Last week, I ordered our 2013 holiday cards — yes, I was pretty proud of myself for being so on-top of it this year 🙂
We’re actually sending out Thanksgiving cards since that’s my favorite holiday of the year — so I did have an extra incentive to be “on the ball” in order to get the cards sent and delivered before Thanksgiving Day (which just so happens to be one month from today!)
I’ll definitely be sharing our card on the blog in a few weeks, however; the process of ordering our cards got me thinking about all our addresses… and my teeny-tiny, itsy-bitsy address book.
You would think that because I work on the computer all day long, because my iPhone comes with me where ever I go, and because I hate paper clutter that I would have figured out a way to create a digital address book by now… but you would be wrong. I absolutely LOVE my old-fashioned paper address book! I DO anticipate going digital with our addresses at some point, but even then, I think I’ll alway keep my little address book tucked in our office cabinet.
It’s just so convenient for me to flip through the alphabetical index to the person’s last name and quickly find the information I’m looking for — even if my computer isn’t turned on and even if my phone is in my purse on the other side of the house.
There is just something about having the addresses written right there in front of me that I like — and I’m honestly not sure why. But at this point in my life, the address book is working for me — and if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Right!
Since I work from home and am almost always within a few steps of my office cabinets, I always have access to my address book. So in my opinion, the only major downside to having a paper address book with written addresses is if people move or their names change.
For this reason, I write most my addresses in pencil for easy changes and alterations.
I realize there are many MANY ways of organizing addresses — so I’d love to know…
Kathleen says
Hi Andrea,
Forgive me to be self promoting but I can’t help but respond. I was looking up Virtual Assistants and found your site here. I use Send Out Cards to keep track of my contact addresses now. I can put in reminders for Bdays/Anniversaries and send cards and gifts. And I can group the contacts under a group name.
I started using it for my real estate business and then became a distributor so I can share it with others.
If I attend an event and meet a lot of people at once I’ll put their contact info in a spreadsheet and then import it into Send Out Cards under a group name where I met them.
Cherie says
I am using evernote now to house my contacts so that I can have them on the go.
I use the spread sheet feature and keep them under a tag called contacts.
maxine says
Dear Andrea, I do exactly the same thing with addresses in an address book written with a pencil so that I can erase if an address is no longer relevant or if an address changes. There is also space to write why the address is relevant and to write the phone number if needed.