Even in this technological age, it's still the basics I need, like a pen and paper.
Call me old-fashioned, but I love a physical book to write meeting notes in! When I am meeting with a client, I scribble away and they can clearly see I am taking notes which somehow seems more acceptable and less annoying than watching someone finger tap an iPad or iphone for each letter. I also think that a really nice pen is part of your own personal brand, and so good old-fashioned pen and paper really suits me.
Don’t get me wrong, I feel very conscious that I may look like a dinosaur, so I do take my iPad mini with me as well, which is just perfect in size, and then I simply pull out which I think works best for the occasion. Some people are still intimidated by technology, so if they have paper, I have paper, if they have a tablet, I whip my iPad mini out. Dale Carnegie would be proud.
But my books have many other things in them as well as meeting notes. There are phone numbers and people's names scattered through them as the phone has rung and I have jotted things down. There are my to-do lists, updated every week, my home to-do list as I think of things that I need to do, and just brain waves in general, so they are pretty much invaluable pieces of my daily toolkit.
I pick them up from all kinds of places, and different ones have different uses:
Pink floral - Notes for my next book
Flags - My current to-do list and other daily notes
Blue diagonals - My last everyday one, now full and kept for reference.
Eiffel Tower - My business article note book
Paper still has it's place in the world, take a look at this Paper vs iPad advertisement.
Another piece of my toolkit I cannot go anywhere without is my spectacles. Groan! Since I hit about 42, my eyesight has declined rapidly for computer work and reading, and it’s the one thing that makes me feel older than the 35 years I feel I really am. Remembering to take them to the restaurant so I can read the menu makes me want to laugh out loud, but oh, groan!
Lastly in my must have toolkit is a nice purse. Again, I feel it's part of my personal brand to have a nice piece, but nothing flashy. My purse has fond memories behind it. I traveled to the other side of the world for a conference in New York and treated myself on Rodeo Drive in LA on the way back through. It will last me for many years and never date, so I'm happy to pay for all coffees to show it off.
Do you have a similar toolkit to me, spectacles, paper and purse?
Linda Coles is the author of “Learn marketing with social media in 7 days”(Wiley) and is an author, speaker and trainer on building relationships. She lives in New Zealand on a fig orchard. You can get a free sample of a chapter of her book by registering for her newsletter.
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