I feel you. I ended up going with Salesforce's $5/mo contact manager edition and just stripping all the tabs and modules on the contact pages so it's super-simplified.

Now all my personal contacts are managed in Salesforce which is super robust and powerful. I love sorting them by "Last Activity" to see who I haven't spoken with in a while and working my way through the list that way.

(I was able to negotiate a discounted rate of $2/mo when I talked to one of their account execs too. I bet that's still an option...)

Can you add pictures as part of the description of the person? Not a profile picture of the person but photos that could be part of what you want to remember from the interaction with that person.

Interesting, no unftly not that I know of. Maybe if you went with one of the more advanced packages. The Contact Manager edition is pretty limited.

You can pull profile photos of theirs from Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook though. But obviously those images aren't yours to choose.

Try my app, "Contacts Journal" (http://itunes.com/apps/contactsjournal). It's iOS only, so no web interface, but it might be exactly what you need. Users love it (check out all the great reviews).

Asana suggests that you use their product as a "lightweight CRM", see video under "How to use it" at http://asana.com/product

I've been pretty happy with Contactually (http://www.contactually.com/tour) as a personal CRM for a while.

Basically it sucks in your contacts from Gmail, LinkedIn, Facebook etc, and schedules follow-ups for you.

Obviously, they monitor all your communications across these networks, but for me the benefit of nudging and analytics outweighs my concerns about privacy.

Streak: http://www.streak.com/

CRM inside Gmail

Take a look at www.minggler.com, a service myself and two others started last year. We aim to automate who and when to reach out to someone. Haven't quite perfected the formula. Would love your feedback.

I use 37s Highrise for this. It's pretty straightforward, you can add tasks and reminders, and you can bcc emails to it and it will add the email to the appropriate contact.

Have you tried using a spreadsheet for this? If not, why not? And if yes, then what problems did you face?

I did. The biggest problem for me was the lack of email reminders.

Thanks Jim. So would you use a spreadsheet app if it had email reminders?

Would you drive a car if it had a mini-fridge?

I like how you started a user interview on the spot, but that question doesn't seem to have any purpose.

Heh, if I told you my biggest problem with cars was the lack of a mini-fridge, and you offered me one with a mini-fridge, yes I'd like one thanks.

A car with a mini-fridge would probably do quite well for anyone who takes roadtrips or frequently goes grocery shopping.

Maybe what you actually want is a mobile home, a larger fridge at home, limit travel to the winter, a shorter trip - or not needing a car at all, take the train instead.

Probably not. It was the biggest issue but definitely not the only major limitation I experienced with it.

Thanks. What other limitations did you face? And what do you use now instead?

Maybe you can just try Google contacts