My address books have always been fairly functional, the emphasis here on "fairly". On the one hand, out of the four classic organizer modules--calendar, address book, to-do list, and notes--the address book appears to be the most straightforward: how hard can it be to write down a name, a number, a street address and city-state-zip? Moreover, you don't have to do much to make an address book serve its purpose. Unlike with a to-do list, an address book entry is not a call for action. Unlike a like a note, you don't have to file it at some point. There's nothing particularly time-sensitive about it, as a calendar is. Basically, once you've written the information down, you're pretty much done with your address book. Until, that is, you need to look something up. And that's where my system tended to disintegrate.
Let's say I need to look up Susan Johnson, a realtor with Urban Reality Group. The name and company are made up here--we're just using this as an example. In this scenario, I'm thinking: did I file the info under "Susan" or "Johnson"? "Realty" or "Realtor" or "Urban Reality Group"? Alpay likes to file personal contacts under first names, and business contacts under last names, which seems logical until you find all of his or my family numbers grouped under the last name. And what about Nick, the building's handyman, whose last name I don't know? He's not a "friend," but how can I file him under his last name if how I know him is by his first?
Back this fall, when I first got my Levenger Circa to act as my organizer, I got the A-Z tabs. This bulked up my organizer by 26 pages and for what? Have I ever even used an "Q" tab? Like, ever? What about "X" or "Z"? And what was the point of using alphabetical order, anyway?
I decided to take matters into my own hands and demoted my A-Z tabs to my mammoth, all-inclusive address book I'd printed using my old Palm software. I deemed about 100 numbers as necessary to go into my new organizer, which I separated into piles, classifying as I went. I came up with the following 10 categories:
Acquaintances, for people I know, usually in a specific context, but to whom I'm not particularly close. Classmates with whom I exchanged assignment information, a woman in my building who offers yoga lessons, fellow students in my watercolor class, a friend-of-a-friend who is interested in practicing French--these are all examples of "acquaintances". I usually jot down a quick note next to their name to remind me of who they are (as sometimes the name itself may not ring a bell) and what our connection is.
The Boys, for anything having to do with our kittens: our vet, the shelter we adopted them from, the cat sitter, the poison control number and emergency services numbers, etc.
Chicago Friends, for our friends in the area. I find it useful to separate out our "Chicago Friends" from our "Friends" in the rest of the country (indeed, the world), as it's useful to have a local list when brainstorming things to do or finding a companion for a particular local event.
Chicago Resources, for theaters, restaurants, museums, and attractions. I like to note the hours of operation, directions or cross streets, or any special information like lunch specials or reduced-rate days.
Family, for all members, including cousins, in-laws, aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews, and includes email, im information, website URL, cell and home numbers, as well as birthdays, anniversaries and notes on preferences/gift ideas and information.
Friends, for all our friends that aren't in the area. I grouped friends together in this way with an eye to making it easier to contact people in terms of invitations, announcements, and holiday card lists.
Health Care, for all doctors, dentists, specialists, chiropractors, physical therapists, and pharmacists we deal with, in addition to insurance numbers and information.
Home, for carpenters, electricians, plumbers, and other contractors, as well as information about products I regularly use. I also have all of our information on accounts and memberships under this tab, partially written in code for security purposes.
Service Providers. This can be tricky, as it would be easy to overlap the "Service Providers" and the "Home" category. I try to keep anything "home" based--like insurance agents or warranty service providers--in the "Home" category, and other professionals--like our accountant and our new travel agent--in the "Service Providers" category.
Work, for certain management and co-workers' numbers and information.
While finding names and numbers are not as difficult with digital organizers, I've found I really like the old paper-and-pen method--what's sometimes now referred to "analog" style of keeping an address book. Organizing contacts by category rather than by name is what has finally made my old-fashioned, analog-style address book functional.