Find the photo you are thinking of
Twenty thousand photos on my phone and I couldn't find the one I wanted. Now I drop photos into one folder, name the folder for what's in it, and my system tags the rest.
Tabled for now. Built, not on the homepage, still true.
The job I gave away
Scrolling. Back through months of camera roll for the one picture of the one thing, and giving up, and using a worse one.
What runs now
One folder. It's the only place I ever save photos, and its name literally says save everything here. Inside it, I make a folder for each batch and name it for what's in it. That name is the instruction. If I named it, every photo inside is tagged with my word and needs no review. If I didn't, my system looks at each photo, makes its best guess at what it shows, and puts the guess in a review list for me to confirm with one tap.
My word always beats its guess. It took one bad week to learn that. A version that trusted its own eyes over my folder names mislabeled a whole shoot, and I haven't let it outrank me since.
The free version, one habit
In your photos app, make one album called Sort Me
Everything you might want to find later goes there, the second you take it or receive it. Screenshots, kids' art, the receipt, the outfit.
Once a week, open the album and, for each photo, do one thing: rename it, or add a caption, with three words that say what it is. Blue dress wedding. Ella science fair. Insurance card. Thirty seconds a photo.
When you need one, search those words
If your app can describe photos for you, let it write the first draft of the caption and fix the ones it gets wrong. Your word wins.
Where this goes wrong
Trusting the guess over your word. A name you gave at the door beats any later guess. The other trap is two photos with the same filename in two folders. Key on the file itself, not its name. I lost nineteen reviewed photos to that once.
The rule underneath
A name you gave at the moment you saved it is worth more than any search that comes later. Tag at the door, not in the archive.