Welcome to my blog, Harmony Shift. This is the place where I help shift workers feel more energized, eat better, and have a better positive outlook on life. Today’s topic is on making time for friends in a busy world. As humans, we tend to prioritize friendships after everything else, family, work, etc. Despite our best intentions, friendships usually drop to the bottom of the list. But how do we make time for them in our busy lives? How do we make them feel that they are a priority and we do want them higher on our lists? Well let’s find out. I am going to give you my 7 best ways to make time for friends in your busy world.
Why make time for friends?
Ignoring our friendships comes at a cost of both on a personal level and a societal level. A recent study shows that 58% of adults struggle with loneliness https://newsroom.thecignagroup.com/loneliness-epidemic-persists-post-pandemic-look.
According to this study, 75% of Hispanic adults and 68% of Black/African American adults are classified as lonely. Also, people with lower incomes are lonelier than people with higher incomes. Loneliness impacts our lives physically and mentally. Loneliness is linked to a higher risk of hypertension, heart disease, obesity and a weaker immune system. 49% of American have reported of having fewer than three close friends, and 12% of Americans have no close friends. So, you can see how having close friends is very important. It’s both mentally and physically beneficial to our health.
Ways to Make Time For Friendships
Stephen Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, has coined the term “Big Rocks First” which basically means that we should prioritize our most important things first. For most of us, our friends have turned into little stones that we fill in our schedule when we have time but if we treat them as our big rocks, we will put them at the top of our list. Make them our “big rocks”. Just consider if you need to rebalance your schedule and priorities to include your friendships. You will be surprised at the time that you can make if things are important to you. Look at friendship as a form of self-care like exercise, diet, and sleep.
Another way to make time for friendships is to actually schedule it on your calendar. Call up your friends and actually schedule time to go out and do something or just get together. Be intentional with your efforts. Just remember, flowers can’t grow if you water them once a year!
Another cool way to make time is to invite them to something that you already are doing. For example, if you go to a cycle class, yoga, or on a runner’s club, or bowling league invite them to attend and do it together.
Invite your friend(s) to have a meal with you. You can either go out for a dinner or lunch or invite them over and make something for them. I like what Jesus modeled; breaking bread deepens friendships.
Although using your phone is kind of going in the opposite direction, you can use certain apps to remember their birthdays and other special days. By substituting social media with real life friends is twofold. One you are cutting back on screen time, and two you’re increasing your relationships.
Check your calendar and make the change. See if you are booked with things that have to get done or things that you want to get done. There is a difference, and it’s when you realize that not everything is important right now and can be set aside for friends.
I hope these ideas help in building and keeping your friendships. They are actually beneficial to your health and your mental wellbeing. So when you have a busy schedule, try to make time for friends and keep the close people close. Let me know if you have done this or are planning on trying it. I always love to hear from my readers and their accomplishments.
Until next time,
Darren
Harmony Shift 