Stuff to do with friends

CommunicationConversation SkillsFriendship Advice

Jan 11

Friend dates are one of the most fun ways to keep your friendships strong. But if your mind goes blank when it’s time to think of things to do with your friends, you’re in luck! Today, we’re digging into Friend Date Ideas — mostly free stuff to do with your friends to bring more fun, excitement, comfort, and closeness to your relationship.

If you want a downloadable calendar of friend date ideas, and great questions to ask new and old friends, check out the Connection Jet Pack in my shop.

Friend Date Ideas

Who to use these ideas with:

💛 New acquaintances you’re just getting to know (and you can’t stand bring yourself to make another Starbucks date)

💛 Coworkers that you want to develop a closer friendship with (especially if you work remotely!)

💛 Ride-or-die homies and best friends that you want to make more memories with

You can do the friend dates below with your homies that you see face-to-face, and almost all of these ideas could work virtually with your faraway friends too.

A ton of these ideas came from conversations with participants at my speaking events and ideas that were sent in from my newsletter subscribers. If you see a friend date idea you like, screenshot it or write it down in your calendar so you don’t forget to follow through and do it! And if you’d like to meet more people who are into doing stuff like this, subscribe to my newsletter and come to our gatherings.

Things To Do With Your Friends

⭐️ Tina Talks

“I do ‘Tina Talks’ (TED talks except featuring only ladies) with my good girlfriends both outdoors and on zoom. Each week, we create a 30-min talk about something we want to share with the group. People share about their lives, something they love, or something they’re an expert on. Because we all put the effort in, the group makes the effort to show up, which helps us stay connected.”

⭐️ Escapist Entourage

“My friends and I watch escapist reality TV shows and then talk on the phone about it. It’s so nice to have a shared thing to talk about that isn’t COVID.”

⭐️ Conversational Courage

“It felt a little dorky at first, but my friends and I went through conversation cards together, and it was really nice.” (Side note: If you want to try this idea, grab some of the Better than Small Talk printable card decks in my shop.)

⭐️ Podcast Processing

“Podcast Brunch Club! It’s like a book club for podcasts. Being a part of Podcast Brunch Club gives me something to look forward to talking about other than asking or answering ‘what’s up?’ for the 100th time.”

⭐️ Book Buddies

“I have a book exchange with my coworker. We share self-help books with each other, and discuss afterward, and it’s really nice.”

⭐️ Pre-rant Permission

“I have a friend who says ‘Can you hold space for a rant today?’ before she dumps her feelings, and it’s such an amazing sign of love and respect.”

⭐️ Prioritization Pals

“Some of my friends and I set agendas for our talks to make sure we each get to say what we want to and to plan for a time we can get to those things.”

⭐️ Chore Chums

“One of my favorite tips from Kat’s book We Should Get Together was doing chores with friends. Doing laundry in my friend’s yard became one my favorite additions in the covid era — we get to hang a bit while the load goes, or have solo time too!”

⭐️ Picture Presents

“Take the time to print photos stored on your phone and mail them to friends. No one prints pictures anymore, so it’s always a nice surprise.”

⭐️ Audio Angels

“Send each other random audio stories of memories, or record and send audio postcards.”

⭐️ Journal Jammin’

“We have a journal we write in and mail back and forth!”

⭐️ Random Rewards

“We mail each other random art supplies and crafty things like collages, googly eyes, or sun print paper.”

⭐️ Learning Together

“We want to raise anti-racist kids, so we attended a race-conscious webinar together to learn best practices for talking to kids about race.” (Side note: If you’re into this, check out raceconscious.org and the great work of Britt Hawthorne.

⭐️ Impassioned Invitations

“For the people I wanted deeper friendships with, I asked for standing calls. It took the guessing out of spending time with each other and allowed us to look forward to time with each other. Also, I realized that I wanted more friends, so I created a friendship circle and posted it on Eventbrite.”

Get more good stuff!

🪴 If you like these ideas and love being around people who would do these things, you should check out my gatherings for making new friends. I share early bird discounts with all my newsletter subscribers — subscribe today, it’s free and you can cancel anytime.

Want to make new friends?

If you want to make new friends, get on the waiting list for my next Here To Make Friends virtual gathering. At Here To Make Friends, you can meet a whole bunch of people that you have things in common with, AND feel confident that they’re as interested in making new friends as you are. I’ve hosted it for adults across the United States (and some outside the US too) and I even held a special edition of it with NPR for Invisibilia listeners for their season about friendship. I’d love to welcome you to our next gathering! By adding your name to the waitlist, you’ll also be joining my newsletter, where I’ll share friendship tips and resources in the meantime. It’s free and you can cancel at any time. :)

Get on the waitlist

Cheers!
Kat