?" If not, I add a comment or update the README. It takes 2-3 minutes now, saves hours later. The magic side effect Your code reviews get faster. Your onboarding improves. Your future self sends thank-you notes (mentally). Documentation doesn't have to be