In Praise of Paper - 2

Tuesday, January 04, 2011

Paper and pencil are good servants, despite the whoo-hah surrounding electronic gadgetry. Paper and Pencil allow me to use my eyes (my fastest input-output device) and my brain (my fastest processing device) to solve the most important problems.

Here’s the scene: I am making marketing calls this morning. My target is to call 20 people and set up lunch dates. Of course, in many cases I’ll get the contact’s voice-mailbox. In some of those cases I will leave a voice-mail asking them to call me back.

Two hours into this, my phone will ring and a voice will say “Hi! It’s John calling you back”.

John?

Who he?

Because I’m smart (!) I write down on my single sheet of paper, the company name, person’s name and phone number, and my “hook” or reason for calling them. When that is done I call them.

If a conversation ensues I jot down the notes immediately under their name; that’s my record of my promise to them to (a) call someone else (b) send an email (c) and so on.

If I leave a voice-mail, I merely draw a line under the contact and start a fresh contact (name, phone etc.).

Two hours into this, my phone will ring and a voice will say “Hi! It’s John calling you back”.

John!

There he is, staring at me from the paper. Together with my Hook. I can launch into the conversation without needing to cradle the phone on my shoulder while I search for his record in the database.

I can focus on John and my hook.

Because I can so very quickly focus on my sheet of paper.

P.S. The sheet also serves as a corroboration of my tally of calls for the morning. If my tally sheet shows 20 calls and my paper sheet shows 20 names, I know I’ve not missed anyone!

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