Use Toodledo for Regular Get Togethers with Friends and Family

Hi, everyone!  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in today's video, I'll share how I use Toodledo to remind myself to schedule outings with family and friends on a regular basis.

How many times has this happened to you?  You are with people you really enjoy, but see infrequently.  You've just had a great time together and at the end of the evening, you all say "We should really do this more often!"  That used to be a recurring refrain in my social interactions.  Almost like a goodbye greeting.  Or, the analogous hello greeting would be, "It's been way too long since we got together last!"  

So, it occurred to me that perhaps in some cases this was just social niceties, but in many cases, we actually  WERE unhappy that it had been so long since we had gotten together.  And we really DID want to get together more often.  In those cases, I decided I could make that happen with a reminder system.

So, I definitely have recurring social events using Google Calendar.  I have one friend who I have long-distance coffee with and 2 friends who I walk with every 2 weeks.  But not everyone has the time or energy to get together that frequently.  Plus making a regular date commitment in advance is too difficult for most.   These interactions are better suited to a reminder system.

Those of you who have watched my other task management videos know that I use Toodledo for a variety of reasons.  It's particularly good for something like this because it allows you to schedule a task in the future and you can make it recur at customizable intervals.  So, the reminder that I put in is "Email Jack and Jill about next dinner date."  That's a reminder for me to start the ball rolling on finding a date to get together.  Once I send the email, I consider this task done.  I have other ways of making sure that I follow up on emails or texts.  You can see my videos about that if you are interested.   

I determine the interval based on how easy or difficult it is to get on someone's calendar.  If it's easy, then smaller intervals work fine.  We have some friends we see every month or every other month.  If it's harder (like the kids are super busy or they live farther away), then I tend to make the interval a little longer.  I have several sets of friends I see quarterly or even every six months.  Then there are some that live even farther -- and for those I put in reminders to myself to visit every couple of years, or in the case of my dad -- have him plan a trip to visit us.

There are some folks in my life who think this is kind of obnoxious.  They are the people who think all interactions should happen naturally and spontaneously.  Of course, they are also the ones who complain the most when I don't get in regular touch with them.  Well, unfortunately, my mind is not nicely organized, thoughtful, or regimented like this.  So, if they want to get together regularly, this is pretty much how it has to happen (I also don't really make them privy to how the sausage is made -- hope they aren't watching this video).  

But honestly, this system works great.  I catch up with people regularly, they seem to appreciate me setting things up, and I avoid those nasty feelings of regret when you live in the same metro area with good friends, but never see each other.  One confession -- if people are too difficult to plan with, I drop them from this system and put them back on the "schedule whenever I think about it plan."  That includes people who don't answer texts or emails repeatedly, who don't come up with dates that work for them (if the ones I've tossed out don't work), and who regularly cancel without (what I think are) good reasons.  Life is too short to create reasons to be frustrated!  

Let me know what you think.  Comments are always appreciated and thanks for watching!