Getting Up-to-Speed Quickly on Contract Assignments

[NUMDS]

I found out that a 4-month contract had not been extended. The main culprit was that I was advertised as a man who could fully integrate systems. However, I had made some mistakes that I wanted to address that will haunt me in the future if I do not address them. Your input would be much appreciated:
1.) I had missed a discovery call with the Vice President of Customer Success. I had forgotten my phone and forgotten the date. What do people utilize how to keep track of meetings across multiple interfaces (Outlook, Gmail, mobile phone, etc.)?
2.) I had gotten chewed out because some sales executive had delegated all aspects of this project to a sales operations. I was trying to get everything organized. However, I had accidentally pinged the sales executive again after someone had recommended I talked to him. Without thinking about it, I pinged the sales executive again after he had delegated the entire project to someone else. Also, I got someone's name incorrect within an email. I was nervous after making a mistake. How does one go about presenting themselves as 'zero-defect'. It seems that you have to operate that way when you are dealing with executives.
3.) How do people organize getting on-boarded to a new employer very quickly?

 

[Deirdre]

Oh I am so sorry to hear of these bumps and the outcomes. I don't know if I can help you remember your phone, but I can tell you what I do for managing schedules and reminders. I recently started a new job and I use visual cues, calendar and task reminders.

I have a phone holder in my car and when I go to work, I put the phone in the holder. Visual reminder.

I only use Outlook for work and it gives me a reminder 15 minutes before each meeting. I use Gmail at home. The calendar on my phone shows both Outlook and Gmail meetings.

I have weekly, monthly, and quarterly reports; being new, I put them in my To-Do tasks as reminders as well as appointments on my work calendar. I have a host of other projects and I use One Note for everything. I use the Natural Planning Model for projects.

This is a fabulous post by someone who uses OneNote for her work. It's so good I printed it and keep it with my notes.

Have you read the GTD books? If you have, I would suggest the Getting Things Done workbook as a fabulous refresher.

Good luck!