Revisiting Excel
I went to the same training session as Sonya and was inspired by her recent post about Excel spreadsheets.
A few weeks ago, I moved all my sources into an Excel spreadsheet. It took a few hours to get everything in there, and yes, it takes longer to open Excel and add a new source than it does to jot it down on a post-it, but is totally worth it.
With the new system, I can easily find sources for any topic, by job title, where they work, interests etc. Much easier than scrolling through a Word document or rifling through papers on my desk.
I never thought I'd be this excited about a computer program, but it's really great. And whenever I get business cards or get phone calls from potential sources, I add them into the database. Though I may not see use for their expertise now, I can't predict the future. And with Excel I have all that information at my fingertips. I already have a pretty comprehensive list of sources for the city I cover, and it will only grow the longer I work there.
Another thing I've been using Excel to track is for stories that take a while, where I have trouble getting sources or with people I know aren't careful to call me back. With each phone call I make, I open Excel and add the numbers called, the message left, times and dates and names, so that I've got a long record of the effort I make on a particular story. And because Excel is great, I can put all the stories in one document, and quickly will be able to sort by story, by source, by date, etc.
Excel is a great tool, and I suggest every journalist start working with spreadsheets!