title: How can I store the date with datastore?
body: <p>Datastore documentation is very clear that there is an issue with "hotspots" if you include 'monotonically increasing values' (like the current unix time), however there isn't a good alternative mentioned, nor is it addressed whether storing the exact same (rather than increasing values) would create "hotspots":</p>
  
  <p>"Do not index properties with monotonically increasing values (such as a NOW() timestamp). Maintaining such an index could lead to hotspots that impact Cloud Datastore latency for applications with high read and write rates."
  <a href="https://cloud.google.com/datastore/docs/best-practices" rel="noreferrer">https://cloud.google.com/datastore/docs/best-practices</a></p>
  
  <p>I would like to store the time when each particular entity is inserted into the datastore, if that's not possible though, storing just the date would also work.</p>
  
  <p>That almost seems more likely to cause "hotspots" though, since every new entity for 24 hours would get added to the same index (that's my understanding anyway).</p>
  
  <p>Perhaps there's something more going on with how indexes work (I am having trouble finding great explanations of exactly how they work) and having the same value index over and over again is fine, but incrementing values is not.</p>
  
  <p>I would appreciate if anyone has an answer to this question, or else better documentation for how datastore indexes work.</p>