How I Productively Make Friends

Hey friends,

PS. I messed up and didn’t include the link to my Book Journey Newsletter in my last issue, so if you’re still up for following me on my struggle and getting some raw productivity tips, click here x

I say that word multiple times a day, but being in lockdown, I haven’t really had a lot of friends around 🙁 They say people are one of the most important things in life, so I’ve started making an active effort to stay in touch with those who matter to me. And of course, true to my brand, the first place I’d look for solutions to my ‘problems’ are apps and automation.

I’ve been sending out links for booking calls to my friends and it’s changed my life. We’ve used Calendly with my team to schedule meetings for ages – it’s an app where you set your availability in a calendar, the length of a meeting, and send out a booking link to others. They can pick which of your available times work for them, and the meeting will automatically appear in both your calendars. It’s absolutely sick.

You also get to write a message – super useful for explaining why you’re such a weirdo to your friends – feel free to use mine:

“Okay, I get that this might be weird, but I want to stay friends with you forever, and I’m trying to make it a point to be more intentional about relationships in my life.

So please, if this isn’t too weird, would love for you to ‘book’ a time that suits you and I’ll ring you 😘“

I’ve actually really enjoyed the catch-ups. I’ll sit back on zoom, have a good laugh, keep up with the much more exciting lives of my friends and have something to look forward to every day. Otherwise, who knows when I’d have seen them next. I really don’t know why I hadn’t started this sooner.

Hoping you enjoyed this latest instalment of treating-your-life-like-a-business and wishing you a great week,

Ali

My Favourite things

1 – Book – This week I’m reading How Will You Measure Your Life by Clayton Christensen. It’s about meaning and success in many aspects of life, and another step in my quest to understanding more about this sort of stuff. It’s a really interesting prompt to sit down and think about things that really matter.

2 – Shirts – I’ve recently been switching up my look. I’ve gotten as far as blue jeans and shirts. They’re not as comfortable as my usual T-shirts, but let’s see if the trade-off is worth it.

Quote of the Week

“In my experience, high-achievers focus a great deal on becoming the person they want to be at work—and far too little on the person they want to be at home.”

From “How Will You Measure Your Life?”, Clayton Christensen. Resurfaced using Readwise.

This week’s videos