Written by blogging contributor, Audrea. 

Life is busy. We all have a million things going on and a million things to do, and as responsibilities pile up, friendships can be put on the back burner. Good, solid friendships need to be maintained in order to flourish and that takes some work. These days it’s so easy to feel like you are connected through the many channels of social media and you know EXACTLY what your friends are up to. But are you REALLY connected? Over the last year, I’ve made it my priority to be a better friend and I wanted to share a few things I’ve been trying to do.

• Make it a to-do: I use Trello for my personal and work to-do lists. I have one column where I list all the friends I need to schedule dates with. Each month I go through the list and reach out to get something on deck (coffee, a workout, dinner, snacks, a show, or even just a call). I have a friend that does something similar and makes her calendar out of post-notes. She has special stickies for important people. Each month she makes sure those important stickies have a date attached to them.
• Schedule dates: It doesn’t matter if the date you are scheduling is in two months. Put it on the calendar and stick to it. I also have standing monthly lunches with friends to make sure we get some face time. Sometimes we need to cancel or reschedule, but its at least on our calendar.
• Pick up the phone: With friends in all parts of the country (and even world), phone, Facetime and Skype are really important tools. One of my best friends lives in LA and we try once a month to talk for at least a half-hour to catch up. It’s so easy to just text but picking up the phone means a lot.
• Focus on them: When you’re with your friends, focus on them. Put your phone away, focus on being in the moment and enjoy the time with them. It’s that simple.

I love the quote I’ve included as my image for this post. It’s true, the only way to really have great relationships is to be a good friend to good people. Focus your energy on cultivating strong, healthy friendships and the rest will fall into place.