Keeping Daily Contests Under Control

[IreneWpg]

I was thinking about the number of contests I have in my daily folder and decided that it is continually out of control. So, I have decided to get them down to 50 daily entries. When I do, and want to enter another one, I will have to delete one of the ones I now enter. That way I will only have 50 of the contests I most want to enter.

[bct if this is in the wrong section, please feel free to move it. I looked for the 'How many contests do you enter' thread, but cannot find it. Thanks.]

[bcteagirl]

This is fine!

[alajen]

I keep mine on a spreadsheet sorted by date, including a copy/pasted link for the entry form so I don't have to search for it every time.

[bcteagirl]

wow! That is a great idea. I just have bookmark with subfiles for daily/weekly/monthly.. I just keep them in the order I put them in there.. it is kind of intersting to see which ones hang around moving up the list while others disappear. I may need to get more organized.

As for keeping the numbers under control.. when I get frustrated I go through and do a light clean.. I don't think I have as many problems accumulating contests because I have children, no home to remodel or need appliances for.. I am also usually not intersted enough in TV to enter to win tv or game systems daily. However my list is growing, and I have yet to bring myself to do a very thorough clean.

[Prue]

I enter them all just because I want to win something...anything!!!!

[IreneWpg]

I have no problem finding them...I have quite a good system that I use. I shortcut any that I want to enter (with the exception of single entry). I have a folder called contests. In that I have sub-folders named Daily, Weely, Monthly and Instant Win. Every day I do all the contests in Instant Win and Daily. I do my Weeklies on Sunday and at the beginning of the month I do the monthlies. Easy, peasy and simple.

The problem is the amount of time it is taking me to enter all the contests. As the number gets higher, I am spending more time on them and less doing things I should be doing. I may enter new contests once or twice, but unless it is something I really want or need, out they go. I plan on being ruthless from now on. As it is I do not enter trip and very rarely book contests, but when it gets to triple digits, its time to cut back.

[bcteagirl]

Whew.. just went through and took out some more contests old as of tonight... got the pages in this section down to 14... for a while I was worried the whole contest section was out of control LOL.

[alajen]

The nice thing about a spreadsheet is that you can always add contests, then re-sort the whole list by date. I sort by expiry date, so I can easily remove the ones that are finished. I also have columns that track any special info needed to enter (e.g. UPC codes) so I just need to copy and paste instead of re-typing.

Also, a spreadsheet is searchable, so just do a search for a contest to make sure I haven't already entered.

[bcteagirl]

That sounds really great! Just need the time to change over to that format.

[IreneWpg]

Sounds good alajen! I don't have any spreadsheets but I manage to accomplish the same thing with what I do. I can rearrange all my contests by date (I always rename them [month].[day]). My page always is in date order.

I also have a page on my screen (don't know what it's called when it's there) that's called password.doc. Because I am lazy, I have this page with all my email addys, my card numbers (i.e. Airmiles, Optimum, Bank Card, etc.) passwords, any UPC codes I need, any answers I am normally required to type in (I can just copy and paste), and anything else I can think of that I might need.

This is, for me, a very simple system. It also makes my entering contests as easy as possible, again for me. Everything in one (well two, if you count my password page) place. I don't need to go into another program - I don't need another program and I can go to my mail if I need to email (like the little tikes contest).

May not be for everyone, but it is perfect for me. I always have my password.doc open and then I do my contests. I can google if I want, email, even look at the SmartCanucks site without going in and out of programs. For me....works great. But alajen seems to have a good way of doing things for her. It's all a matter of choice.

[cndlady]

I keep mine on a spreadsheet sorted by date, including a copy/pasted link for the entry form so I don't have to search for it every time.

I kinda do the same..
they aren't quite as organized but it works..