On my trip to Fuerteventura I brought a book titled “Never Eat Alone” by Keith Ferrazzi and Tahl Raz . It was a great read and I can recommend it to everyone. One of the things I realized as I was reading it was that there is a lot of value in the network of people you create around yourself. I also realized that (as most people) I didn’t really spend a lot of time in keeping my data organized. I had contacts in 3 different applications, stacks of businesscards and lots of outdated address information.

When I returned from my trip I decided to get organized.
Here is my current set-up:

I use a Powerbook and Blackberry and wanted all my information to be available on those devices and online too. I settled on a Exchange account (managed hosting) which I rent for a few euros a month from Cyso.nl. They gave me an emailaddress which nobody knows but which is the basis of all my email traffic. Every email address I own (about 20) is forwarded to this unknown emailaddress.

Once I had that account set-up I could just sync it with every device I use. My Powerbook, Blackberry and office PC all connect and sync to this one account.
I did have to buy Groupcal 3 ($54.95) from Snerware which used to be terrible software but now works very well. Addresses are also synced on all platforms (just add your exchange account in the Addressbook settings) so if I add an address online, on the Blackberry or on my Powerbook within minutes it is available everywhere.

My email is available everywhere too. And not just incoming mail but also my sent items. Unlike the Palm or Nokia gadgets where you use IMAP or POP access.
I didn’t like the thought of switching to Exchange but once you have everything set-up it just works so well that I now recommend the same set-up to every internet entrepreneur I know.

My addressbook also connects to Plaxo (Download the free Mac Plaxo software!) so at least 50% of all my addresses are automatically updated whenever that person changes his address or job. I could try to talk the other 50% into using Plaxo too but I don’t want to bother people with that.

On top of that I pay for a .Mac account which lets me sync my Addressbook, iCal and even Bookmarks to .Mac. That account is just one more way to back-up my data.

One more detail: I have an old PC at the office with a CardReader attached to it and Outlook installed. I save the businesscards I get and once a week scan them at the PC. Then they get synched to all my other devices too. I add little notes to each address so I know how I know this person.

So now my contacts are very well organized. I can access them everywhere and I never lose or forget an address anymore.