Ways to put relationships first in your busy schedule

 

When you're short on time to connect, these steps can help you be more intentional with friends and family.

Friendships, romantic relationships, and family ties seem to always fall to the bottom of our priority list. Between work and home life, there is a wonder we have any friends outside of the house. In a world where Facebook posts and Instagram pictures have become our normal forms of communicating, there’s no time like the present to decide that we are going to be more intentional about the people in our lives.
What does being “intentional” mean in terms of others? Being intentional often refers to being purposeful in one’s actions — really thinking about and understanding the feelings, reasons, emotions, and attitudes before doing something. So of course we should not forget about our loved ones in this regard.

With the reality of time rarely really being on our side, here are three ways I am being more intentional about the relationships in my life.

1. Create goals

There is a trend going around now where people are hash-tagging their relationship goals with pictures of celebrity couples such as Gabrielle Union and Dwayne Wade or even the Royal Family. These hashtags symbolize that these couples inspire us and we want to have a relationship like theirs. Well we may not have our Gabrielle or Prince William yet, but we can still set relationship goals. Every month, I create goals that will get me to my yearly goals. Every week, I set up goals that will help me achieve my monthly goals. Within those goals, I have categories and one of my categories is relationships.
My goals in this category range from calling my dad during my lunch to sending cards to my college friends. This way, having blocked out time for these plans enables me to be more intentional about what I want to accomplish that week, even in my relationships. Don’t sit back and look at ideal relationships, work on your own! Whether it’s taking a friend out to dinner or sending out a text once a week, do something to be a blessing to a friend. Now, that’s #relationshipgoals worthy.

Read more: How Do I Cope with Too Many Friendships and Not Enough Time?

2. Schedule it

I don’t know about anyone else, but I have too many commitments. Between being a faithful member of my church, applying to law school, and work, my weeks have become a blur. If I don’t schedule it, either it won’t get done or I will do it at risk of not doing something else or losing sleep. I use a passion planner and the one thing I absolutely adore about this planner, is that it gives me the opportunity to combine my work and personal life. As I go through my weekly goals and place them in my schedule, I can schedule that phone call with a friend or that hike my colleague and I have been chatting about.