NOTES TO FIND AGAIN
Give your note a place to come back to
If a note feels like a code when you find it days later, add a few words about where you were or what was happening.
“Check this” is too short for your future self
You write “check this” in your notes. A few days later, you look again and cannot remember what needed checking. It was clear when you wrote it, but the scene around it did not get saved.
Add one place and you have a clue: “At the dry cleaner, ask them to sew one more button on the coat.” Now you can remember where the note came from and why.
A place is a little handle for memory
It does not have to be a street address. The office kitchen, the subway, the walk when you were talking to a friend—any background you would recognize works. Add what you were looking at or doing, if that helps.
This is not a suggestion to write longer notes. Instead of explaining the task all over again, attach two or three words about the scene that brought it to mind. Sometimes the place brings the rest back with it.
Write for the moment you find it again
A note becomes useful when you come across it later. Leave a trace of where the thought began, and an old line can feel less like a stranger’s message and more like a note from your past self.
A few ideas for keeping a diary and notes with Your Day.