Making time to network - even when it's hard

Today I saw a question on a social networking site about how to continually network when it's hard to do. It made me think of the advice given to me by a friend. Advice I SWORE that I would do every week. And now that I'm back at a full-time job with more than full-time commitments, I see how hard it is to do.

I had decided to try to contact and meet - live or virtual - with a new person every week. I would reach out to a friend of a friend, to someone who's blog I liked or someone I had met. I wanted to try to expand my network and my knowledge - trying to learn more about what I don't know; and whether I needed to know.

I think that I get a little bit of slack since I just met a lot of new people this week. But I do need to figure out how to keep this going. Because as I learned while being laid off - your network makes a difference. The funny thing, is that I'm not sure how much my network was involved in my final job decision. However, it gave me more opportunities to go after. And more opportunities to look at some other time. Depending on what doors open.

I just need to make time. To make sure that before any event - with friends, at work, whenever - that I try to meet a few new people. I also need to do it early in the event - to make sure that I stick to it. So next time you see me at a party or event - nudge me. Ask me who I met that's new and what I'm going to do about it.