Organization Is the Key

Jay Fee is vice president of Woolf Associates. He is a sports lawyer and an agent for hockey players, with 75 clients, 32 of whom are NHL players. Not only does he have to keep track of his players, he has to keep track of their spouses, girlfriends, and family members—not to mention all the teams and team owners and managers. Then there's his schedule, which he creates up to four months in advance. How can he possibly keep up with all of that?

"I'm not big on memory tricks," says Fee. "I do use technology. I have a PalmPilot program on my laptop. Anything I put in there, I can transfer directly to my PalmPilot and vice versa. I enter tasks every day, and it's a constant reminder of the things I have to do on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.

"But the truth is, I really rely on my old-fashioned yellow legal pad. I go through countless numbers of these pads; I keep them for a year in my office and then I archive them. At the beginning of each month, I take a clean pad and write down everything that needs to get done. I keep that pad on my desk and make notes on conversations I've had, names, and phone numbers.

"Then at the end of the month, I go through the pad. So if I finish July, for instance, I take a new pad for August. If there's anything I haven't done in July, it gets transferred to my August pad. I also go through the July pad and enter any important names and phone numbers into the computer. And if I have notes on the July pad that pertain to particular clients, I'll make a copy of those notes and place them in the individual's file. And I repeat this process each and every month.

"There are a lot of details to keep in mind. But the details are what give my relationships depth. I watch the general managers of all the teams and make notes on how they act and react in certain situations. I put those notes in team files. Then, if I have to deal with those managers, I can go back to my notes and they help me understand how this manager might handle a particular problem.

"I do all these things because they make my job easier, and I love my job. It's a dream job—a combination of my law degree and my love for sports. I have a passion to start work every day. Of course I keep a lot of details in my head because I work with these people every day. But I also know that I have my notes to back me up, to help me remember the most important things I have to deal with every day."