Keep a two-week price diary for five fish at one Goan market

You are recording what five fish actually cost at one market over two weeks, then explaining the sharpest change. The point is to see how prices really move, not to guess at a trend from one visit or a news story.

• Which market and which single vendor will you visit, and at what time of the morning?
• In what unit does the vendor quote each fish, and will that stay the same every day?
• What else will you write down each visit: weather, sea conditions, festivals, how full the stall looked?
• How will you tell a real price change from the vendor simply giving you a different size of fish?

A clean table with one row per visit, a column per fish, the unit in each header, a short notes column, a line chart, and a half-page note that names the fish that moved most and two reasons you checked with a person.

Visiting different stalls or at different times and treating every gap as a price swing. A late-morning price is often lower because the vendor wants to clear stock, so keep the time and the vendor fixed.

• Your own price notes from each visit, written on the spot
• The vendor's answer to one question each visit: is today's catch more or less than usual?
• Notes on weather and sea conditions, from what you saw or a public weather forecast

AI must not fill gaps in your diary or suggest typical prices. If you missed a day, leave the cell blank and say so in the notes.

1. 3.1 Set up the diary tableGOOGLE SHEETS

   Why this tool: A fixed table makes every visit comparable and makes gaps visible.

   Columns: date, time, weather, one column per fish with the unit in the header, and notes. Freeze the header row and enter prices the same day you visit.

2. 3.2 Find the widest swingGOOGLE SHEETS

   Why this tool: Working out the change in the sheet keeps the numbers checkable.

   For each fish, add rows for the lowest and highest price you saw and the gap between them. Draw a line chart with one line per fish.

3. 3.3 List possible reasonsCLAUDE CHAT

   Why this tool: Claude can suggest reasons you had not thought of, which become questions for the vendor.

   Paste the table and your notes. Ask for possible reasons and questions, then take the questions back to the market.

   Prompt to copy · fill in the [brackets]Copy

   Here is my two-week price diary for five fish at one market in [market name]:
   [paste the table with notes]
   The fish whose price moved most was [fish]. Suggest four possible reasons, using my notes on weather and catch where you can. For each reason, give me one simple question I could ask the vendor to check it. Do not state any reason as fact.

4. 3.4 Draft and tighten the noteCLAUDE CHAT

   Why this tool: A second pass helps you cut your note to what the evidence supports.

   Write the note yourself first, then ask Claude to mark any sentence that claims more than your diary shows.

   Prompt to copy · fill in the [brackets]Copy

   Below is my half-page note on fish prices at [market name] and the diary it is based on. Mark every sentence that claims more than the diary or the vendor's answers support, and suggest a softer wording for each.
   Note: [paste your note]
   Diary: [paste the table]

• Every price in the sheet came from your own visit, with the unit stated
• The widest swing figure matches a recount of the lowest and highest values
• Each reason in the note was checked with the vendor or marked as a guess
• Blank days are shown as blank, not filled with an average
• Recompute two numbers by hand
• Check the row count before and after cleaning

AI tends to blame every price jump on the monsoon or fuel costs. Check whether your swing happened on a calm, ordinary day, in which case the reason is probably local, such as a small catch or a festival.

• A two-week diary table with units and notes
• A line chart with one line per fish
• A row showing the lowest, highest and gap for each fish
• A half-page note with two checked reasons

Put the chart at the top, the note beneath it, and the full table on a second page. Circle the day of the widest swing on the chart.

Say which fish surprised you, what the vendor told you about why, and how you would repeat the diary in the monsoon season.