How to be a good friend when you are busy

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

“An old friend is better than two new ones,” says a well-known proverb. However, we are constantly in a hurry, constantly fussing, and in this bustle we lose old friends. How can you maintain a friendly relationship even if you are busy all the time? Read in our article.

Remember how you were friends when you were young? Do not spill water! But then, as often happens, almost all of your time begins to be occupied by work, family, children … Hundreds of big and small problems and worries separate you from the person who was so dear. Stop! It's time to stop this, because by losing contact with old friends, we significantly impoverish our lives.

To some, it may seem inappropriate and even selfish to devote time to comrades, taking it away from family and work. But a number of studies have shown that friends are very important to our emotional and physical well-being. How can you maintain friendly relations despite being busy?

1. Organize big meetings

Oddly enough, sometimes getting together in a large company is even easier than meeting face to face. Such meetings are planned in advance and are being prepared for a long time. The preparation process itself will already be an excellent reason to keep in touch with friends. You can come to such events with family members who are also involved in communication. Even if you move the meeting place a hundred times, and only half of the initial number of those wishing to meet will remain, it will still be great.

2. Meet regularly

Planning and organizing a one-time event can be difficult. It is much easier to have regular meetings that have become part of the daily routine. For example, you can go together to some hobby club: book, tea, sewing and sewing. An excellent reason for regular meetings is playing sports, they strengthen both friendship and health. Fishing is also popular in our country, although the attitude towards it is ambiguous. Well, the most famous example of regular meetings is shown on TV on the eve of each New Year. However, Lifehacker's editors do not recommend following it exactly.

3. Call

Everyone, or almost everyone, has cell phones. A call even to another city costs a little. But you need to understand that your friend has his own busy life, often taking place in a different time zone. If he suddenly did not answer the call, this does not mean at all that he does not care. If such calls are regular, then this will significantly increase the chance of chatting longer. Get in the habit of calling your friends once a week at a certain time, and they will look forward to this call, and if it suddenly does not take place, they will call themselves.

4. Write …

… letters, we would have said earlier. But now friendly communication by mail, even e-mail, does not look very convenient. Write an SMS or a message in the messenger - some short text, just to remind about yourself and your friendship. Mobile messengers and the ubiquity of the Internet have made text communication faster and easier than ever. WhatsApp, Viber, Skype, Telegram and many other options - whatever people have invented to communicate with each other. So hang out with your friends.

5. Use social media

From messengers, we are smoothly moving on to the topic of social networks. On the one hand, it is a very convenient way to keep in touch with old friends and acquaintances. On the other hand, social networks erode the very concept of friendship, there is a risk of replacing live communication with comments on social networks, exchanging likes and reposts. Remember, social media is an addition to face-to-face meetings, not a replacement.

6. Appreciate your friends

It is not for nothing that at the beginning of the article we remembered the proverb about old and new friends. In the fast paced pace of modern life, when you communicate with many different people every day, old friends become even more valuable. New acquaintances are wonderful, new experience, new impressions, new perspectives. But for the sake of them, you should not push into the background your old friends, time-tested and troublesome. As a rule, it is better to maintain an already established strong relationship than to build new ones.

Remember that not every friendship can and should continue "until death do us part." But if you have such friends, you are very lucky! Protect this relationship, maintain it. After all, friendship can mean more to your career or family than you yourself think. In a critical situation, an old friend or girlfriend will be the first (or maybe the only) who will come to your aid.

Surely you also have one or two good old friends with whom you have been friends for a long time. How do you manage to make time for them?