Peace of Mind Organizing

Dealing with business cards after a conference

23 April 2015

I just returned from the annual conference of the National Association of Professional Organizers and, as usual, had a small pile of business cards to process. (That’s it in the photo.)

In the past, I would let the cards accumulate. Or I’d pop them in a box I kept for that purpose. And then I wouldn’t look at them, more than likely. In 2013, I went through those accumulated cards and finally dealt with them.

Since my business cards are under control, I wanted to actually process them, to keep my system going. I went through each card in the stack and divided them into the following categories:

• Cards I can recycle
• Cards that require action (if I’d promised the person I’d do something)
• Cards that I want to enter into my contact database
• Cards of businesses whose websites I want to check out
• Cards I want to file in my file box (that’s a small category—see below)

I’m going to be the president of NAPO-St. Louis next year and I met a group of other chapter presidents at a meeting. I’m filing those cards together, in a section of my file box. I figure that until I get to know the individuals better, the cards themselves will help me remember who is who.

So my pile of business cards has been reduced to a small stack that I will file, a smaller stack of those I will enter in my contact database and discard; some whose websites I’ll look at, then discard; and, finally one card that require actions (which I’ll take as soon as I finish this blog post).

I’m glad I have a system in place, so that the business cards don’t just clutter up my desk! It’s also nice to process these cards while the memory of meeting the people behind them is still fresh.

Tagged with: business cards, conference

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