Practice the song to be recorded. Songwriters often fall in love with the first take of a song, so be ready! Be as prepared as you can possibly be when you enter the recording phase.
Familiarize yourself with the digital recorder. At least master the basics of on, off, record, stop, rewind, and fast forward. If your recorder has a way of indexing or tagging moments so they are easily found later, do this between each take.
Test the sound by playing a few seconds of music throughout the recording space. Ultimately you are looking for the playback on the digital recorder that sounds like the right balance. This is almost never in the center of the room.
Hit record, say the name of the song and what "take" number it is so that the entire recording will be easily searched. If unsure about the song title, just give it a letter. So for example, between takes you might say "Song G, Take 3."
Connect the digital recorder to the computer and upload the file. Many recorders and computers will do this automatically when connected. If not, simply open up the "portable drive" disk and click & drag the file onto your desktop.