For most recipes the instructions for cooking a steak on a stove say "pat the steak dry" then cook on the stove.  The drying instructions I have also seen for chicken and fish.  Why dry steak/meat/chicken/fish before cooking on a stove?  (I saw another question that was asking about how to dry the meat but not why.) 
Having marks that are both temporary and durable is a tough combination, because something that can survive a dishwasher will by definition be hard to remove.   Good answers already provided, but I personally prefer the flexibility of being able to label each container however I want every time I use it, to avoid having to keep track of separate types of containers.   I generally use a grease pencil, AKA china marker. They are specifically meant for marking glass and china. They are available in various colors. The markings are easily removed, and will not survive a dishwasher, but would probably survive gentle hand washing. Despite the name they are actually wax-based, not grease-based and are safe for use in the kitchen.   One other advantage of grease pencils is that they can write on a wet surface, which is great when you've got a cold container with condensation on it.   Here's a blog post with a couple of examples of grease pencil use. Apparently writing your name on your wine glass at a party is a thing to do now.  