Actually, I never thought to write down needle position, that's a good one to remember.
I have a quilting organizer that I use religiously and I started a bullet journal not too long ago. Both have extensive lists of everything I'm working on, but, when I'm storing a WIP that I stopped because of an issue, what I do is write down what happened, tension issues, piecing issues, suddenly lost my sewjo, having problems with my quarter-inch, ran out of this particular fabric, etc. My problem has always been that I forget what happened to cause me to abandon it in the first place. If I write down what went wrong and I decide later to visit it, I'm not spending an afternoon and two pots of coffee trying to remember. I've got my notes to tell me and it's usually something that is now so small because I've grown further into my quilting skills that I can go 'okay, I know how to fix that', I'm usually back on track in less than a day and I break out the seam ripper or get online to shop for fabric. It's helped keep my UFO stash down to a working few and my stress down to the barest of minimums. I'm out of the extra large zip-loc bags, though, so have to be careful I don't run into another problem until I get more, lol.