A brief note written today can save an hour of reconstruction next season.
The observation
A record without context becomes a puzzle. Add the date, origin, and one plain sentence about why it was kept. These details are inexpensive at capture time and costly to reconstruct later.
Leave context behind is less a rule than a useful test: does the arrangement make the next encounter clearer?
In practice
Preserve important material in ordinary formats and more than one place. Keep the inventory simpler than the archive and test recovery occasionally, not only the existence of backups.
A small trial
Apply the idea to one ordinary example this week. Keep the change only if it reduces searching, maintenance, or uncertainty.
Apply the idea to one ordinary example this week. Keep the change only if it reduces searching, maintenance, or uncertainty.
A closing note
An archive is a promise to a future reader. Keep what can be understood, and let the rest go deliberately.
NextThe ten-minute check→