> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.autodidacts.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Save the Date
- URL: https://www.autodidacts.io/save-the-date/
- Published: 2020-08-31T18:11:05.000Z
- Updated: 2020-09-01T11:13:48.000Z
- Author: Curiositry
- Tags: Essay, Hot Air

![](https://cdn.autodidacts.io/img/autodidacts/save-the-date/date-stamp-300px.png) 

Here’s a small piece of advice, which I would like to have learned earlier: **save the date.**

Put the date in filenames, but don’t stop there! Put it on everything: journal entries, food in the fridge, every document you write, and each box you send to the storage unit.

Always use a consistent date format. If you choose an all-numeric format, I recommend the international date format YYYY-MM-DD ([ISO\_8601](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO%5F8601?ref=autodidacts.io)) for all the obvious reasons.

The advice can be expanded to **save more metadata* about the things you work on*. For example, keep text files documenting progress on projects big and small, including all the dead-end paths you took — so you don’t go down them twice.

The date is the fundamental piece of metadata. It helps you sort things, find things, and remember things. It only takes a few seconds to write down. It can save hours.