diff --git a/.config/shell/env b/.config/shell/env
index 893f36c..6a3b169 100644
--- a/.config/shell/env
+++ b/.config/shell/env
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 
 export SHELL_CONFIG_DIR="${SHELL_CONFIG_DIR:-"${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-"$HOME/.config"}/shell"}"
 if ! [ -d "$SHELL_CONFIG_DIR" ]; then
-   echo "FATAL ERROR: \$SHELL_CONFIG_DIR is not set to a real directory: $SHELL_CONFIG_DIR"
+   echo "FATAL ERROR: \$SHELL_CONFIG_DIR is not set to a real directory: $SHELL_CONFIG_DIR" >&2
 fi
 
 # Intelligently set $EDITOR
@@ -33,8 +33,14 @@ export ZINIT_HOME_DIR="${XDG_DATA_HOME:-$HOME/.local/share}/zinit"
 
 
 # Set documents directory (auto set to the repo the file ~/todo points to is in)
-# shellcheck disable=SC2155
-[ -h ~/todo ] && export DOCS_DIR="$(git -C "$(dirname "$(realpath ~/todo)" 2>&1)" rev-parse --show-toplevel | head -1)" || DOCS_DIR="$HOME/Documents/docs/"
+if [ -h ~/todo ]; then
+   # shellcheck disable=SC2155
+   export DOCS_DIR="$(git -C "$(dirname "$(realpath ~/todo)" 2>&1)" rev-parse --show-toplevel | head -1)"
+elif [ -d "$HOME/Documents/docs" ]; then
+   export DOCS_DIR="$HOME/Documents/docs/"
+else
+   echo "Error: couldn't find the documents repo" >&2
+fi
 
 ## Working directory save settings (see things at bottom of zshrc)
 WORKING_DIR_SAVE_FILE="${XDG_CACHE_HOME:-$HOME/.cache}/zsh/last-working-dir"