Reducing Context Loss: Temporary vs Permanent Information

One of the biggest productivity killers in a fast-moving company isn’t lack of effort or talent.

It’s context loss.

I’ve seen it happen too many times:

• We make decisions in meetings, but they don’t get documented properly.

• We run experiments, but the learnings get buried in chats or scattered docs.

• Someone leaves a project, and the next person starts from scratch.

• We remember what we’re doing, but forget why we’re doing it.

The truth is: context loss is not a people problem. It’s a system problem.

And as a founder, I’ve realized something very clearly:

If we don’t build a system for knowledge early, we’ll keep paying for it later, with time, speed, and momentum.

Why Context Loss Happens

Most teams don’t lose information because nobody writes things down.

They lose it because:

• information is stored everywhere,

• nobody knows what’s “final” vs what’s “still changing,”

• the same doc exists in multiple versions,

• people spend more time searching than executing.

So instead of saying “document more”, the right approach is:

Document smarter. Store intentionally.

What Counts as Permanent Information?

Permanent information is anything that has been:

• experimented

• validated

• finalized

• and is now something the organization should follow or learn from

This is the “official playbook” of how we operate.

Examples of permanent information:

• finalized processes and SOPs

• learnings from experiments that we want the whole org to follow

• approved guidelines (product, content, design, sales, hiring, etc.)

• policies and rules that apply across the company

• repeatable workflows that should remain consistent

If the organization is expected to follow it, it belongs in the handbook.

What Counts as Temporary Information?

Temporary information is anything that is:

• still work-in-progress

• changing frequently

• not finalized yet

• not necessary for the whole organization to know (yet)

Temporary information is valuable, but it’s not “official truth.”

It’s more like a working draft that will evolve.

Examples of temporary information:

• ongoing experiments and early results

• drafts of processes that are not finalized

• project notes that may change next week

• one-off docs that only one team needs right now

• brainstorms, early PRDs, meeting notes

If it’s still evolving, it stays temporary.

Why This Matters (Especially As We Scale)

When everyone knows where information should go, three things happen:

1) We stop wasting time searching

People don’t need to ask “where is this doc?” because the system answers it.

2) We stop repeating work

Experiments and drafts remain searchable, so we don’t run the same loop again.

3) We build trust in our knowledge

The handbook becomes reliable because it contains only finalized information.

How We Solve Context Loss

This is the system we’re implementing across the company:

✅ Temporary information goes into:

Specific Drive folders (designated for temporary work)
or
ClickUp (so it stays searchable and trackable)

✅ Permanent information goes into:

The Company Handbook

That’s the rule.

It’s simple, but it creates clarity.

Temporary work stays easy to find, without polluting our source of truth.
Permanent learnings stay organized, repeatable, and scalable.

Conclusion: Context is a Company Asset

Context isn’t just documentation.

Context is:

• why we chose something,

• what we tried before,

• what worked and what didn’t,

• what we learned as a team.

And the more we grow, the more valuable context becomes.

So we’re going to treat it like an asset, not an afterthought.

Temporary stays searchable. Permanent stays teachable.