Completely Using Google Contacts

I feel like I'm giving away one of my biggest organizing/networking secrets, but it's so exciting I have to share. 

Google Contacts is an amazing feature that is so often underutilized by Google users. You can store more than just the basic name and phone number which helps not only with keeping the information at your fingertips, but making your brain more efficient since you don't have to remember certain things when shopping for gifts or planning for topics in networking meetings. 

I have created a fake contact to the left, but the information looks very similar to what I have for every contact in my phone. 

1. Always include a picture, this helps you to put the name with the face, especially if a majority of your contact is over the phone/email you want to be able to easily recognize the person when you see them in person. Also, make sure it's just a picture of them, having other people in the picture can be confusing. 
2. Include their company and job title. If you know their middle name, include that too. 
3. Always label the phone numbers properly so you don't mistakenly call their personal number when you were trying to reach their office. 
4. Make sure if you list an address, which is a great idea especially when it comes time to send Christmas cards, you have the full address including zip code. 
5. There is also a section to list relatives. There are 2 ways you can do this, you can link people in they're both in your phone, for example, my married neighbors are both in my phone under separate contacts, but are linked through the relatives option. If you don't have the information you can just list their names and relationship in the phone. I also add birth dates next to the names if I find them out in passing conversation. Even if you just have the month/year that's helpful to use as a conversation starter, or just the age and approximate year to help with relating topics to them. 
6. Always include any dates you have, birthday, anniversary, work anniversary, etc. Anything that is special to them. 
7. Finally, the most important section in my opinion, is the notes section, here I make notes about things the person likes, doesn't like, favorites, etc. If it's a close friend I'll do the same for their children in the notes section (clothing sizes, current likes, etc.). In the example above, John is  a Ford fan, but hates Dodge, loves Star Trek and the Raiders and his favorite food is candied bacon. Anytime I have a conversation with someone and likes/dislikes or hobbies come up I try to make a mental note to add it to their contact note in google so I have it for later reference and don't have to try to remember it. 

One great thing with the dates section is those will automatically transfer over to your Contacts Calendar that was discussed in my post on My 12 Google Calendars. 

Just remember, with planning and organization, you CAN do it all.