How-to

Household memory: where's the spare key?

Facts you need twice a year, at the exact moment you can't remember them — and get back by meaning, not exact words.

Turn it on, throw things in

There's a category of information that isn't a task and isn't worth a filing system: where the spare key is, the wifi guest password, which filter the furnace takes, the name of the good plumber. Fanad's Notes module is a place to throw these.

optin notes

note the spare key is under the blue pot

📝 Noted.

n wifi guest password is sunflower42

📝 Noted.

(n is the shortcut.) No folders, no tags. The whole discipline is: the moment you catch yourself thinking “I should remember this,” say note and move on.

A photo with no caption lands in your notes too — snap the furnace filter label, the paint can lid, the router sticker, and it waits there for later.

Getting things back

Months later, you don't remember what words you used. Doesn't matter — ask the question you actually have:

r where’s the spare key

• the spare key is under the blue pot

r (or recall) finds notes by meaning: “where's the spare key” matches “under the blue pot” even though they share almost no words. Ask “what's the guest wifi” and the sunflower note comes back.

Grounded — never invents

Recall only ever surfaces notes that actually exist. Fanad never pads an answer with something plausible-sounding — if it's not in your notes, you don't get an invented one.

The note inbox

notes shows everything waiting:

notes

📝 3 waiting: 1. the spare key is under the blue pot 2. wifi guest password is sunflower42 3. paint the hallway ceiling (“/promote 3” → task · “/forget 3” → delete)

That third one illustrates the other job notes do: a holding pen for maybe-tasks. “Paint the hallway ceiling” wasn't a commitment when you jotted it — but the day it becomes one, promote 3 turns it into a real task (photo and all). And forget 2 deletes a note you're done with.

What tends to live here

  • Locations: spare key, shutoff valves, the passports, the good scissors
  • Numbers and names: wifi passwords, the plumber, paint colors by room, tire size
  • Sizes: furnace filter, kid's current shoe size, the vacuum's bag type
  • Photos: serial numbers, the breaker panel labels, how the shelf looked before you took it apart
  • Someday-maybes: things you might do, not yet willing to promise

The pattern in all of it: facts with a long shelf life and no natural home. Your head was the previous storage location, and your head is a terrible filing cabinet. note it, forget it, r it back when the day comes.