An Attempt at Habituating Thoughtfulness

Have you ever found yourself in conversation with a friend for the first time in a few months unable to remember the specifics of the last life update they shared with you? “What was the name of the person they’re seeing?” “What was the dim sum place they told me I needed to try?” “Didn’t they say they were going to get a dog? Where is the dog? When can I hang out with the dog?” This has happened to me more often than I’d care to admit, so I’m trying out a new system: I’m creating a note in my note-taking app for each individual I want to track, and after I see them I’ll add a new section with the date and a few bullet points covering life updates and specific things I want to follow up about next time I see them. If there are time-sensitive things I want to follow up about, I’ll add a reminder in my to-do app too. It’s amazing the response you’ll get when you text someone asking how their interview went after they told you they’d be spending the next week anxiously prepping for it. Nothing groundbreaking here, but kind of wild how impactful following up on something someone shared in passing can be.