Time to get Organised

I always get such a buzz when I see my name among a list of competition winners. It is even more exciting when the prize arrives at my front door with a courier. The other day two packages arrived. The first was a Lego Pack (a perfect present for my 4 year old grandson) for a photo competition through Kidspot. The other was a recipe book (I’ll keep that one) I won after sending a recipe to Ageless magazine. I have also been notified through a Facebook message that movie tickets are on the way from the Summer Fun competition at IGA Supermarkets. “Not bad,” I said to myself as I looked back at my first few weeks but then again I did enter lots of competitions. However I must also admit that I am pretty disorganised!

Getting Organised

So I came to realise that I needed to get organised. My first stop was to my local newsagent. First I registered for a Players Card with the NSW Lotteries (a $5 investment). That way if I do win anything in Lotto or the $5 Lucky Lottery (my favourite – as there is, apparently, a 1 in 16 chance of winning something with this one) I won’t miss out. Next I needed stationery. So here is what I plucked from their shelves and gratefully bought:

1. A box of DL envelopes (to send out any entries by mail).
2. A box of 60c stamps.
3. Two small notebooks. One to keep a record of all the passwords etc when I register with websites in order to enter their competitions, e.g. Mindfood, Heart and Soul or The Huggies Club. The other one to write down some of my better WOL entries that could be recycled into another competition.
4. A small box to put all my receipts in when I have to make a purchase to enter.
5. A calender to record closing dates and other notes for future reference.

A Little Bit of Analysis

Then I decided to have a good look at the competitions I had actually won (or at least got a prize) in the past. My first competition win was in my early 20s, not long after the excitement of my father’s lottery win began to fade, was six months supply of shampoo. I won it by creating a slogan for the shampoo brand and sending it off along with a coupon from a women’s magazine I was reading while on holiday. The prize was waiting for me when I got home a few months later.

The shampoo had an apple fragrance and I can still recall the smell some forty-odd years on. Very few prizes over the years since have been from random draws. Those that did came from competitions that were local and small: a huge hamper from my bank when I opened a new account and a $200 voucher after purchasing a lottery pack through my local newsagent.

The rest required some effort. Two of my latest wins were from uploading photos of my grandchildren. Both photos had lots of smiles and fitted the criteria exactly. The other one required providing an old family favourite recipe which even though was more work than just filling out an entry form turned out to be a lot of fun putting together.

So it seems it is a good idea to keep a stash of happy family photos on hand. I also made a mental note that if I cooked something interesting and a bit different and delicious I would jot down the recipe and take a picture of it. You never know when that might come in handy. But at the end of the day it appears to win a few prizes you need to enter a lot of competitions. So I have now resolved to enter at least two competitions a day, one random draw and one requiring some work.

Although I will probably enter a lot more. I am often told – ‘you must be very lucky’ – but I have come to realise that it is not just luck that makes things happen. You also need to be organised and prepared. As the old saying goes: Luck favours the well prepared. So get organised.