HI,
@ivanjay205
Professionally and personally I have a lot of people I need to maintain a relationship with and periodically touch base with just to maintain the relationship.
From a personal standpoint that is not so hard…. Obviously having calendar entries for birthday’s etc. plus just reaching out as I see fit.
But on the business side sometimes it is a lot harder. For example, we are part of a purchasing co-operative and I have met a lot of good people that are industry friends…. It is a good thing for me to periodically call and touch base with them if they are someone I have not spoken with, let’s say, in 6 months. So not frequently but just once in awhile….
Have you found any good solutions for this?
Thanks
The book "Sidetracked Home Executives," by Pam Young and Peggy Jones is an amusing read. It was written for overwhelmed homemakers in the early 1980s who needed a system for managing homemaking tasks. It describes an index card system.
One part of their system is for getting tasks done. Each card includes the task with its frequency and duration, whatever details are needed to do the task, and whether and when the task was skipped or completed. Contacting someone, as you want to do, could be considered a task in this system. I think this system could work well to remind you of specific calls you want to make.
Another part of their index card system is for contacts. Each card includes a name of a person to contact with important facts to have about that person. Contact info could be located in a separate A-Z file on an index card under the name, company, or whatever. That way, your A-Z contact information is always easily available when needed.
The authors have a system for distributing task cards into months and dates and weekdays in a tickler system. I found that to be a confusing system, but you might want to look into it. I recommend instead using your index card file as a 43 folders tickler system. Instead of using folders, index card dividers could be used for each month (12 months) and for each day of the current month (31 daily dates). The authors advise putting the task cards IN FRONT of the dividers that indicate the date of the month.
Make an index card for each person. Decide how often you want to contact them. Choose the card with the right color for that frequency, and write your task (e.g., contact Jack of Brightstone) and its frequency (e.g., once every calendar quarter) on that card. Also write on the card the month you want to start making contact (e.g., Jan 2026). Wait until this index card shows up in your tickler system for the current month, and decide then on the exact date of the month to make contact. You will know your schedule (and possibly theirs) better then, anyway. File the card under the month when you want to make the next contact.
When you pull out the cards for the calls to make in the current month, decide what date of the month (1-31) you want to make these calls, and file your monthly cards under the correct daily dates (1-31). Each day, get out the cards filed under today's date, and you will see the calls you want to make today. For more detail on set up, look up the 43 folders system.
This is simple way to keep track of what you want to do, when you want to do it, the information you want at hand when you do it, when you did the task, and whether you did the task or skipped it. (You need to write this on the card to have it there.) It is perfectly okay in this system to skip making a call. In this case, you mark skipped and the date on the card. After you skip twice, the third time you are to do this task, you may want to re-evaluate whether you want to keep this card in your system.
I think most people now do not want to use paper systems like this because computer systems have exciting functionality and many more features, but sometimes simple paper systems can work well.
Best wishes with this,
Emily
