Social interactions are a mystery for most of us. No wonder – there’s nothing more complicated we come across every day than our fellow humans. Except maybe for the weather… but that’s a story for another time. The family members, friends, co-workers, and significant others – we are expected to keep in touch with them and to interact with them in meaningful ways. This is, in turn, a bit hard to pull off in today’s rushing, stressful world. Luckily, there’s an app for that. It is called “Garden”, and it is an app that reminds you to keep in touch with your friends and family. And it does it without relying on social networks like Facebook.
Who
Zander Adell, the creator of “Garden”, was previously the CEO of a last-mile delivery company called “Doorman” allowing people to schedule the delivery of the products they order online so that they won’t have to be left in front of their doors, under their doormat, and in equally creative places. The business, unfortunately, shut down recently, even though Adell has dedicated a massive portion of his time to it. Enough, in fact, to distract him from maintaining his other relationships.
“I got so busy running my last startup that I neglected some of my closest personal relationships”, he told TechCrunch, “with the assumption that we’d connect when life calmed down.” Life, as we all know, doesn’t have a habit of calming down. And he realized this when finding out he lost a friend while he was busy.
“Maintaining a real personal or business relationship that adds value and meaning to your life takes regular and substantive effort,” Adell said. “Just like you can’t expect the plants in a garden to stay healthy without regularly watering them, you shouldn’t expect your relationships to thrive without putting in the time.” And that’s how Garden was born.
What
Adell had a habit of keeping track of when he last interacted with personal and business relationships using a spreadsheet. When he heard that others do the same, he thought that an app to do it would be a better idea. “Garden” is a lot like a CRM (customer relationship management) app that gives its users the chance to set a reminder for each contact on their phone to make contact with and catch up periodically. Unlike a traditional CRM, though, Garden can do both personal and professional relationships. Basically, it’s a contact manager with push notifications, not relying on social media at all. It won’t do anything instead of you – it won’t text your friends asking them what’s up – but it will remind you to do so. And you’d better not slack off and throw a Like here and there – you’d better make these interactions meaningful.
Because life is short and hectic but easier with a friend or two.