Make the most of a meet-up

We all know that professional meetings go better when there’s an agenda. When you know which topics you plan to cover, you can think about your ideas ahead of time. You feel more prepared to make the most of the time you have with these other people who are spending their precious time with you.

I believe the same thing is true for personal meet-ups as well! No, you don’t need to send calendar invites with a timed agenda and a desired outcome when you’re meeting someone for drinks. But if you are getting together with someone whose company you enjoy, why not spend a little time thinking about what you’d like to talk about? Make a few notes. What would you find interesting, and what would this person find interesting too?

Doing this exercise does a few things. First, the more time you spend thinking about your upcoming get-together, the more anticipatory pleasure you’ll experience. That stretches out the fun! Second, you’ll honor your friend by thinking about what he or she might enjoy discussing. And third, you’ll probably feel like the get-together was more enjoyable as you come up with appealing ways to tell your stories, and you get your friend’s opinions on matters you care about.

Now of course you don’t need to stick to the agenda. Free-flowing conversation is wonderful. Or, on a more somber note, if your friend just got laid off and wants to talk about it, that’s what you should talk about — even if you thought she might like to know that you bumped into her old neighbor Joe last week at the airport and guess what he’s up to?

That said, knowing that you could talk about the Joe encounter can lighten things up if the layoff talk gets a little heavy. Your friend will likely be happy that you put thought into the get-together — because time is valuable. Especially time with friends!?