Concept
Save information for a future job, not because it is interesting
Keeping has a cost, so give it a future need.
When it fits
- Your notes, bookmarks and downloads grow faster than anything gets reused.
When to avoid it
- Serendipitous collections can have value; this rule is for operational knowledge systems, not for eliminating curiosity or cultural collecting.
The idea
Before saving, name one plausible future job: make a decision, perform a task, explain a concept, verify a claim, contact someone or continue a project. If you cannot name a use and the source is easy to rediscover, consider not keeping it.
An example
A useful tax table is saved with 'needed for annual filing comparison'; a generic article you can easily search again is not duplicated into the system.
Check your result
Most kept items have a stated anticipated use or a clear reason preservation matters.
Keep this limit in mind
- Serendipitous collections can have value; this rule is for operational knowledge systems, not for eliminating curiosity or cultural collecting.
Connected ideas
Use beforeWrite one retrieval cue in the title
Evidence and sources
Personal information management research frames the job as a lifecycle of acquiring or creating, keeping, organizing, maintaining, finding or re-finding, using and distributing information in support of future needs.
The lifecycle is descriptive and does not prescribe one folder, tagging or note-taking system.
Personal Information Management · Abstract and overview
PIM research emphasizes a mapping between information and anticipated or current need: keeping moves from information toward a future need, while finding moves from need toward information.
People cannot predict every future use, so keeping rules should be lightweight and revisable.
Personal Information Management · Abstract