Strong relationships start with remembering what matters

I’m not very disciplined about CRM stuff. After a conference I’ll usually remember the person and maybe one big topic, then the useful details start disappearing. I’ve started adding two or three lines to a Moment on the train home. That’s usually enough. When someone pops up again six months later, I can see what we actually talked about instead of doing the whole “great to reconnect” dance.

My camera roll used to be a graveyard of screenshots. I’d save a post because it was funny or useful, then six months later I’d have absolutely no idea who it was about or why I saved it. Now I put the ones I actually care about under the person and add one line of context. OCR is handy when there’s a lot of text. Still take too many screenshots, though.

One of my closest friends had an interview coming up and I completely forgot to ask how it went. That bothered me more than I expected. Since then I’ve started saving the little things I genuinely want to remember — trips, family stuff, a restaurant my partner mentioned, things like that. I’m definitely still forgetful. This just gives the important bits somewhere to go.

刷朋友圈时，看到朋友发的好玩段子、旅行照，或者工作上觉得以后能用上的干货，我总习惯性想：“先划过去，回头再翻。” 可等到真要去翻的时候，人家朋友圈早就变成“仅三天可见”，甚至一条横线，啥都翻不着了，后悔也白搭。 所以现在我也学乖了——但凡觉得有点意思、以后可能派上用场，二话不说，先截图为敬。然后直接存进 APP 自带的“记忆”里，APP还能用 OCR 把文字识别出来。这样一来，哪怕对方设了三天可见，甚至直接把我屏蔽了，我这儿也稳稳留着底。以后哪天想翻翻某个朋友说过的话、发过的照片，从我自己这边一找就有，心里特别踏实。

I’m fairly selective about what I save. If someone in my network mentions a market they’re entering, a problem they’re working on, or an event they’re attending, I may keep it if I think the context could matter later. A few times now, something has come up weeks or months afterward and I’ve realized I actually had a useful reason to reach out. For me, that’s much more valuable than being reminded to contact someone just because 30 days have passed.

Soy de las que piensa: “esto me lo voy a acordar seguro”. Y luego pasan dos semanas y, claro, no me acuerdo de nada. Me pasa con el viaje que está preparando una amiga, un restaurante que quiere probar mi pareja, cosas que me cuenta mi hermana… Son tonterías pequeñas, pero luego da gusto acordarse. Ahora guardo solo lo que de verdad me importa. Para mí no es “gestionar contactos”; es más bien tener un sitio donde dejar esas pequeñas cosas antes de que se me olviden.

I’ve failed at journaling more times than I can count. Daily entries just aren’t my thing. Here I can save one photo and a sentence, or a 20-second video, and call it done. Some weeks I record nothing at all. There’s no streak to break, which weirdly makes me use it more.

Ich bin bei persönlichen Daten eher vorsichtig. Für mich war wichtig, dass das nicht einfach ein weiterer Dienst ist, in den ich meine komplette Beziehungshistorie hochlade. Ich speichere nur ausgewählte Dinge — Gespräche, Fotos, kurze Notizen oder Erinnerungen — und möchte sie später zuverlässig wiederfinden können. Der Local-first-Ansatz war deshalb einer der Punkte, die mich überzeugt haben. Bei solchen Daten möchte ich selbst entscheiden, wo sie liegen.