212 more days
The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of.”
° C.S. Lewis | Irish writer | 1898 – 1963
I can’t tell you how often I wished I’d given someone/thing a little extra attention and effort earlier. Even with that awareness and decades of experience, I still create those regrets.
Here are a couple of ideas to two-twelve the remainder of your 2025 and more (what’s 212?)—
Attention checklist—
Create one for the people who are most important to you in your life. These are the people you want to be sure you’re connecting with regularly. These are the people to text, email, call, and see.
Some organizations formally make this part of the work—especially for leaders of people. Daily huddles, weekly 1:1s, and cross-functional check-ins are part of that world. If you work on a team, leader or not, and these things aren’t a requirement, don’t wait for a directive. 212ers initiate. Just be careful to make things real and minimize going numb to the connection opportunities over time. Key—be curious, interested, and kind.1
Moving to your personal most important people (family, friends)—make a list of them. Include those you might take for granted. Ironically, this might be your partner, kids, parents, and other family. If you’re in the heat of early or mid-family life and you’re an engaged person, you won’t need the list for immediate family. It’ll be pleasantly and unpleasantly forced upon you🤗. It’s when kids (or early adults) get lives of their own that you might consider the attention checklist.
With close friends, you probably don’t need to keep track of when you last connected. With others—casual, social, friends of friends—if they make your list, consider keeping track of when you last connected on the list.
Not complicated. Little tech needed, if any. (I use Apple’s Notes app.)
Do a quick scan of the list each day, week, or interval that makes sense given the relationship. Evolve the list over time. No worries. It’s easy.
If you think of someone and an old story between the two of you that makes you smile or laugh, use it as an opportunity to begin a call (e.g., “No particular reason, that NAME THE THING YOU BOTH DID THAT TIME popped into my head and I’m thinking I need to give Jack a call. How’ve you been?”) or text interaction (e.g., “There’s a liberating sentiment that’s often shared that I agree with for the most part. ‘No one is thinking about you.’ But, for no particular reason, that NAME THE THING YOU BOTH DID THAT TIME popped into my head. So, there’s that.” Genuine and the other person can’t help but feel a little better for a moment.
Married? You might consider making sure your partner on that list gets some 212 attention each day—loving attention—not just labor-of-duty attention. You don’t want to forget to be a sweetheart.
Communicate better—
Fall in love with it—the spoken, written, and visual opportunities to connect. It can create so much joy for others and you. Done badly, it can cause all kinds of pain.
Doing it well costs little once you deliberately practice it for a while. Its key element is attention—care. And even when you feel you’re oh-so-very-good at it, it almost always can be done better.
This is a beautiful beast of a topic I’m exploring in a new section called Comms Cop.
Join me for the origin story and an artificial intelligence exchange I had while making the piece better. It was fascinating beyond just the editorial punches.
Stay 212!
Please contact me with edits, thoughts, comments, or suggestions. Please don’t be shy or worry about my feelings. Quick, blunt, and maybe interesting or helpful2 is always welcome.
There’s so much fun work to be had on these points. I hope to offer some of that later.
“Maybe interesting or helpful” is meant to free you of concern.
I’d rather you risk sharing something with me than being concerned it might not land well. If your thought implies I’m stupid or an asshole, you might be right. If so, I’d like to try to fix it.