What Long Records Cannot Tell You
The limits, stated plainly. Questions people bring to years of data that the data cannot answer, however much of it there is.
Limits
A record is good at duration, sequence and change, and poor at value, cause and anything not done.
4 notes
Privacy of a Multi-Year Record
Ten years of daily entries is a detailed document about your life and several other people's. What follows from that, practically.
When to Stop Permanently
Ending a long record deliberately is a legitimate outcome and a better one than letting it decay. The signals, and how to stop properly.
Data About Other People, Accumulated
A decade of notes contains a substantial record of colleagues, clients and family who never agreed to anything. What that obliges.
These notes are about keeping a personal record for years rather than for a fortnight: durability beats accuracy, and a rough record kept for five years answers questions a perfect record of one month cannot. Tool guides are included as practical comparisons, while the underlying method remains independent of any single product. Nothing here is legal, tax or medical advice: requirements differ by jurisdiction and situation.