Managing Contacts, and Meeting New People

M

musicisbliss

0
Hi All,

One area that is not covered in GTD, is how to manage all of your contacts. When networking, or managing large groups of friends, I find this to be where my organization falls apart.

I have tried using my iPhone contact list, but I don't want to accidentally call everyone when I use Siri.

I don't currently have any system, but I probably want to keep track of names, relationships, birthdays, and when I last contacted them.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
I use my google account (so I see the same contacts in gmail and android).

Adding a photo helps a lot, and if you can't remember who someone is from their name and photo, then you should probably delete that contact. Taking a photo of a tradesman might be a little strange so you can always use a photo of their business card or even the job they did for you to act as a visual aid.

Birthdays go on my calendar, but can be entered manually (recurring annually) or automatically pulled from phone contacts or Facebook.

I'm not sure what you mean by relationships. I could think of people I know as friends, family, colleagues, etc. but any individual's character would be a venn diagram of all these characteristics. One distinction I make is to put a * in front of businesses and tradesmen to separate them from other people.

I use my tickler file to help me stay in touch with people. When a name comes up I can either make a note to call them or just re-tickle if I've been in touch recently. I usually re-tickle even if I call them, unless I decide it's best to let the relationship take a back seat.
 
musicisbliss said:
I have tried using my iPhone contact list, but I don't want to accidentally call everyone when I use Siri.
Click to expand...
I'd look at why Siri isn't working properly first as the Contacts list on iPhone/Mac is a pretty decent Farley file manager. It has places for all the items you mention, pictures (great idea BTW cfoley) and notes. I set up separate lists for categories so I can quickly get to someone if I am unsure of the name.
 
+1 on using contacts. For Siri, just say "show me contact Joe Blow" then tap on the name to launch and edit the contact notes without calling.
 
Two comments about siri,

The first is if my phone is in my pocket and I am doing something with my hands (carpentry, cooking, ect) it is nice to just hold the button on my headphones to make a call.
The second, is that if I know two people with the same name, but only ever phone one, I don't want to have to deal with specifying, so I try and keep them out of my contacts.

By relationships, I mean things like their wife's name.

I actually like the idea of using the tickler file to remind me to contact people. May have to make a separate folder for it, as to not get bogged down.
 
By relationships, I mean things like their wife's name.
Click to expand...

Android has a notes field. Seems like a perfect place for this information if iPhone also has one.

I actually like the idea of using the tickler file to remind me to contact people. May have to make a separate folder for it, as to not get bogged down.
Click to expand...

I started out by keeping them separate too. It didn't work out for me but maybe it will for you.

The first is if my phone is in my pocket and I am doing something with my hands (carpentry, cooking, ect) it is nice to just hold the button on my headphones to make a call.
The second, is that if I know two people with the same name, but only ever phone one, I don't want to have to deal with specifying, so I try and keep them out of my contacts.
Click to expand...

It still sounds like Siri is causing you more problems than it solves. But if you like it then why not use iPhone's contacts for your favourites and gmail contacts for everyone else? I bet there is an iPhone app that lets you access google contacts.
 
cfoley said:
Android has a notes field. Seems like a perfect place for this information if iPhone also has one.
Click to expand...
Contacts actually keeps things like wife name as separate optional fields, to allow for searching via look for spouse etc. Can add children, secretaries and more.

It's basically a very robust Farley file system, much improved over previous version which were basically just simple address books.
 
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