A friend got in touch recently to organise a get together. A couple of months had slipped past since we’d seen each other and with our busy diaries it’s going to be close to another month before we actually get together. As our lives get increasingly busy in our twenties, thirties and beyond, it’s all too easy to let work and family commitments take precedence over friendship, but spending time with good friends is, in my opinion, one of the best things in life. Which got me thinking, how can we make sure we get enough friend time in our lives? Here’s some ideas…

Have a weekly ‘thing’

One of my sisters (I have two) lives around the corner from me. Well in London terms anyway (four tube stops away or a 20 minute bike ride to be precise). Despite that, until recently, we were quite hit and miss about seeing each other. What changed? Her new local started doing a pub quiz on a Wednesday night. She pulled a team together for the inaugural night. We came fourth. The following week we spread the word, fielded a team of six and won. Since then our number has grown and we often have two teams. The point is that doing something that happens every week means you get together most weeks. It doesn’t hurt that we usually come first or second (competitive much?!).

For big groups set a monthly date and stick to it

I get together with a group of former colleagues, now firm friends, on the first Tuesday of every month for dinner. We don’t all get together every time, apart from the first Tuesday in December when we have a Christmas do and attendance is pretty much mandatory (unless you’re about to give birth, or gave birth less than a couple of weeks ago – I joke, kind of). It works because there isn’t that endless diary consultation that you have with big groups which means you never actually set a date (there’s up to 14 of us, there were two more but they moved abroad, to Sydney and Dubai respectively). If you’re free you come along, if you’re not, there’s always next month.

See each other for breakfast

Breakfast is the new lunch for high powered business types apparently so why not make breakfast the new dinner and drinks with friends if you don’t have a shared evening window in your diaries until November? I got talking to someone recently who has a weekly pre-work date with a university friend. They meet in central London at around 6am (this one would only work for early birds who don’t have to do the school run) and wander around famous London landmarks. As she says it’s the perfect time to visit as the city’s quiet and the air is crisp and refreshing. Then around 7.30am they go for breakfast before heading off to work. If you’re not such an early bird you could skip the sightseeing and just meet for brekkie.

Do something together that you’d be doing anyway

A fellow yoga-loving friend of mine of mine recently suggested we go to a yoga class together and now we meet most weeks for a Sunday morning yoga class followed by brunch. My sister and I do parkrun together from time to time. Well when I say together she runs round, I jog round, she cheers me to the finish line and then sometimes we’ll go for a post-parkrun coffee. The same person who does the pre-work sightseeing and breakfast with her mate meets up with another friend of hers every Saturday morning in an area of London they don’t know for a run, then they have breakfast and explore the area.

What are your strategies for making sure you see your friends on a regular basis? I’d love to know!