Hi. I am Savas Kazantzides, the founder of Beyond Limits, a Travel and Event Collective of passionate, global organizers who go Beyond Limits to redefine the travel MICE industry from a logistical arrangement to an absolute life changing experience.
One of the first things we shared amongst fellow members of our Collective was how much we struggle to keep up with the tons of business cards we have in our possession and how to locate one when we really need it.
I personally have messed up so many times in this regard. I met this great guy from Nepal two years ago, in IBTM Barcelona, but now that I need his contact details I’m left scrounging for it like a needle in a haystack, you know, if the haystack were a file cabinet.
I’m sure all this sounds familiar to you, but if you think you’re all alone in this struggle, just know that I get your pain and I’ve taken the liberty to figure out a solution for this.
We all know how highly all DMCs rely on connections, right? Connections, they’re the one driving force of the professional world.
We meet hundreds of people on a weekly basis, we make connections, meet hoteliers, other DMCs, travel event organizers, etc. As such we’re always left dealing with a flood of information swirling around in our minds, business cards exchange hands more times than we care to recall, numbers are exchanged, the phone contact registry is ever-expanding, we make appointments, plans, etc, and our daily schedule is constantly in a state of flux.
I’m sure all this sounds familiar to you, but if you think you’re all alone in this struggle, just know that I get your pain. I’ve had all of those same pains.
Our human brains aren’t capable of dealing with, and processing, all that flood of information. Human folly does eventually set in and we may occasionally forget about important appointments, lose important business cards, which may prove to be anything from a mere inconvenience to a disaster.
Losing business cards is one of the things I’ve struggled with constantly, in this age of technology who really has the time to care for every bit of card that comes their way?
However, I know that you might feel like you can’t possibly cope with it all, and you might even contemplate hiring external help. I’ve tried all the alternative routes to get organized. I tried keeping track of everything, all my appointments, dates, contacts, etc, manually. But I couldn’t find the time or inclination for that.
Another alternative I availed of was hiring a personal assistant to organize things for me and keep track of all my information. But that proved to be such an expensive mess and it came with limitations (for example I couldn’t maintain a personal assistant on a 24/7 basis), and it still left me open to human folly.
If you’ve gone through all those alternatives you probably get what I’m saying. But all hope isn’t lost, we can always go beyond our limitations and empower ourselves to get organized. For me, the ideal method was to get myself a virtual personal 24/7 assistant in the form of an app. Yup, apps have made lives for everyone so much more convenient, in every aspect. They’re the perfect means of staying on top of our constantly changing needs and schedules, at minimal cost, and maximum convenience.
However, shifting through all the mountains of apps out there for the right one can be confusing and time-consuming. Which is why I took the liberty to sort through a couple of essential apps that you could use, both for iOS and Android, that can help you with various different issues.
FullContact Card Reader (iOS and Android)
Business cards are fast becoming an anachronistic remnant of yesteryears in the modern world. I mean, really, who even uses a rolodex anymore?
But habits die hard, and there are still people that you might come across who’d prefer to hand you their business cards. If you’re anything like me, those cards most likely make their way into the bottom of your drawer somewhere, forgotten in time.
However, you never know when you might be in need of one or the other contact of yours, and you should keep the contacts preserved in your phones at all times.
This is what FullContact Card Reader does. With this app you can scan your business cards, and consecutively convert all the information into an iPhone or Android contact!
Things (only iOS)
With a little bit of getting-used-to this can be the best Personal Management tool out there. It can be used across all iOS devices, and helps you keep track of all your programs and functions for the day, week, and even months.
- You can type everything you need to do into the program in a check-list form.
- You could even group certain items into a larger project, give them the allocated time, schedule, etc.
- You can even place a time limit on tasks.
- I’ve found that simply being reminded of your tasks for the day early in the morning can prove really helpful, and Things understands that, which is why you’ll receive a notification of when you need to perform certain tasks.
- However, the most beautiful thing about this is that once it has been configured, you can simply tell Siri whenever something new comes to your mind. You can tell Siri what you need to do, when, and for how long, and all the information will be logged into the app, and then it will automatically sync to your other iOS devices as well.
It truly is like having your own personal assistant. If you want to go through other similarly helpful apps, Forbes is a great source you could browse through, just follow this link: 5 Best Apps for Getting and Staying Organized – Forbes
CalenGoo (only Android)
I’m more of an iOS user myself so I haven’t much used this app myself, but it comes highly recommended from Android friends of mine.
If you’re an Android user and thus annoyed that you can’t use Things, well the good news is, with CalenGoo you can do most of the things that Things can do.
- You can create a list of all your events and dates, and with the help of a widget you can be notified of all your upcoming appointments and events on a daily basis.
- However, where CalenGoo stands out is the fact that it can be synchronized with Google Calendar, which is another free tool that can be used to make schedules.
In addition to that, this is the perfect tool for families and professional organizations alike. Besides setting up a private calendar and schedule, you can even set up a group one, which can be edited and modified by anyone else in the group. This helps everyone in an organization stay on top of the same schedule without having to be individually notified.
This is another one-of-a-kind app which helps deal with another seamless fusion of the offline and online worlds.
These days keeping track of your credit card and debit card expenses and expenditures has become extremely convenient. Most, if not all, online wallets allow you to pull up any information from any bit of expenditure incurred on your credit or debit card.
However, one thing I always found difficult keeping track of was what I spend my liquid cash on. This is where this app comes in. You can scan a receipt with your iOS or Android device, and all the information of the receipt would be logged into your cell phone, allowing you to keep better track of your plastic and liquid expenses.
Most people juggle several email accounts over several different devices on a daily basis. Not only can this kind of juggling consume a lot of time, it is often impossible to find threads of past communications.
If you look at messaging apps like WhatsApp, the reason they are so popular and convenient is because of their simple design whereby all communication from a particular person comes up in a single window.
CloudMagic imbibes that degree of convenience into email browsing. It can sync all your email accounts across all devices into a single app.
Furthermore, it is conversation-based, so you can easily locate past emails.
Follow this link for a couple other cool solutions: 10 organization apps that will keep you efficient in the New Year
Well, these are some of the apps and tools that definitely made my days a whole lot more productive and I’m sure they’ll help other DMCs and professionals as well, making their day-to-day lives so much easier and better organized by incurring hardly any costs at all.
If you want to dig deeper and find out about other apps as well, you can also follow this link: The 5 Best Personal Assistant Apps To Help Organize Your Life