Keeping in touch isn’t easy sometimes. These days with hundreds of Facebook, MySpace, and Linkedin friends it can be overwhelming and even paralyzing to try and be a good friend to everyone. I’m sure we all have our close groups of friends: the ones we go out with, call occasionally, see on the weekends. But what about everyone else? I have my own method of keeping in touch…

Let me preface this by saying a methodological approach doesn’t mean it’s any less meaningful. We can all agree, our lives are quick and busy. So, I force myself to reach out to at least three friends every day. And, like most important things (schedule, to-do, contacts) I like to create a list or use a system to keep myself organized. So, I’ve created a spreadsheet that tracks the three people I’ve talked to and how we contacted each other (SMS, Phone, Facebook, etc.).

Click here to borrow my spreadsheet, Excellent Friends.xls

Sure, I could sit down every day and send a Facebook message to my friends but I’d start to see a pattern: I don’t call anyone, I don’t see anyone face-to-face. My hope is that hindsight will force me to be a better friend in the future. There are so many people I want to keep up with, I’ve found this is a simple way to do that. And if you’re really lucky, your friends will want to reach out to you, too. I can’t wait for that day.