Updated Sep. 22, 2019. Originally published May 28, 2013.

If you’re just stumbling across this, please click here for the other posts in the series.

A Book, Really?

Well, maybe not.  I’m using the term personal “address book” here, but really we’re just talking about the gathering place for your contacts.  For most of us, nowadays, this will not be a separate “little black book.”

It might be a Rolodex.
Or the contacts list in your mobile phone or Outlook.
Or a section in your planner or household notebook.
Or something else entirely.

The point is, you need a spot to keep all of your contacts together in one place.  Personally, I like to have two.  I have a Rolodex that has all of my contacts in it – names, addresses, whatever telephone numbers I have, and often email addresses, children’s names, birthdays, etc.

Then, in my planner, I carry only those few contacts I’m likely to need while I’m out.  That way I’m not carrying the equivalent of a dictionary with me everywhere I go, but I have a few key contacts, like our doctor, close family, the pastor, and friends I might need to call in an emergency.  (There is less duplication with this method than you might think.  For example, pretty much no one non-local is in my planner.  And I don’t have all of that extra information in there – usually just ‘phone numbers, with only the occasional street address.)

How portable does your information need to be?

STEP 1: Decide what format and location to use for your contact list.

STEP 2: If you have contact information for people “floating around” in other locations, gather it all into the proper place.

If you’re just stumbling across this, please click here for the other posts in the series.