Curious how people keep records. Mine, after a few painful lessons:
What's the one record-keeping rule you wish you'd adopted earlier?
The rule I wish I'd adopted earlier: write the SOP step before you do it, not after. Past-me documented from memory at the end of the day and past-me was a liar.
Two physical labels per vial, and the notebook line references both. Redundant on purpose. Saved me when a printed label smudged in the freezer.
Mine: never use an abbreviation you wouldn't recognise in six months. "Recon 5/4" meant nothing to me by July.
Record-keeping rule I learned the expensive way: "I'll remember" is the single most costly sentence in science. I did not remember. I never remember. Write it down.
I have a spreadsheet for the spreadsheets, a notebook for the spreadsheet, and a sticky note for the notebook. The actual data is in there somewhere. It's a system. It's MY system.
Started dating everything after "Recon 5/4" haunted me for a month. The 4th? April? Four mL? Nobody knows. Future-me is, to this day, furious.
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