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Speaker 1: Good morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

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Speaker 1: Today's tip is about how to make more time for friends.

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Speaker 1: Most of us see our colleagues when we go to work,

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Speaker 1: we see our families when we go home, but getting

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Speaker 1: together with friends can be challenging. We're so busy with

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Speaker 1: everything else that they tend to fall to the bottom

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Speaker 1: of the list. And that's too bad, because friends are

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Speaker 1: a good use of time. Indeed, good friends can make

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Speaker 1: us feel like we have more time. A few years ago,

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Speaker 1: for my book Off the Clock, I asked nine hundred

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Speaker 1: busy people to track their time for a day. Then

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Speaker 1: I asked them questions about how they felt about their time.

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Speaker 1: I found that the people who felt time was most

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Speaker 1: abundant spent a far higher proportion of their time interacting

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Speaker 1: with friends than people who felt time was scarce. And no,

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Speaker 1: it's not because the people who saw friends had less

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Speaker 1: going on. People who felt starved for time had just

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Speaker 1: as much leisure time as everyone else. They simply spent

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Speaker 1: more of it watching TV or on social media. The

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Speaker 1: correlation was so strong that I formed this theory. Being

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Speaker 1: social makes time. Social media kills time, So let's spend

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Speaker 1: more time with friends and less time on social media. Right.

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Speaker 1: I'm sure we could agree that this would be great,

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Speaker 1: But of course there are reasons we drift towards the screens.

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Speaker 1: When you're building our career and raising a family, a

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Speaker 1: lot of your leisure time appears late at night when

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Speaker 1: it's hard to cease, or it requires planning ahead, or

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Speaker 1: hiring a sitter, or trading off childcare duties with your spouse.

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Speaker 1: Your friends are just as busy, they faced the same challenges,

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Speaker 1: but Twitter is ready anytime you are. That said, I

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Speaker 1: do think that even busy people can make time for friends.

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Speaker 1: One option is that you can build what I call

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Speaker 1: relationship planning into your life. In an earlier episode of

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Speaker 1: Before Breakfast, we talked about planning your upcoming weeks on

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Speaker 1: Friday Afternoons. I suggested listing priorities in three categories, career, relationships, self.

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Speaker 1: The reason to make a three category list is that

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Speaker 1: it reminds you to put something in all three categories.

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Speaker 1: It's hard to make a three category list and then

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Speaker 1: leave one of the categories blank. This is a good

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Speaker 1: way to nudge yourself to have a more balanced life. Anyway,

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Speaker 1: the relationship category might naturally focus on your spouse or

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Speaker 1: your kids. But I challenge you to make a friend

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Speaker 1: activity a priority at least every other week. Think about

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Speaker 1: whose company you enjoy and which friendships you really value.

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Speaker 1: Then use this planning time on Friday to reach out

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Speaker 1: and get something on the calendar. It doesn't have to

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Speaker 1: be elaborate. A phone or video chat can work with

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Speaker 1: someone who doesn't live nearby, or you can plan to

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Speaker 1: meet for coffee or lunch. That's how you build relationship

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Speaker 1: planning into your life. But over years of studying people's time,

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Speaker 1: I've realized that the people who spend the most time

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Speaker 1: with their friends tend to structure their lives so they

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Speaker 1: don't need to plan reallyationship time. It happens automatically. Here's

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Speaker 1: what I mean. Some things happened once. Other things fall

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Speaker 1: into the category of recurring events. You don't have to

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Speaker 1: plan them. They just happen over and over. This is

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Speaker 1: neither good nor bad on its own. It can be

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Speaker 1: a bad thing. With recurring meetings at work, people keep

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Speaker 1: tramping to that Tuesday morning staff meeting week after week

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Speaker 1: just to report that, yep, they're still doing their jobs.

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Speaker 1: This meeting has long ceased to earn its place on

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Speaker 1: the calendar, but you keep going because it's there. But

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Speaker 1: the recurring event phenomenon can be a good thing. When

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Speaker 1: we're talking about getting together with friends, it's often the

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Speaker 1: planning that's the huge hurdle. I remember one get together

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Speaker 1: I was trying to plan a few years ago. I

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Speaker 1: sent out a doodle pole. We had to move forward

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Speaker 1: two months before we could find a time that most

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Speaker 1: people were available, and I kept going back and forth

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Speaker 1: with the venue as we looked at different dates. It

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Speaker 1: was a lot of work for one night, and while

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Speaker 1: it was really fun, it was not something that inspired

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Speaker 1: me to try again soon. Recurring events, though, don't have

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Speaker 1: this problem. If you know that your gang gets together

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Speaker 1: for drinks every Monday night at the same bar, you

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Speaker 1: don't have to plan each Monday. You can go or

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Speaker 1: you cannot go, but people tend to become regulars. You

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Speaker 1: start to build your life around these anchors in your calendar.

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Speaker 1: You promised to pick up the kids on Tuesday, if

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Speaker 1: your spouse will take Monday. When your colleagues asked a

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Speaker 1: schedule meeting, you don't suggest Monday at four thirty p m.

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Speaker 1: So if you have a group of friends you'd like

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Speaker 1: to see regularly. Think about what kind of recurring get

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Speaker 1: together would work. Maybe it's a Friday morning breakfast or

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Speaker 1: an early Saturday morning run. Maybe it's the first Thursday

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Speaker 1: of the month book club, or you could volunteer at

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Speaker 1: a food bank. Together every other Sunday. Think about the

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Speaker 1: logistics required to make this happen. Take some time today

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Speaker 1: to work on your calendar, talk with your spouse, maybe

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Speaker 1: get help from an extended family member or a babysitter.

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Speaker 1: But what I where it is if you make a

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Speaker 1: habit of it, it's more likely to happen. If you've

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Speaker 1: made a habit of getting to the other with friends,

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Speaker 1: I'd love to hear about it. You can email me

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Speaker 1: at Before Breakfast podcast at i heeart media dot com.

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Speaker 1: In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening and

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Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,

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Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me

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Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with

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Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod

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Speaker 1: that's B the number four then Breakfast p o D.

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Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast

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Speaker 1: podcast at i heeart media dot com that Before breakfast

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Speaker 1: is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much,

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Speaker 1: I look forward to staying in touch