No Man Is An Island
When friends and I discussed the management of contacts it never came to our mind that people find it “rude to be managed by software” in a time when so many of your social interactions have moved from letters and phone calls to social media and texting platforms. I was so amazed by that objection that I feel that I have to go a little further than I did with my last blog post about Personal CRMs.
I’ve been setting up CRMs – not address books – since high school to manage contact details because I’m really bad at keeping track of interests, birthdays and in everything else that makes it easier to stay contact with people I care about. I used to think that that’s just me and who I am. But it’s not, and you can't deny “no man is an island”: People do worse when isolated from others and need to be part of social interaction (to a certain degree) in order to thrive and be human.
In some moments, we just need one special person.
Don’t Take CRM Literal
You should not take the abbreviation of CRM literally when it comes to Personal CRMs
CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. Of course, a Personal CRM is not about “CUSTOMER” but a CRM is a system. A system just like your to-do list is a system and your mother would not oppose if you put "getting flowers for Mom" on your to-do app on your smartphone.
There's nothing "unpersonal" or "fake" or not "intimate" about a Personal CRM. It actually is quite the opposite: Someone cares to keep in touch with you and is interested in how you are!
Quit those stupid tracking and stalking tools and add-on's you all use, instead! Starting from facebook, instagram and linkedin all these other apps and ways... Use your Personal CRM with the same care and intention that your Mom used her perpetual calendar, diary, and address book that she kept in the top drawer of her escritoire.
"Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them."
Yes, this quote is one of my favorite ones from David Allen, the guy of the Getting Things Done GTD Methodology. Software helps you to keep and organize the things just like the pen and paper and card index boxes and filing books your ancestors used did. Now, a personal CRM you can use on your phone... and free your mind at any time!
If you care about maintaining your personal relationship you might want to deactivate all of those stupid tracking and stalking tools and add-on's that show you when your friend opened your email or text message and clicked your link. You rather might to put weight on having and maintaining a sincere relationship than negate the use of software that makes it easier for you to have one in the first place.
Use a Personal CRM to make yourself better:
“Use your mind to think about things, rather than think of them. You want to be adding value as you think about projects and people, not simply reminding yourself they exist.”― David Allen, Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
Now, that you want to give your "Personal Caring for your Relationships" system another try, look for something that you want to use every day, because if you’re not using a CRM every day, you don’t have that relationship you want to have with the people that matter to you – just like with David Allen’s Getting Things Done GTD: free your mind to be present for your people.
