# Focus on decisions, not tasks {#focus-on-decisions-not-tasks}

A quote from [Every Page Is Page One](https://xmlpress.net/publications/eppo/)
that has deeply changed how I approach technical writing:

> In technical communication, we don’t talk much about decision support; we talk
> about task support… In many cases, the information people need to complete their
> tasks is not information on how to operate machines, but information to support their
> decision making… simply documenting the procedures is never enough… What I am talking
> about is documenting the context, letting users know what decisions they must make,
> making them aware of the consequences, and, as far as possible, leading them to
> resources and references that will assist them in deciding what to do.