By Lynn Walsh, RTDNA Blogger

While I am not sure anyone can ever have all of it "under control" there are some ways to make small tasks like phone calls more manageable. This is the third of a series of tips I use to help keep my life a little more orderly and less overwhelming. First was phone calls, second was FOIA requests, and the last is story ideas and background information.

Manage Story Ideas

Create a calendar. Calendars really are a reporters best friend. It allows you to constantly have new ideas popping into your head and not get overwhelmed. How many times have you been talking to someone and thought 'that would make a great story!" It happens to me at least a few times a week and more if I am covering school board meetings. The challenge is to not forget them. For me it is easiest to make notes on my work calendar reminding me to look into the possible story. I make sure the event is created to last the whole day so it does not get lost in the shuffle and then I take a few minutes or more and begin to think about what I may need to make that story a reality. If you do not finish it all in one day just re-create the event for another day in the future. If the story has potential to be timely with something else going on, then maybe move the story to that time of the year. For example: if I wanted to see how much public school football coaches make, I may do the research when I have time and then move the information I gather to the time of year when it is football season.

Keep a working document. For every tip or every story I am doing, even if it is just an idea, I create a separate document in Google docs. Anytime I talk to anyone, receive documents from a public information request, etc. I make notes in the document. This document will include notes on who I called, when I called them and what the outcome was. The document includes links to meetings or other internet searches relevant to the meeting. The document has transcripts from interviews, basically anything I have done related to this story. For me this makes it so much easier to write the story and put the pieces together and I have a paper trail, so it is not all in my memory. The other good part about a single document is that it is all in one piece instead of scattered in different notebooks!

Set reminders. As reporters, editors or producers we get lots of e-mails. A lot of the messages pertain to possible story ideas or tips. When going about the day-to-day business of reporting it can be hard to keep up with them but you also do not want to ignore them. To help with this, I use a service called Nudgemail. If you do not have time to give the proper attention to an e-mail or you want to make sure you follow-up with the individual or on the story, just send yourself a reminder through nudgemail. The service is free and all you have to do is set a date (and even a time if you want) of when you want to follow-up and it reminds you.

Make notes of what sources said and follow-up. Whether you use a calendar, e-mails, documents, etc. the key is to follow-up! If you said you would call them, call them! The best way to lose a source and a contact is to not follow-up.

Keep Your Video/Audio Quotes

When dealing with audio and video clips it can be easy for them to get lost in the mix of tapes and produced packages. If there was a good quote that someone from an interview said but you did not use it in your story, do not forget about it -- you never know when it can come in handy! Take the time to save them, either on a tape or somewhere in the newsroom. For me this is the easiest way to keep the clips straight:

Import them. If it means staying a few extra minutes or an hour do it -- it will be worth it in the long run! Take the time to just import the clip off the camera or recorder so you have it for future use and it doesn't get recorded over.

Organize them. Once you have them imported develop a system to organize them. This may be easier to do while importing or maybe just take the time to do it once a week. I upload everything to an external hard drive. I then put everything into folders and organize them by the individuals name and topic (some clips may be in two different places. I would rather have two clips that are easy to find than one clip that is hard to find.)

Transcribe them. If and when I have the time I try to take the time to transcribe the clip and add it to a story document where I think I might use it. This can be hard (mainly because it takes time) but it can also save you time in the long-run.

Make multiple copies. I have learned this the hard way and it is the most frustrating thing to lose a good quote you know you had. To try to make sure this doesn't happen, I copy the quote in two places, an external hard drive, a computer, etc. Sometimes I even upload video clips to a YouTube page and make them private, this way I have them available to download online if all else fails.

Make notes that you have them and where they are. This is key. What good are the quotes if you do not know you have them. Make notes somewhere. Even if it is just sending out an e-mail to staff or photographers or editors, let people know and yourself know it is out there!

This list is not finished but is just a few things I have learned along the way. How do you make reporting life less hectic? Let me know, Lynn.K.Walsh@gmail.com or on Twitter, @LWalsh.