What counts as a step in a workflow

A step is one small action a workflow takes after it starts — send an email, move a file, update a row, post a message. Nothing fancy. If you can describe it in five words, it is a good step.

I've watched people overcomplicate this by trying to cram several actions into one giant step, which makes a workflow nearly impossible to fix when something breaks. Small steps are easier to test, easier to explain to a teammate, and easier to swap out later without rebuilding the whole thing. I think of steps like stations on an assembly line — each one does a single job and passes the work forward.

When you're mapping a process for the first time, write every action on its own line, even the tiny ones like "wait a few minutes" or "check a field." You'll notice the real steps naturally, and you'll spot the ones a person still needs to do by hand.

Try this today: write out a task you do often as a numbered list of single actions, using one plain verb per line.