Keeping in touch isn’t easy

Keeping in touch isn’t easy sometimes. These days with hundreds of Facebook, MySpace, and Linkedin friends it can be overwhelming and even paralyzing to try and be a good friend to everyone. I’m sure we all have our close groups of friends: the ones we go out with, call occasionally, see on the weekends. But what about everyone else? I have my own method of keeping in touch…

Let me preface this by saying a methodological approach doesn’t mean it’s any less meaningful. We can all agree, our lives are quick and busy. So, I force myself to reach out to at least three friends every day. And, like most important things (schedule, to-do, contacts) I like to create a list or use a system to keep myself organized. So, I’ve created a spreadsheet that tracks the three people I’ve talked to and how we contacted each other (SMS, Phone, Facebook, etc.).

Click here to borrow my spreadsheet, Excellent Friends.xls

Sure, I could sit down every day and send a Facebook message to my friends but I’d start to see a pattern: I don’t call anyone, I don’t see anyone face-to-face. My hope is that hindsight will force me to be a better friend in the future. There are so many people I want to keep up with, I’ve found this is a simple way to do that. And if you’re really lucky, your friends will want to reach out to you, too. I can’t wait for that day. ;)