What a Great Meeting - But What Do I Do With All the Papers, Business Cards & Other Stuff I Took?

Picture this. You're back to the office after an appointment. What do you have in your pockets or briefcase? Business cards, receipts, meeting notes, presentation copies, new ideas for your business, Madcap Molly few web sites you want to keep track of.What a mixture. Ideally you'd have the time and inclination to sit right down, write notes and do the follow-up while fresh in your mind. This is a common question I get from business owners - do I do it all now while it's fresh in my mind? Seems so little to add to my "to do" list.

But the phone is ringing. You have e-mail and How do you recover; how do you dispense quickly with the papers you've just brought in? What systems will make this quick and easy? Here are a few ideas that will allow you to easily and quickly find what you need later on.

Business cards:

Before dropping the card on the desk, ask yourself: Will you ever refer this person? Do you anticipate a business relationship Jupiter Robot forward? If so, add to your contacts database or book 1975 Topps baseball cards business cards and toss the card (or at least put it in the back of your desk drawer, out of the way.) If you're going to refer someone to your client, you want to be confident. If you're not sure, keep the cards in the back of your desk drawer. Be aware of how often you go looking for someone's card in the next few months. Then decide.

Receipts:

Have a drop-off point. Just one. With clients, we've used an attractive leather box. We've used a ceramic bowl near the office door. We've used a green file folder (closed on two sides so the smaller receipts don't fall out). Mark receipts with the details to track for taxes. File away until your regular time to enter receipts into your accounting system. Added benefit: if you consolidate this task, you'll know how much time it really takes ... and realize you can outsource it.

Meeting notes, new ideas, and websites to check out:

I've done this for years and it works so well, I've begun sharing it when business owners ask this question. As you write meeting notes, develop icons for yourself: "F" for follow-up; do today/tomorrow (use #1 as your icon); neat web site/book/resource to check out (write "www" or at PC); quick call or email (an e with a circle around it; or "call."). Makes quick work to figure out what you need to worry about today and what can be added to your list.

Meeting Handouts:

Within 24 hours or so, spend 15 minutes to review meeting handouts. Ask yourself: Do I already know this material --toss it. Is this interesting but not useful to my business-toss. Is this a great idea that I might use someday - add to "someday" file, "business plan" file or bookmark the web site

What do we usually do instead? We write the meeting or conference name and file everything away - never to be viewed again, because we have no visual reminder of what was useful about the presentation. Decide what's useful and make that the new file name. If the presentation was about marketing channels, but the newest information for you was about blogging... and you know you'll be writing one, start a "blogging" file.

Try these ideas on for size. The ones that work best for your business will surface once you try a few. The better organized your space and files are, the more time you'll create, and the more productive you will be.

Sue West, Space4U, ll Organizing Services
http://www.OrganizeNH.com
Contact Space4U to create more time in your life for what matters.
Specializing in time management and organization for the home based business owner.
Next monthly teleclass: February 5th: "Those Darn Paper Piles."
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