The Progress folder

Almost every software product or project I've ever made has a folder inside called "Progress." About 10+ projects have one. I didn't plan it. It just happened.

I take a lot of screenshots. When I see something I want to share with a colleague, to show a new feature, to get feedback on a design change. I'd take a screenshot that saved to my desktop, or record a short video, and share it via Slack or email or messages. 99% of the time I'd delete it after. But sometimes, instead of throwing it away, I'd drag it into a folder called Progress.

Some folders have 3 screenshots. Some have 40. The biggest one has a little under 100.

The screenshots aren't anything special on their own. Whatever I was working on at that moment. A new button in the UI. A redesigned settings page. A dashboard that finally shows real data. The kind of stuff you share once and forget about.

But when you open that folder a year later, or three years later, or six years later, it's a time machine. You see what the product looked like when you thought it was finished. You see the version you were proud of that now looks completely laughable. You see how far you've come without realizing it.

I looked at screenshots from a project I worked on 6 years ago. I thought I was top of the league back then. That product looks amateur now. I could technically run old versions and services to see what it was like, but that's a lot of work. Without those screenshots, I would never revisit that journey. Never remind myself what I was actually making.

If you create content for social media, this becomes even more useful. Before and after comparisons. Proof of progress for presentations or videos. Real visual evidence that things changed.

The whole thing takes almost no effort. You're already taking the screenshots. You're already sharing them. Just don't delete them. Drag them into a folder instead. The benefit shows up later, not the moment you start. But when it does, it's worth every saved file.