Gems & Lemons is for the day-to-day things that usually land on a scrap of paper and then disappear.

A wireless phone charger came with five years of warranty. The receipt and the warranty date stay on the visit. A few months later the card and the shop receipt are not lost in a drawer. When you go back, “I went again” keeps its own day, its own note, and its own files. A photo added on that visit stays with that visit. It is not mixed into the first one.

Printer cartridges are the same kind of problem. The right box is never the one you remember. A note holds the name, and a photo of the old cartridge. The next purchase is not a guess. The photo stays with you. A person you send the note to does not see the file.

Olive oil is smaller still. One note says which brand to buy, and which to avoid. That is not a review of a shop. It is a reminder for the next time you are standing in the aisle.

A follow-up works the same way when the scrap of paper is a phone call. Write the organisation, the day it should be finished, and each call on its own line: the date, the person, the phone, the reference, and what was said. When the other person calls back, it is on the screen.

None of this is published. A place, a note, and a file stay in your journal unless you choose to send a card, and even then the file stays behind.