Contacts as a personal CRM

Contacts might be the most underrated app on iOS and MacOS. I’ve used it for years as a personal CRM. I track contact details, tag contacts for easy search and filtering, use smart filters to identify people I should reach out to, and store notes from meetings.

1. Search within the Contacts app is powerful, and even searches text within the notes field. I put #hashtags inside notes within contacts to make it easy to find groups of people.
2. You can have multiple contact lists. I don’t use this much, but it can be helpful for segmenting personal contacts from work contacts, or keeping specialised lists like for media contacts.
3. You can create smart lists, which will filter contacts based on configurable parameters. I have a list for investors, which returns anyone with investor in their job title or with the #investor hashtag within their notes field.
4. If you enter birthdays, you will get a notification on their birthday.
5. I copy notes from meetings with people into the notes field, so they are easy to review next time I meet with them.
6. I put #hashtags inside notes within contacts to make it easy to find groups of people.