Guides
Better ways to remember the things you save.
Screenshots. Bookmarks. References. Research. Ideas. The problem isn't that you don't save enough. It's that saving something doesn't guarantee you'll find it again.
These guides are about making what you keep useful, with whatever tools you already have, and with an honest note on where Shelf helps.
The premise
Save ≠ find again.
Saving is a two-second action. Finding is a question you ask months later, in words you didn't plan, about a thing you half remember. Almost every filing system optimises the first and ignores the second.
Everything below follows from that gap: a screenshot, a bookmark, an image, a PDF, a note and a website are different objects at capture time and the same object at recall time, something you kept, for a reason, on a day, next to other things.
- 01SaveScreenshot, bookmark, image, PDF, note, website.
- 02ContextWhen it arrived, what it was near, why it mattered.
- 03MemoryText, subject and look, all searchable.
- 04RecallA partial memory is enough to get it back.
01
Find again
You know the thing exists. You saved it. Now what?
- How to find an old screenshot when you don't remember its name.Start from what you do remember: the words, the look, the period, the project.
- How to find a bookmark you saved months ago.You don't remember the title. You remember what it was about and why it seemed useful.
- How to find something you saved but can't remember where.Six questions that turn a vague certainty into a search you can actually run.
- How to find a website you visited months ago.Black background, giant type, found during research. That's more than enough to start.
02
Organize less
Filing systems fail quietly. Retrieval is the real work.
- How to organize screenshots without organizing them one by one.Start from retrieval, not folders. A method that survives the way you actually capture.
- How to deal with thousands of screenshots.The archive is already bigger than your willingness to maintain it. Organize forward instead.
- How to organize bookmarks without building another folder system.Filing a page and remembering why it mattered are different jobs.
03
Build a memory
An archive that gets more useful with age, not less.
- How to organize design inspiration without killing the inspiration.Collecting and curating are different jobs. Only one of them should happen at capture time.
- How to build a visual library that stays useful.Six principles for an archive your future self can still use.
- How to build a visual second brain without building another system to maintain.If maintaining your second brain becomes another job, something has gone wrong.
Next thought
Ten guides, one argument: design for the day you remember only part of it.
How to build a visual second brainWhere these ideas come from
Shelf V3 is out now
Shelf V3 is the current build. Shelf does not use automatic updates, so download the latest build here and install it over your current version.
This is intentional. Shelf is built around a local-first, privacy-focused philosophy. An automatic updater requires additional background processes, network connections, update infrastructure, and another system with permission to modify the app. We prefer to keep Shelf’s network footprint and background activity as small as possible.
Manual updates keep the process explicit: Shelf only checks the internet when a feature actually needs it, and you decide when a new version is downloaded and installed.