Paperless April: Address Book

Don't you hate it when someone moves and you have to cross off their old info in your address book? Or what about when you run out of space in the section allotted for last names starting with M or S? Issues like these are a thing of the past if you decide to go paperless with your address book. Some of you are probably already well schooled in digital contact lists. If so, skip down and read the awesome post about Goodwill. If not, read on.

I use Gmail so I'm going to talk about Google contacts. I'm not super familiar with other mail server contact set ups, and I honestly think Gmail is the best option for many reasons - but I'll save that for another post. Here are my top five reasons to go digital with your contacts:

1. You can access your contact list from any computer with Internet (so awesome). Note - I do not like Outlook because there's not really a clean and simple way to access your account from multiple locations. Correct me if I'm wrong.

2. You can search contacts. Can't remember someone's last name? Not to worry, just do a search with their first name or other info you've entered and their listing will pop right up!

3. You can organize your contacts into groups - "My Contacts", "Family", "Friends", "Coworkers", "Medical" and any other categories you find necessary. It makes it so much faster to find who you're looking for.

4. You can sync your contacts straight to your smart phone. With Google, you can choose which contacts to sync simply by adding them to the selected sync group - I use "My Contacts". When you update info in Gmail, it automatically updates on your phone and vice versa. If your smart phone gets lost, replaced, stolen or busted, your contacts are still safely stored online.

5. You can take action right from a contact listing. Let's say you're looking at Emily Smith's info. With Google, you can click the link that says "map" right next to her address and Google maps will show you where it is (and you can print directions). You can also click her email and Gmail creates a new message. So efficient!

Whether you go digital via Gmail or other system, you'll be saving paper and time in the long run. If you love another digital address book, please mention it in the comments section or send me an email at hello@minimaonline.com.

Kristen Ziegler