Had to stop for IRL reasons. Was about to build a coal depot but I knew that saving at a blank screen would be confusing.
That’s one way!
You can also add map markers to your map, with an icon and text. I’ve used these to set goals / reminders of what should be worked on in that area.
My general method to remember what I need to do next session is to name my saves that way. Like “start coal depot.sav”, or “finish steel, fr this time, no distractions.sav”.
I’ve often thought that Factorio needs a comment block / sign post / notepad for just such a thing
I often leave my reminder on a post-it note on my monitor. Sometimes those get lost and then I have to depend on my own memory (dubious)
Recently I was in the middle of fixing up a facility that wasn’t working right when opposite sides of my base got hit hard by bugs. They broke through walls while I was travelling to repair the first attack, just a mess all around.
Anyway, I decided I didn’t want to deal with the cleanup right away because it was already getting late, so I left a sticky note. Then it took me a couple days to get back to the game and the note went missing. I remembered to clean up and shore up the defenses, but I forgot that the thing I had been working on before the attack wasn’t quite finished. Came back to it a week later to see why my resources weren’t getting shipped before I realized what happened.
I’ve often thought that Factorio needs a comment block / sign post / notepad for just such a thing
They added a display panel just recently for this! It’s actually pretty nice and can display on the mini-map if you wish. It can even display different things based on circuit conditions, if you want to get fancy!
I use a kanban, or you can make notes with the in-game displays
Or a Google doc, or just a paper on your desk with notes. :)
Most games don’t seem to let you name saves anymore, but I used to name my saves after whatever I expected to do next.
Last night my in game alarm went off for low power. I was about to fix it, so I muted it. But then I realized I was done for the night, so I turned it back on, saved, and exited.
So there is no way I forget what my next task is.