How to Organize Your Contacts

By eHow Home & Garden Editor

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You have a lot of great options when you finally upgrade that address book you've had since college. Paper-based planners, contact management software, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and mobile phones can all help you get your contact information in order.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Step1

Decide if you're an ink-and-paper person or if you like to deal in digital.

Step2

Use only one address filing medium. Don't keep separate books for home, work and other activities; instead, keep all the information in a single address book that's broken out into categories.

Step3

Collect all your addresses before entering them. Don't forget club rosters, alumni address books, community resources, doctors and professional associations, in addition to your personal address book. Check that addresses are current and correct, and update those that aren't.

Step4

Keep track of birthday and holiday cards, who you sent them to, and who sent them to you, and file reminders in your tickler system.

Tips & Warnings

PDAs and mobile phones equipped with Bluetooth can synchronize with Bluetoothenabled computers if they're within a few feet of each other--and you don't have any cables or cradles to worry about.
Protect your information against loss. If you have a paper organizer, photocopy it regularly. If your system is electronic, synchronize and back up often, and don't let the batteries run down.