Use What You Have

Today’s tip: Use what you have.

Knowledge is always useful, especially when it can be used more than once. This tip is a simple reminder to look first to what you (or your colleagues) have already done when you have a research question: you organization’s document management system, your binder of research memos, your personal precedents.

Yesterday I saved a client a few dollars by updating a past memo that we had written for them. Even though the context of their question was different, the information was something we already knew.