Yesterday someone needed to get in touch with my daughter and asked for her phone number. I didn’t have my phone on me at the time and frankly…I didn’t have it memorized. Thus ensued a conversation about whether or not we knew our most frequently dialed family and friends numbers. The answer was overwhelmingly no. In fact, one individual in this group conversation, didn’t even know what her own number was with out looking it up on her cell phone.
The truth of the matter is we’ve all taken advantage of our phone’s abilities to magnify our memories. There are apps that remember account names, numbers and passwords. There are contact lists that remember phone numbers, emails and addresses. We have calendars that chime to remind us of birthday’s, appointments and even when to pick up our kids from practices. These are modern day conveniences that make our lives run more efficiently and a keep us in good graces with family and friends as we send them well wishes on special occasions.
Flash back several weeks ago as I was talking to my Father-in-law who happens to be a rocket scientist. Yes, he is. He has some fancy title, but ultimately that’s a good description. My son’s asked him what he does and he broke it down into simple boy terms…he said, “I make bombs go boom”. They lit up like Christmas trees. Needless to say, his cool factor went up big time that day.
We had a broad conversation about a project he is working on. I say broad because he can’t say too much. Essentially though, he was in charge of a team testing some kind of equipment to withstand a nuclear atmospheric detonation. The goal was to test to make sure the equipment (whatever it was) would continue to work post detonation. Not a clue how you would test that, but apparently there is a way. The short story is, I asked him what would happen if that were to happen. He explained that the goal of that kind of detonation would essentially stop everything that ran on a computer. Cars, internet, banking, phones…you name it. Once I realized how much of our lives run on computers or are stored in a cell phone, I recognized the need to have at least cell phone and contact information available to me for the simple situation of my cell phone not on hand or a more complex emergency that would require me to have access to it.
I’ve said it before…I’ll say it again. I don’t believe we’re on the brink of Armageddon. I believe in optimism, always. However, what if I don’t have my cell phone or it’s lost it’s charge and I need to get in touch with someone I don’t have their contact information memorized? It’s a problem that’s easily solved by a little time, a little effort and zero cost. Those are the best kind of problems.
The first thing I’d do is create a master contact list. Excel is a beautiful thing for this. You can input it all in and print it off. Save it so you can change it as you go. It’s a brilliant thing to do for emergency or not. Think Christmas cards or Wedding invitations, with this information on hand it makes it so easy. For some, starting this on your own seems overwhelming, so I’ve included some templates to make getting started easier. The PDF version you can print off as many sheets as you need and hand write them all in. You could also print off these sheets so individuals can fill them out for you with there own information quickly if your in a group setting. For example, pass them around a family reunion, then you can make copies or input the information into the next version I’ve included. The Excel link is a simple spreadsheet that you can manipulate however you’d like to fit your needs. You can copy the information from the printable PDF version to the excel spreadsheet or send out an email or a text and then simply copy and past the information into the file to populate the fields as your contacts reply. When it’s all in, print it off and put one copy in the emergency binder you store with your other emergency lists and tape one more copy on the inside of your cabinet the way our Moms used to in the good old days when you actually had to dial everyones phone numbers. I would suggest you saving it (obviously) so when contact information changes you can easily update it every so often.
Click HERE for Contact PDF Printable
Click HERE for EXCEL Workable Spreadsheet
The second thing I would do is create a small version of your contact list, small enough to fit in your wallet. On this list I would put your top contact names and phone numbers. Heck, if you wanted to get crazy you could laminate it. I would store this in your wallet or purse so it could be used as a fast resource should your phone no longer have a charge or if someone needed it and you weren’t available to give the information. May be a simple solution for the “ICE” contact I posted about before.
Click HERE for WALLET contact List
A little time and effort and you’ve got one more item checked off the grand list.